A Kindred Spirit

Chapters

Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV

Chapter I

Sunset Shimmer burst out of the doors of Canterlot High, her face sore from tightly cringing, her cheeks wet with warm tears.

The cold December morning air nipped at her skin, her legs and her socked feet cold and soaking wet as the snow she desperately sprinted through slipped down the hem of her boots. Her chest felt a strong and distressful weight inside, the pain and suffering of a broken heart of recent emotional trauma that occurred earlier today. She felt herself collapsing on her knees before the base of the Canterlot High pedestal, an altar standing tall and wide in front of the entrance where the only way back home to her homeland of Equestria was through a magical mirror, topped with the stone statue of a horse standing on its hind hooves.

Sunset Shimmer looked up at the horse with leaky flooding eyes. She had heard years ago that the horse standing tall on its hind hooves was the symbol of pride and spirit of Canterlot High. It was painfully and toxically ironic, Sunset thought, that the pride and spirit of the high school was been taken down a peg, and it was all thanks to the appearance of a mysterious MyStable user who exploited secrets... secrets that belonged to the students and the students alone... and spread them around the school like an infectious disease.

The worst part of it all was that Sunset Shimmer was the scapegoated "patient zero" of that "disease."

Nobody, not even her friends would take her side of the story, let alone believe her innocence in this.

She remembered her last encounter with her now-former friends. She saw the looks of disappointment etched across their faces, the brows furrowed at their foreheads, the tears flowing from Fluttershy's eyes. She could hear their accusations flowing through her hippocampus, the tones of their voices dripping into her psyche like acidic venom.

She remembered how badly their last words stung her.

"Secret stealer!"

"We trusted you, Sunset! We thought you were our friend!"

"How could you do this to us? After all we've been through together?"

"You're not the person we thought you were! You're not our friend!"

"This is it, Sunset. You're not going to take advantage of us anymore."

But nothing stung her more like the last thing her former cowgirl friend told her.

"Tell whatever secrets you want. But we're not going to listen."

It took that particular statement and their backs turned to her to realize what she truly was.

Alone. Abandoned. Accused of a crime she never committed.

Those actions along brought Sunset to cry in the hallways alone while the other students of Canterlot High cast her an accusatory sideways glance, or passed by her like she was only a ghost, unseen and unheard by everyone else. The damage inflicted to her was so great, Sunset threw her books down and ran for the exit, her heart broken and smashed like an iron sledgehammer to a mirror.

That brought her to base of the Canterlot High statue, hugging the corners of it tightly, spilling her tears all over the marble surface while she sobbed to her heart's content.

A heart, once blackened, stained, and tainted by her own arrogance, dictatorial dispositions, and selfish desires that made her quite infamous throughout the school, then purified by a fellow pony princess-turned-human and her five human friends, now repaid to her by having said human friends stomp all over it at the first sign of trouble. For all of the times when she saved the school from the Dazzlings' hypnotic music, feeling that she had been accepted into a small group of friends and having been invited to their slumber parties and the Apple Family's Christmas Parties, this was the biggest slap in the face of all time. She did everything good to redeem herself and this was her just reward.

Sunset's eyes laid on the surface of one side of the portal magically built within the marble.

She couldn't take much more of this heartache.

She needed to get out of here.

Urgently, Sunset reached her arm out to touch the portal, hopes of returning home to Equestria and collapsing in the comforting embrace of Princess Twilight Sparkle's hooves reaching so high.

Except all that Sunset's fingers did was touch something else.

Cold.

Hard.

Solid.

Marble.

Not one ripple in the fabric of the marble's space.

Suddenly, Sunset's worried increased tenfold.

"Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

Sunset pressed her palms against the surface of the state as hard as she could. She nudged it, budged it, and pushed it as much as her weight allowed her.

But in the end, the high school student could not escape the human world.

The portal was closed.

She was stuck here.

Stuck in torment.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Sunset's eyes squeezed shut, tears leaking from between her lids as she pounded her fist against the surface of the marble, hopes in vain of trying to receive her only friend's attention on the other side of the closed portal.

"Princess Twilight! You have to let me in! Please, you've got to open up the portal, you've got to! There's nothing left for me here! I've lost my friends! They don't want to talk to me anymore! The magic of friendship is gone! I can't go back to the school! I can't stay here any longer! I'm all alone! Please, Twilight, you've got to open up the portal! I'm all alone! I'm all alone! I'm all... all... alone..."

When the reality of her situation finally sunk in, Sunset lost the urge to carry on. She felt herself slipping to her knees, feeling the burning sting of the cold snow on the surface of her knees. She hunched her body over in the snow and fell against the marble, emitting a throaty, high-pitched whimper that converted into a smaller sob, her shoulders shuddering with each spasm of her lungs.

Princess Twilight's mirror portal was closed.

Did something happen on the other side of the portal?

Did Twilight intentionally close the portal on her side?

No, that couldn't be it. How could she?

After all, she was the one who showed her a better path from the dark road she took. She bonded with her a little during a sleepover at Pinkie Pie's place. She helped fight to save the school from the Dazzlings. Surely, Twilight meant to keep the portal open on her side in case Sunset ever wanted to come home.

So... why did she close it?

It didn't matter anymore.

Nothing mattered to her anymore.

That part was crystal clear.

That part was what calmed down her sobbing.

That part was what finally deflated her of all emotions.

Sunset, her path ahead slowly coming to its end, stood up, stoic but emotionless on the outside, but feeling empty on the inside. Like a deflated balloon, Sunset felt every ounce of energy to fight this crisis ebb away from the very essence of her soul. The empty was soon replaced by thoughts of despondence, and with that despondence, she allowed her brain to go into autopilot as she stood up on her own two feet and sulked away from the school grounds. With nowhere in mind for her destination, she headed into town.

The halls of Canterlot High seemed as dim and bleak inside as it did outside.

Everywhere one student turned, there was always an argument, harassment, or a physical fight happening nearby.

All of it was made possible by the mysterious MyStable user(s) "Anon-a-Miss", and their gathering of secret-spilling apostles.

It was thanks to the influence of Anon-A-Miss that Canterlot High School was currently in the worst cyberbullying case they have ever seen. Deep and personal secrets have been exposed to the students. Friendships have been completely broken. Students have been on the receiving end of ridicule. They wept into an emotionally-shattered shell. They exchanged physical blows and harsh exclamations. They couldn't even show their faces around the school, knowing their secrets made them an easy target for harassment.

And who should take the brunt of these blows but five certain human girls, sitting sullenly at their table in the bustling cafeteria? Their faces were forlorn from sadness, anger, and betrayal, having recently cut off ties from their one "friend" who stabbed them in the back. They believed their "friend" was the one who spread their secrets around the school, starting with Applejack and working her way around the five girls, one by one. Soon, the entire school knew of their deep and dark secrets, and all the evidence pointed fell onto Sunset Shimmer's phone.

Now they were short one fellow friend... one fellow Rainboom.

Even Granny Smith's homemade apple pies tasted as bitter as what they felt.

Their mulling over what happened was interrupted when a few pig-headed students made a few "oink oink" noises as they passed Applejack, laughing it off even when the cowgirl shot them her meanest glare. Knowing it did nothing to sway them from the bullying, Applejack slumped forward, sighing as she played with her food while holding her head up with her hand placed under her cheek.

"Ah can't believe it," she said, her tone beyond depressed. "Ah just can't believe it."

"Well, believe it, sister! We just kicked out our best vocalist from the Rainbooms, and all of it was because she couldn't keep her proverbial mouth shut!" Rainbow Dash barked, slouching back in her seat, crossing her arms, and huffing. "If you ask me, we're better off without a secret-stealing snitch like her in our group!"

"I just can't believe Sunset turn on us with that horrible 'Anon-a-Miss' site, even after all she's done for us!" Rarity stated.

"Yeah, we don't want to be friends with a secret-stealing Meany McMeanypants!" Pinkie Pie concurred, shoving a whole slice of cake in her mouth, chewing it up stressfully and swallowing it whole. "They always try and sucker up to you for love and affection and friendship, and just when you think they can keep a little secret, they always find a way to turn it against you!"

"Hear hear!" Rainbow Dash and Rarity shouted, banging their fists on the table.

"And ta think, Ah actually invited her to our Christmas party too," Applejack said dejectedly.

Fluttershy rested a gentle hand on Applejack's shoulder. "It's not your fault, Applejack. We just didn't know better until it was too late."

"Well whatever the case, I'm glad Sunset's not here with us right now," Rainbow Dash said, leaning back in her seat. "The next time I see her face around, I wouldn't hold myself irresponsible for what I would do to her in ten seconds flat."

"Now wait a minute, Rainbow Dash," Rarity quickly interjected. "What Sunset did to us was horrible, but we mustn't be so quick to resort to violence."

"And why not, Rares? Everything she did with us up until now feels like it was all a big slap in the face!"

"Yes, but if we do physically return that slap to her face, we would be no better than her, would we?"

Rainbow Dash growled at her posh's friend's resistance to violence, but she could see her point.

"No, I guess not," she said in a defeated grumble.

"But there's just one thing from all this that doesn't make any sense," Fluttershy said.

"And what's that?" Rarity asked.

"Well, Princess Twilight asked us to look after Sunset after we took her down with our Equestrian magic, right?" Fluttershy asked, making a few of the girls nod their heads. "And after we defeated the Dazzlings together as a band, we considered her our friend. We've invited her to sleepovers, sat with her at this very lunch table, and we were about to invite her to Applejack's Christmas party. But the one thing I don't understand is, why now? Why would she even go back to her old selfish ways just to expose our secrets to the entire school, and right before Christmas? What's there for her to gain since she lost her power? What is she was innocent the whole time? What if she--?"

Having heard enough, Applejack suddenly smacked the table, silencing the area around her. The other four looked at her bewilderedly as her body was as tense as a board and trembling like a leaf. They could see the annoyance and the anger in her face, and everyone knew there was no scarier force on Earth than to see Applejack angry or tense.

"Listen, Fluttershy, Ah know yer tryin' ta figure out another side of this story, but it don't change nothin' now," the cowgirl seethed. "Sunset Shimmer was with us the when we told her our secrets, and she had dirty photos of all y'all in her phone. Even if ya try and convince me there was more to this whole story, it doesn't matter at all. Sunset Shimmer is 'Anon-a-Miss.' She was a rotten apple from the start, guilty as sin, end of story. So let's just try ta get on with this day and not have any more talk of this hogwash. Ya got me!?"

Fluttershy gasped, reeling back from Applejack's outburst.

"Y-Yes..."

"Good."

Applejack continue to play with her food, barely having the strength to eat some more lunch afterwards.

The sound of silence was broken by Pinkie's stressed out scarfing of her cakes, and Rarity grimaced.

"Pinkie, dear?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"You've got a little something around your mouth.

Pinkie Pie slapped a napkin around her mouth, wiped off the cake frosting off of her lips, and went back to her meal.

Sunset hugged herself as she felt the chill of the December air linger all over her skin.

She kept her head down and her hopeless eyes to the ground, watching as her black boots crunched the snow with each step.

She didn't know exactly how long she had started her walk to nowhere, but she didn't care. Where she was going, the concept of time would make little difference to her.

Right now, all she was doing was venturing to the outskirts into the city, following the road that would lead her to her rest.

All around her, there was a diversity of people separated into the mood categories of stoic and smiling, every one passing by her in both directions but paying her no heed. Then again, Sunset never paid heed to anyone who might have seen a high school girl walk so glumly into the city.

As she walked, Sunset noticed a bit of light glowing on the snow. When she looked up, she saw the light was coming from the diner nearby. She took a moment to gaze inside the window of the diner as the people inside ate their fill, drank their warmth, and became merry. At one of the window-side tables, Sunset spotted a small group of people sitting comfortably in their cushiony seats, older than any of the students at Canterlot High, but young enough for them to enjoy each other's company.

In all honesty, it was hard for her look at the sight.

It just served her a painful reminder of what she had lost in one day.

Friends. Being able to enjoy each other's company.

Not hers. Not anymore.

With a big, crestfallen sigh, Sunset continued to her walk past the diner.

Applejack arrived at her locker, vandalized by Post-It notes of crude images of a pig with her "Piggly Wiggly" nicknamed scrawled on a few other notes.

After she ripped them off the door, she rummaged through her books for next period.

She felt a little bad for cutting off Fluttershy the way she did. She didn't mean anything by it; she was still a little sore at Sunset for stabbing them in the back like she did. Talking about her only made the hurt worse, but it was the way she supposedly turned on her after inviting her to the Apple Family farm for the Christmas that made it all the more painful.

When she got her books for her next class, Applejack was about to close her locker when she noticed something taped on the inside of her locker door.

It was a group photo of her and the Rainbooms, during that Battle of the Bands competition against the Dazzlings. They were performing live with their Equestrian magic, with special guest performer Vinyl Scratch in the rear providing the background techno beat. There was her at the bass, Rainbow Dash at the electric guitar, Rarity with her wireless keytar, Pinkie Pie at the drums, Fluttershy with the tambourine, and Princess Twilight providing the vocals.

And her.

Her providing the backup vocals, having the audacity to be upstage to sing along with the princess.

Applejack couldn't help but stifle a growl as she quickly slammed her locker door shut and strode away from it, never looking back.

It wasn't before long that Sunset ventured deeper into the city.

Buildings that reached as high as a kite surrounded her on both sides, with some dark spaces in between acting as shady shortcuts to cut through the block. The massive population of people scurried around the streets like an army of ants scuttling around a city-themed ant farm, leaning towards the side of stoicism and business. A department store Santa Claus rang the bell at the entrance, signaling people to donate their money into the charity pot while giving a jolly "Ho, ho ho!" from the bottom of his big potbelly.

Another painful reminder of what she lost before she could've had.

A merry Christmas with her friends at Applejack's Christmas party.

She ignored the Santa Claus and his ringing bell while she passed him.

Just after she passed the false icon of Christmas, she stopped in her path when something in the department store window display caught her eye.

In that window, there was an arrangement of store mannequins promoting the clothing and/or accessories they sold at this store.

One of the mannequins wore a scarf, colored in stripes of pink, red, orange, yellow, cyan, indigo, violet, white, repeating the same pattern after the latter color.

The colors that one represented their now severed friendship ties.

The last reminder of what she had to endure.

Sunset hugged the jacket tighter by hems of her shoulders.

She allowed her legs to continue carrying her to where she needed to go.

Algebra class just couldn't go any faster for Rainbow Dash.

Even with the sharp eyes and sharp ears of Ms. Harshwhinny, she wasn't safe from the other students' condescending glances and their mocking smiles. Rainbow Dash grumbled at them and shrunk into her seat while she actually tried to use Ms. Harshwhinny's "professional" droning on as an excuse to drown out the whispers and snickers at her.

It still wasn't enough.

From her peripheral vision, she saw a few students giggling at yet another humiliating "Anon-a-Miss" post.

Maybe the subject of that post was on her and her dropping grades.

The thought alone made her growled.

That traitorous Sunset, Rainbow Dash thought deep down, exposing my D grade all over MyStable.

When at last the giggles couldn't stop, Ms. Harshwhinny turned and slammed her ruler against the desk, snapping everyone to her attention.

"Is there something funny you would like to share to the class?" she asked the giggling students in a stricter tone.

"No, ma'am. There isn't anything funny, ma'am," a student said hastily. Ms. Harshwhinny had a reputation for keeping her students on the straight and narrow, even if it meant using her cold stare and authoritative tone to keep them in line.

"Good, let's keep it that way," the teacher spoke. "Now, if you would all turn to page 63 in your books..."

Everyone, even Rainbow Dash did so as Ms. Harshwhinny continued her lecture.

For once, she was glad to let her teacher keep the ignorant students away from MyStable for the time being.

But that still didn't make her happy.

The cold began to seep into Sunset's skin.

It was becoming so frigid in the afternoon, working her jaw movements became a chore for her.

She lost all sensation on her face, her fingers, and her toes. Her breathing became labored and shivering. Her body temperature was steadily declining to a degree where walking in the middle of this dreary day in December would mean a slow but painless passing. Sunset never believed how bitter the brisk air felt on her body, yet it felt so comforting to her at the same time.

Perhaps this is what the old crystal ponies felt when they traversed the blizzards of the Far North, or when Clover the Clever, Private Pansy, and Smart Cookie felt when the windigoes encased the entire cavern in ice (prior to their demise by the warmth of their hearts). In the course of a few hours, Sunset would be the latest addition to a death by hypothermia, and nobody in this world or in her home world would even miss her.

With that disconcerting thought, Sunset continued to press forward towards the outskirts of the city.

Rarity did very little to disguise herself from getting mobbed by the students.

It wasn't the best decision for her to walk through the halls to her next class, wearing a disguise that only fabulous actresses would use to blend in with the crowd. That jacket and her big-rimmed hat only made her stand out from the crowd like a sore thumb. That only made it worse for her as the students haggled her with their phones, the camera functions going snap! snap! snap! along with the tap! tap! tap! of their keyboards as they sent her pics onto MyStable.

Fluttershy didn't have it any better either. All day long she was teased and taunted for her singing video to which they labeled it a fail on her part. The rest of the student body weren't prudent enough to know or recognize that Fluttershy was one of the more sensitive students in their school, so she spent the next hour or so outside, crying as she read those mean comments on her phone, with the sad comfort of Pinkie Pie's embrace in her arms. Both of them didn't even dare to go back into the school for the rest of the day.

This had been the lowest day for not only the Rainbooms, but for the rest of Canterlot High as well.

All except for three certain little middle schoolers who met in private in the school library, away from prying ears and eyes.

They shared in their triumph over driving Sunset Shimmer away, and their worries over what they may have brought with their account.

"And then Ah saw Sunset run out of the building without any winter gear on," Apple Bloom reported to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. "Ah've never seen that much tears run down someone's face before."

"You know what that means, don't you?" Scootaloo rhetorically asked. "That means our plan was a success!"

"That's great and all, but are you sure this was a success?" Sweetie Belle asked. "I mean, the entire school is grabbing each other by the throats and it's getting worser and worser by the minute! Don't you think it's time we took this down before it turns into a real bloodbath?"

"We can't do that now! People will think something's up!" Apple Bloom argued.

"That's right," Scootaloo agreed. "As long as it keeps Sunset from our sisters, then we've gotta keep the school thinking it was her who sent those secrets out. It's the only way we can guarantee that she won't take our sisters away from us again."

"All I'm saying is that everyone is arguing with each other from the lunch room to the outside track field," Sweetie Belle expressed her concerns. "I mean, what if someone goes too far and does something that they'll regret in the next life? I don't wanna play the guilty party just because we started an Internet trend that's going out of control in the next week."

"Sweetie Belle, this is only a temporary matter," Scootaloo pointed out to the curly-haired girl. "All we gotta do is wait it out a few days until vacation starts, click a few buttons, and then presto! 'Anon-a-Miss' will be taken down, Sunset Shimmer is history, and everything will be back the way it was and take this secret down to our grave."

Sweetie Belle slumped, crossing her arms. "I don't know. I'm still saying there's a better way for this."

"Sweetie Belle, it's only for a couple of days," Apple Bloom assured. "If Sunset Shimmer doesn't come back by then, we'll take the account down."

The curly-haired girl genuinely felt bad for dragging her sister down, but she hated getting into trouble over it. With a sigh, she said, "Okay, but I'm not sure how Rarity is going to feel about it. When she gets sad, worked up, or depressed, it's kinda hard for me to talk to her about it."

The final bell tolled in the hallways, and the school day was officially over.

Sunset figured that school was done and over with.

It didn't matter. She wasn't ever going back there anyway.

As she walked to the outskirts of Canterlot City, along the side of the main highway stretching on for miles, she could tell that the night was swiftly approaching. Vehicles of different shapes, sizes, and models passed through the highway, their front lights automatically switched on, signifying the steady transition to the darkening grey of the late afternoon, none of them paying any mind to the girl walking alone and with very little protection against the cold.

Sunset could feel the cold beginning to take its toll on her body. Even when she did hug herself with her thermal jacket, her body was beginning to slow down from the cold. Sunset figured this was the early stages of hypothermia. She remembered the symptoms from her health class. Her body temperature drops dangerously low, her reaction time slows down, her muscles grow heavy and weak, she experiences the hallucinations, and finally, she closes her eyes to never wake up again.

She was preparing herself for the big chill.

She stopped only once in her walk to look back at the city a few miles behind her.

The lights from those buildings bathed the city in its glow in the coming darkness, a comfort she will never again experience.

Shivering in her breathing, holding the urge to cry inwardly, Sunset continued onwards and onwards into nowhere.

The snow beneath her feet seemed shallow at first, but to Sunset's weakening state, she felt like she was knee high in the cold white powder. It only made it harder for her to continue onwards anymore. Falling to her knees, Sunset flopped herself on her back against the snow and laid there, staring up at the dark clouds above. The only sounds there was to bring her comfort was the sound of the snow crunching under her weight, the sounds of the cars passing by, the little pitter-patter of snowflakes on her leather jacket, and her own breathing.

The sky seemed to get darker.

Good. This was how she wanted to go out.

Sunset continued to breathe, her eyes feeling tired from exerting her unprotected self into the early December evening.

She didn't know how long she was lying there in the snow.

She didn't care, either way.

She enjoyed watching the clouds roll on by while they perspired the beautiful crystalline flakes slowly piling up on her clothing.

She found fondness watching the gust of breath escaping her mouth, like she was a fireless little dragon.

She took comfort the numbness that overtook her body, the closest thing to warmth that she would feel for the final time.

"So this is it, huh? I never thought it would end this way. Abandoning my teacher for my arrogance, turning the school on each other, and having to live alone on this world. I never karma could be such a real witch here." Sunset looked deep into the clouds as her breathing was slowing down. "If there is someone up there, if you can hear me... if there was one thing I could have for Christmas, it's to have a friend who actually cares about me. Someone who wouldn't leave my side because of my past mistakes. Someone who is more than willing to listen to me and be there when my friends didn't."

While she made her final wish, her life as a unicorn played out before her eyes. This particular scene reminded her of when she was a unicorn filly living in Canterlot, the first year that she was tutored under Princess Celestia's watchful eye. It was her first Hearth's Warming as her student, and she as a filly played out in the snow with her teacher after having finished her assignments ahead of schedule. They two of them pranced about in the snow, initiating in a snowball fight using magic or hooves, making snowponies from the snowy ground up by their hooves, and sledding down the nearest hill where it was safer for them and away from the pony civilization.

There was one time when she and Celestia crashed during one sled riding down a slope where they were flat on their backs, laughing it all off and staring into the sky as the pegasus ponies' gray clouds sprinkled snow onto them. They laid in that snow for about fifteen minutes, pondering to each other, exchanging philosophies of ponies old and their own. Hot chocolate was provided for them afterwards while they warmed up near the fire. Optional toppings of whipped cream, chocolate sauce, chocolate shavings, or marshmallows were also provided by the castle's gracious maid. Sunset remembered putting in one of everything first, and she remembered how she guzzled down that hot, creamy drink in about three gulps, ending up with a mustache of chocolate and cream. Needless to say, Celestia, being so playful with her subjects, particularly the younger ones, also took part in this harmless tomfoolery, ending up with more of a chcolate mustache that painted her muzzle brown, making the two laugh the evening off the night before Hearth's Warming.

A warm tear dripped onto Sunset's face and froze halfway down.

She missed that.

She missed all of it.

She wanted to go back home.

She wanted to see the mare with whom she considered her mother.

She wanted to take part in those winter activities again.

She wanted to drink that comforting hot chocolate again.

But she couldn't go back, not by choice anyway.

She could never show her face around Celestia again, not after their last fight.

She could never face herself before the high school again where all of this started.

Now here, all alone and in the growing comfort of the snowfall, she could end it all.

In the sky, she could see Princess Celestia's face looking at her with a gentle maternal smile.

"Princess. I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry for abandoning you... for being so stubborn and reckless..." Sunset's mind was a flutter in thoughts and apologies of regret and sorrow, making her sob silently to herself. "I have no right to be your student anymore... but if there's just one thing I would want... it would to go back to Canterlot... and see your face again after all this time... just so I could tell you how sorry I am."

Celestia's face disappeared.

The next face she saw was of a familiar lavender-skinned girl.

"Princess Twilight. I wish I could see you again... I wanna know why you haven't opened up the mirror back to Equestria... but I wish I could've written to you about it first. Maybe then... I would've gone back to Equestria with you... and then I would've made better friends there than I did here. I guess I did blow it for myself, huh?"

As Princess Twilight's human face disappeared, there in her place was the maternal face of the school's principal.

"Principal Celestia. You may not be the same person from Equestria... but at least you believed in second chances, too. I wish I could thank you for that."

The face of Principal Celestia disappeared as her eyelids drooped shut.

"I guess this is it, then. I'm finally going to die right here in this world..."

Sunset's eyes closed, and a final puff of air escaped her lungs.

"Merry Christmas, everyone... and a Happy New Year, too."

Driving along the highway, there was a simple man.

He was a simple man who lived alone, introverted or a hermit, no one knew.

He was driving home after a long day's work at the department clothing store in Canterlot City. He worked eight full hours plus overtime yesterday, and he worked the same number of hours today. That made sixteen-plus hours he worked this week, only twenty-four-plus more hours to work for the rest of this week.

He drove in a little ordinary and slightly outdated car, painted a gold color with a bit of rust along the rim of the metal plating on his doors. His heater took about ten minutes before actual heat was exhumed each time after he started it. His radio had a bit of a weak receiver, so any radio station he tuned it to ended up with some static on his end. The fuel tank was a guzzler, so he spent more money on gas every couple of weeks than anyone would with their brand-new cars. His car was always having one problem or another, so he brought it to the garage once every month for a costly inspection.

And yet, he loved this car the way it was.

It was better than nothing, he supposed.

The radio reported a news report of cyberbullying and cyber crimes occurring at Canterlot High School. The man, sick of hearing such news, turned the knob left and right for a better station to listen to when he spotted something lying near the road.

Quickly and safely as he could, he signaled right, pulled over to a stop, and parked it at the spot.

He adjusted his mirror to see exactly what it was that was lying in the snow.

His eyes widened. Was that what he thought it was?

He turned on his hazard lights, jumped out of his car, and ran over to the shape.

It was as he feared: the shape that he saw being blanketed by a thin layer of snow was a girl, at a high-school age he figured.

"Hey," the man said, gently nudging the girl. "Hey, are you alright? Speak to me."

The girl said nothing. Nor did she breathe.

The man took two fingers and pressed them against her neck.

No pulse.

The man began to panic.

"Oh no! Oh no, no, no, no, no, no!" The man held his head with both hands as horrifying thoughts flowed through his head. "This is bad! This is really, really bad! She's probably dead by now! No, she's not dead! She's preserved herself in suspended animation! No, no, she's not frozen, she's hypothermic! She may be dead or not, I don't know! I can't leave her out like this! I've gotta get her to a hospital! Yes, a hospital! Maybe they can help her! Yes, of course they can help her! They're the only ones equipped to work with hypothermic patients!"

Scooping up the girl in his arms, the man quickly opened up the passenger side door with his foot, nearly stumbling backwards, and threw her inside. After slamming the door, the man quickly rounded back to his driver's seat, set the car to "D" and quickly drove off into the road. When he found a place where he could make a turn to the other lane, the man swerved across the roads, doubled around the median, and into the left lane where he literally put the pedal to the metal as he drive ten miles over the speed limit.

Every once in a while, the man looked over to the girl. He rested his hand on her cheek.

She was as cold as ice.

The panicking man turned up the heat and the fans all the way up to maximum power.

Even with how high he turned the heat up, it didn't do much to thaw her out.

"Hang in there, kid, we're almost there! Don't you dare give up on me! Don't you dare die on me!" the man begged her.

The man continued his race against time along the highway, back into the city.

It wasn't before long that the speeding car was already inside the city limits. After taking a few drastic twists and turns, the man across the street where the local city hospital was situated in. It was fortunate that the hospital wasn't too busy because there only a few cars parked in the lot near at the main entrance, a lot where the man screeched and squealed his tires before he parked into an empty space.

He turned his car off, jumped out of his vehicle, and scooped up the girl where he used his strength to carry her to the main entrance. He sprinted with the girl through the automatic sliding doors and into the emergency room. Inside, there were a few patients waiting for their check-up or their treatment, a security guard near the door, a desk-bound receptionist and a few working nurses that just noticed the two newer visitors.

"IS THERE A DOCTOR HERE!?" the man yelled at the top of his lungs, tears brimming in his eyes. "PLEASE, THIS GIRL NEEDS HELP! SHE'S FROZEN SOLID AND SHE'S NOT BREATHING! YOU'VE GOTTA SAVE HER!"

Chapter II

This was the most difficult crisis that Principal Celestia had to deal with in a long time.

Detention attendances was at an all-time high for the past week.

It was all thanks in part to the mysterious username "Anon-a-Miss" on MyStable. Whoever it was working behind the scenes, they had single-handedly took Canterlot High School by the neck and turned it on its head. Secrets were spread to other students across the school, students were specifically targeted and victimized, and the worst part of it all was, her own students allowed this user to spoon feed them this BS, and still they turned on each other because someone blew the whistle on someone else's private secrets.

It was official; Canterlot High had become the epicenter of the worst cyberbullying in history.

Celestia wasn't trained hard enough to deal with an epidemic this out of control before.

The stress was already getting to her. Anyone could see the split ends forming in her beautiful multicolored hair, and her eyes grew bags eerily reminiscent to those of garbage bags. It was just one thing after another with this "Anon-a-Miss" character. Celestia did not want this to become the bitter and sour note to kick off the holiday vacation.

But as she would learn, sour notes were not so easily sweetened. The only reason for this was because as she rubbed her face in her hands, her younger sister, Vice-Principal Luna walked in with a clipboard in her hand, holding a few sheets of paper under the clip. The serious look plastered on her face told Celestia enough that she meant serious business.

"More bad news, sister?" Celestia asked.

"More bad news, sister," Luna parroted, looking over the sheets. "Today's after-school detention just added three more students to the attendance. That makes ten detention slips from today alone out of the twenty-nine students that have already been sent there this week. As for the class attendances, there have been a small number of students who skipped classes today or did not come into school at all, and half of them are excused absences. That makes five percent of the student body in total."

Celestia sighed, gently rubbing her tired eyes. "How did this ever happen, Luna? This is the only time in Canterlot High each year when the students look forward to the last day of school before the holiday season, and they are destroying each other by sharing personal information and crudely commentated secrets through the use of a useless social media network."

"Your guess is as good as mine," Luna said. "This 'Anon-a-Miss' managed to spread its influence throughout the school like wildfire, and the students are either the ones handling the fire or the ones getting burned. Hence the number of students either in detention or disappearing from their classes today."

"Yes, but why now? Why would this eponymous user start spreading these secrets the week before the holidays?"

"I am not sure sister. Perhaps we should inquire that with the first students to be targeted by 'Anon-a-Miss,'" Luna suggested. "After all, the account claimed Applejack as their first victim, and then it went on to claim Rainbow Dash the next day, and then the rest of their friends as well. Does this not seem like a coincidence to you that the girls who once saved this school twice now would become the primary attack targets to this cyberbully?"

This had given Celestia some thought into the matter. For the first time since today, she leaned back in her chair and stared up into the ceiling above the bookcase in the back of the room, pondering these facts. "Yes, it does seem too much of a coincidence that these girls would be the first to have their secrets spread around the school."

"And that is not all, sister," Luna added. "Just today, when I was walking to the teachers' lounge for my coffee, I overheard a few students whispering that the perpetrator behind these attacks was none other than Sunset Shimmer, who was attending the girls' slumber parties right before the 'Anon-a-Miss' account started."

This alone immediately caught Celestia's interest.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked her sister.

"I am positive of what I heard," Luna said, nodding once. "Of course, the attendance sheet here should prove otherwise."

Luna handed the clipboard over to Celestia, who graciously took it without question. She inspected the class attendance sheet, and her eyes narrowed at what she saw. "I'm sorry Luna, but I'm having a hard time trying to understand this," the principal said, "but what does this attendance record have anything to do with this?"

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Sister, please tell me you haven't forgotten how Sunset Shimmer always had a perfect attendance record for the past three years? Never has she once made it to class a second late, yet when we look at the attendance sheet today, she made it through the first period of class right before the rest of her class periods reported her absence unexcused."

This immediately caught Celestia's interest.

She knew something was wrong with this picture.

"Really?" she said with said interest. "Do you think her friends know where she might have gone?"

"No, but I did overhear from the students that Sunset and her friends had an argument this morning and left her alone in tears."

Celestia's hunch was right on the money. "Luna, before the first classes begin, I need you to bring in Sunset's friends into my office."

"What is it, Celestia? Are they in trouble?"

"I don't know, Luna," the inquisitive principal answered, "but if I'm not wrong about this, and I hope to Heaven above that I am wrong, then 'Anon-a-Miss' didn't mean to target Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, or the rest of the student body. They were only part of the plan. The real target they were after was Sunset Shimmer, and given the recent posts by those who follow 'Anon-a-Miss's' account, it is safe to assume that their plan was to drive her away from the school grounds."

"But why?" the vice-principal asked. "I know Sunset Shimmer's personal record here is nothing to be proud of, but why would someone go out of the way at this time to drive her away from the school?"

"I don't know," Celestia said, "but it's not why they did that worries me more. It's where Sunset could have gone that's the problem."

"Do you have any idea where she could have disappeared to?"

Celestia turned in her chair, stood up, and looked out the window, staring at the equine statue at the main entrance of the school. She closely examined the patterns of Sunset's bootprints as they stopped at the statue, and the unusual shape that was formed in the snow. Then she noted the same bootprints circling around the statue, their tracks leading beyond the school grounds and into the town.

"No," she said calmly, "but wherever she is right now, I hope she hasn't done anything drastic. There is no greater pain than being driven away by people that once cared about you, but there is nothing scarier in this world than what you allow that pain to do to yourself."

Sunset heard something.

Some kind of sharply-pitched beeping?

Beep... beep... beep...

No, there was something else, too. It was like... snakes hissing in a constant cycle.

Hss... hss... hss...

There was another noise nearby. It sounded like... water dripping?

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Something didn't seem right with her.

Where were all these noises coming from?

Was she still alive? Was she dead?

How was she even receiving these subconscious questions?

Sunset felt the urge to say something.

"Hrrnnng.... mmmhh..."

She felt her throat vibrate to her mumble.

Why was she feeling herself mumble?

"Hmmmmhhhh..."

Why did she hear herself mumble?

Why was she feeling linen silk on her body?

Why did she feel hard plastic and elastic rubber around her head?

Why did she feel like she was breathing?

Her eyelids fluttered a little.

A blinding light seared her corneas, making her squeeze her eyes shut.

Another fluttering of the eyelids, and she found the strength to open them again as her eyesight adjusted to the light.

It took a moment for the brightness to pass, and then everything became as clear as crystal.

It took another moment for her eyes to cease perceiving that everything was spinning round her.

After blinking a few times, she cast her gaze around wherever she was.

Ivory walls and ceilings... fluorescent lights... heartbeat monitor... IV drip bag... a comfortable bed cot with white silken blankets...

White and blue polka-dotted gown... feeding tube taped to into her arm... breathing mask... paper ring around her wrist...

Now it all made sense.

She was in a hospital bed... at the hospital.

"No," she thought, "no this isn't right. Why am I here? I should be dead. I want to be dead. Why would anyone save me?"

As her eyes darted from left to right, back and forth like an intense ping pong matches, her sight fell to a clear glass window on her right, looking into a part of the hospital's hallway, the walls built with refined and polished bamboo. There, just outside of her room, there were a couple of men conversing just outside her window, their voices blocked by the thick soundproof material of the glass. Sunset didn't know what they were saying over the soundproof glass, but she knew from first glance that they were talking about her.

One of those two men was a tall young adult male in his early twenties, with pasty-white skin, hair with a lighter and darker shade of blue. He was a police officer, a lieutenant in his own rank, hence how he wore a police uniform with a badge pinned on the left side of his chest, and a police hat he held in one of his hands crossed over with his arms. He had this stone-solid demeanor which he used as a basic intimidation tactic to squeeze the information right out of the people he interrogated, which seemed to work a lot in his job. Even still, that demeanor of his meant he was also listening carefully to what his suspicious people had to say.

That brought her eyes down to the man he was interrogating, probably one of the strangest people she had ever seen. He was a bit shorter than the police officer and around his age, but Sunset noted the fear in his facial expressions, but not in the eyes he wore behind his violet sunglasses. His skin was a bright green color akin to that of a lime with messy orange hair that came with a couple of cowlicks on each side of his hair, making it appear like he had little horns or something. He wore an orange T-shirt behind a sparkling grass green vest, and a raspberry/violet jacket he had unbuttoned earlier since it was hot in the hospital. To tie it all up, he wore a necklace which hung from his nape, studded with three diamonds of different sizes.

Sunset watched the green-skinned man from her bed as he talked to the police officer, who nodded his head and said something back to him. The man responded to this with a nervous tone in his voice and hand gestures to emphasize his speech, sometimes gesturing his hands directly as her as if he needed to get a point across with the law enforcer. It seemed to work because somehow, the stone exterior of the law enforcer softened up a little. He even nodded a few times in some understanding.

Did these two somehow share some kind of history together?

Maybe the green-skinned man was a former perpetrator the police lieutenant put away a time ago?

Beep... beep... beep...

Hss... hss... hss...

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

While she watched the two men talk, Sunset spotted a doctor sporting a muffin-shaped afro come into the room, his bespectacled eyes glued onto the clipboard in his hand describing her condition. Opening the door, both the doctor and the muffled noises from outside the soundproof glass, the former shutting the door behind him, cutting off any other noise from the outside. After flipping the top page over, and after nodding his head a little to the understanding of Sunset's current condition, he turned to the girl in question and jumped a little.

"Oh! Goodness, I didn't know you were awake! How are you feeling?" the doctor cheerfully asked.

Sunset could only groan in response, not finding the strength to speak in complete sentences yet.

"...head... hurts..."

The doctor approached Sunset and carefully spread her eyelids apart with one gloved hand and held a pen-shaped light in the other. The light stung her eyes, but for some reason, the doctor seemed happy.

"Well, your pupils are dilating, so at least you're not suffering a concussion, which is a good sign," the doctor said as he took a pen from his coat pocket and updated the condition in his clipboard. "The headache might be a slight temporary strain against the light, but we'll bring you some water just in case you feel dehydrated. My name is Doctor Muffin Top, and I've been assigned to look after you until your recovery."

"Oh... goodie..." Sunset could speak a little clearer now, having found a little strength to speak in sarcasm.

"It is goodie, isn't it? No one would have a better privilege than to be looked after by someone like me," Dr. Muffin Top answered, oblivious to the girl's sarcasm.

In response, Sunset groaned unamused.

"I gotta say, thought, you've really caused a stir around this hospital,"

"I did?"

"You did. You were suffering from the worst case of hypothermia this hospital has ever seen," Dr. Muffin Top explained. "Your breathing was unresponsive and you heart rate was flatlining, so we had to defibrillate you three times until we could get a pulse, then we had to get you warmed up and changed into that robe. You're very lucky that gentleman in green outside saved your life. You would've been the youngest patient in this hospital to die from hypothermia had you not pulled through."

Sunset's first emotion she's felt since she woke up was surprise.

She turned her head, and her gaze fell back onto the green-skinned man sitting on one of the orange plastic-seated chairs outside her room. The police lieutenant was just speaking something unintelligible to the green man, something that made him rub his temples in slow circular motions right before he dragged his palms down his face at the same snail's pace speed. When the hands were dragged down past his eyes and out of his violet sunglasses, the man found himself exchanging a similar surprised glance to Sunset.

For a moment that seemed like it dragged on in minutes, the two shared their eye contact, studying their very features, never breaking their focuses for a single second, even with the police lieutenant talking to him. After Sunset fully studied that man a second time, she turned away and looked back to the afro-sporting doctor.

"That man... saved my life?" Sunset asked for clarification.

"Yep. He said he saw you lying in the snow on the way home, told us you were cold as ice," Dr. Muffin Top told the story. "He broke several road laws trying to get you here, burst through the doors while he was holding you in his arms, screamed out for a doctor, and you can see, we did the rest. I swear, I've never seen a grown man that age cry like that. You really spooked him shirtless like it was Halloween."

Sunset turned her gaze to the ceiling, staring at the ivory textures in deep thought.

Why had that man saved her life?

She wasn't worth the effort of being kept alive anymore.

That man didn't have the right to stop for her and take her away from the very much-needed departing from this life.

She hated him.

Sunset hated that green man!

He took her opportunity to end her life and threw it all away!

She curled her hands into tightening fists.

"Looks like your reflexes are still functional," Dr. Muffin Top quipped, still unaware of Sunset's plight as he once again updated her condition on his clipboard. "That's good. At least you're on the road to a full physical recovery by the end of the week. We'll have a psychiatrist come in tomorrow and see if you're on the road to a full psychological recovery."

Sunset answered this with another grunt.

When Dr. Muffin Top was finished with his recent update, he slipped his pen back in his coat pocket, and turned to Sunset with a smile. "Well, it looks like I'm no longer needed at the moment, but if there's anything you need, you just hit that button and a nurse will come up for you. Until then, I'll leave you to rest up a bit."

The door opened up, and the two turned to see the police lieutenant enter the room.

"I'm sorry for interrupting you, doctor, but can I have two minutes with her, please?" he asked in a young gruff voice.

"It's no problem, lieutenant, I was just leaving," Dr. Muffin Top said, turning back to the girl. "Just remember, if you need anything, just hit that button."

With that, the afro doctor walked out of the room, leaving Sunset alone with the law enforcer.

The man in question pulled up a stool that was obscured from Sunset's sight by the heart rate monitor and settled in with a sigh.

Sunset cast her gaze towards her right hand, away from the officer and away from the green man.

She didn't speak a word to him or to herself.

"Don't worry about the doctor. Despite his tendencies to be a little too optimistic and child-hearted at times, he's one of the best doctors anyone can find in his state," the lieutenant assured her. "He's patched me and my men up so many times, I've already gotten used to the tweezers and the stitches. It usually heals up in a couple of days until you don't see the stitches anymore."

Still, the fiery-haired girl continued to sulk in silence.

The lieutenant sighed. "Alright, perhaps we're getting off on the wrong foot here, so let's start over. I'm Lieutenant Shining Armor from the Canterlot City Police Department. Do you have a name?"

Still, Sunset kept silent to herself.

"Okay, you don't wanna tell me your name? It's fine, I imagine you must be shaken up over nearly dying of frostbite. I'll get right to the point. I received a call from my friend, the security guard who works here, that you were found on the highway nearly frozen to death, and that got me worried. Normally, when a person sees a body lying motionless in the snow, they assume that the body was either killed or left to die.

"What really caught my attention was how that man outside your room, who has a history of blending in with the wrong crowd and recently earning himself multiple driving violations by the way, would risk his life and a court settlement just to save your life. He told me that you sustained no injury which would have been a sign that you were either in an accident or assaulted by someone and left to die, or you were doing something so stupid like walking into the cold without any thermal protection. All I need from you now is to tell me your side of the story; tell me what you were thinking wandering in the freezing cold and everything that happened before then. That way, we can check his alibi out and see he doesn't appear before the judge."

Still yet again, Sunset said nothing.

She kept as silent as a monk, not even moving her lips.

Her eyes kept their sharp focus on her right hand, slightly curled up but not all the way.

Beep... beep... beep...

Hiss... hiss... hiss...

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Having waited for long enough for her answer, Lieutenant Shining Armor stood up from his seat, eliciting a sigh that was mixed with a combination of defeat, frustration, and impatience. "Listen, it's okay if you don't want to talk now, but I just thought it would've helped us all out if you cooperated with me. You just get your rest here, and we'll try this again tomorrow."

Shining Armor went for the door and gripped the handle over it.

"Could you bring him in here, please?"

Shining Armor turned his head back, seeing the girl not move her gaze, but her mouth instead.

"Huh?"

"The man... in the green," Sunset Shimmer clarified. "Can you let him in, please?"

Shining Armor looked a bit reluctant to follow the girl, but he thought that he would get the answers better from her.

"Uh... yeah. Sure. I'll let him in."

He exited the room, closing the door.

Outside, Shining Armor called for the green-skinned man, who stood up in acknowledgement. The police lieutenant beckoned him to come closer, so the green-skinned man approached him cautiously and listened carefully to his directions that came out to Sunset as both muffled and difficult to understand behind the windows. Shining Armor mouthed the words that seemed to ask the man if he understood, and the green-skinned man nodded fervently. So Shining Armor opened the door and allowed him in, then gently closed the door and sat at the seats outside the room and watched as the man approached the girl nervously.

The green-skinned man stared at Sunset for a prolonged period of time, frozen in place, his nerves all a-flutter as his mind jumbled with all thoughts of carefully planning his next course of action for fear of failing was at his record high. All he did while he stood paralyzed was raise his hand up to greet the girl and sound off a nervous "hi" from the back of his throat.

She still didn't say anything.

The man's eyes fell onto the same stool that Shining Armor used, so he nervously planted his seat on it, held his hands together in between his knees. He twiddled his thumbs around, and every now and again, he cast his eyes towards Shining Armor, who was watching everything happen in that room like a stone-faced hawk. He broke the silence with an awkward cough and fake throat-clearing.

"So, uh... I'm glad to see you're alive and kicking," the green-skinned man told her. His voice wasn't even like Shining Armor's; it was borderline young adult virgin with a voice that hadn't succeeded through puberty. "That's good... that's good. At least the only thing I have to worry about is appearing before the judge because I violated the rules of the road bringing you to the hospital. Sure, it doesn't seem fair for a hero like me to potentially have his driver's license suspended or revoked, but it's the law, and I can't really change it. Hopefully, they'll just slap me on the wrist, let me off with a stern warning, and put some demerits on my..."

"Why did you save me?"

The man immediately ceased his awkward conversation after hearing that single question.

"I'm sorry?"

"Why did you save my life before?"

Sunset's tone was a little louder than before.

The man rattled his head sideways, unable to comprehend what she meant.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to ask..."

"Why couldn't you have just let me die peacefully without bothering to save me!?"

The question, and its message now made clear, made the man jump out of his seat.

That in turn made Shining Armor jump out of his seat.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute!" The man quickly shot his hand out to the lieutenant, who stopped in his tracks. "You mean to tell me that you did wander off in the freezing weather just so you could kill yourself!?"

Sunset turned her head away shamefully, but she knew it was no use hiding it.

Her lips stretched into a widened frown as she covered her face in her hands. From behind the flesh of her palms, Sunset lost the urge to hold everything in as muffled sobs was heard as clear as day, as were her bodily actions as her shoulders were shuddering and her lungs bouncing achingly in her stomach. This brought the man to gasp, covering his mouth up as the urge to cry welled up inside of his stomach as well.

"Oh my goodness, you did try to kill yourself!" screamed the man at the horrible realization. "Why!? Why would you even do that!? Did something happen to you that would make you do that?"

Sunset denied this by shaking her head hard.

This denial, and the increase in her heart rate on the monitor was all the answer he needed.

"What happened? Talk to me!" the man begged. "Please, I can't help you if I don't know why you tried to commit suicide!"

Sunset sharply inhaled as she released another flood of tears, accompanied with the elegy of heartbroken sobs.

She wanted this pain to go away! That's why she wanted to freeze herself to death!

She didn't want to share her problem with anyone else!

They would turn her away like they did!

Spurn her wrongly like they did!

Leave her like they did!

Like they did.

...

"They... they left me!"

The green-skinned man's face softened up, but the sadness didn't fade.

"Left you? Who left you?" the man probed her for answers. "Was it your friends? Your family? Your love interest?"

"M-My friends!" Sunset cried, her voice partially hidden behind her hands. "They thought... they thought I did it... and they just left me...!"

"I don't understand? What did your friends think you did?"

Sunset sobbed even louder. At this point, she was starting to hyperventilate. "They thought... they thought I took their secrets.... and posted it online for the school to see! I tried to tell... to tell... to tell them I could never do that to them... but they didn't want to listen to me anymore! They just turned away from me... and I just wanted to... to... to end it all! They were my friends! My friends!"

The man quickly took a step back when the last thing the girl said came out as a shriek. "Oh, jeez, that's horrible! Why would your friends think that?"

"Because I was the biggest pain in my school!" Sunset cried, throwing her hands off of her face. "I tried to rule that school by turning the people onto each other because I didn't have any other friends! I ruled as the queen bee for two years, but then this girl showed up and she and her friends made me see how wrong it was! She had her friends... the friends who left me... look after me and teach me what it's like to be a friend! I honestly thought it was one of the best things to happen to me!

"But then this MyStable user 'Anon-a-Miss' suddenly showed up and ruined everything I worked hard to change!" Sunset tearfully continued. "My friends' secrets were posted online, they got picked on by the other students at school, and they thought that I did it because I was with them when they shared their secrets with me! And when they confronted me about this morning, I tried to tell them I couldn't but they wouldn't let me tell my side of the story! Then everyone started going after me because they all thought I was 'Anon-a-Miss!'"

"'Anon-a-Miss?'" The man suddenly remembered the news report he heard on the radio. "Wait a minute. Are you a student at Canterlot High School?"

"Why does that matter? It's not like I'm going back there anyway!"

"Were you 'Anon-a-Miss?'"

"NO!" Sunset barked, shocking the man. "That's what I tried to tell them! I was being set-up by someone who's out to get me, and now my friends don't want to see me anymore! They thought I was going to drive them apart because I already did the first year I attended the school! I know I deserved to be alone and punished for being the worst student at the school, but I didn't deserve to be treated this way! I didn't deserve to be disowned by my friends! I don't deserve to live with this pain!"

"And you tried to kill yourself over that?" the man asked. "What about your family? Don't they know you're here?"

"That's just it! I don't have a real family! My friends were all the family I had until they kicked me out!"

The green man was at a loss for words at this point.

Her friends... her family?

What happened to her real family?

Did she not have a real family?

If so, then why would her only family throw her out like this? It's inhuman!

"You don't know what it's like to be rejected by your own family for something you didn't do!"

There was something about her outburst that struck something deep within the man.

A sensitive nerve, one that he tried to keep buried deep and forgotten a long time, now unearthed by that girl's single exclamation.

His shock turned to firmness as he reached out and grabbed Sunset's wrists, pulling them away from her face, her visage contorted into sadness, and held her hands in his. "That's not true! I've known what it's like to be thrown out of my family for something that I didn't do, but then again, I would've been thrown out for things that I would've done anyway! What this cyberbully did to you and how your friends disowned you on the spot was wrong, but that's no reason for you to throw your life away in vain! You have a whole life ahead of you, and you think that freezing yourself to death is going to make it all better!? No, that's only going to make the pain all the more worse!"

At this, Sunset's face contorted into that of extreme anger. "What do you care!? All you are is just a goody two-shoes who thinks he can win over the cops by telling them of your heroics, even though you already have a criminal record!"

"Hey, that's not true! I may have been locked up, but that does not make me a bad person!"

"Oh, so you're just someone who's trying to get by, helping other people on a whim!?"

"I don't help people on a whim, I help them because I know they need it!"

"Well, I didn't need your help, and I didn't need you to stop me from ending it all!"

"I couldn't just leave you in the snow! I have an obligation to help others in the same position you're it!"

"But why!? Why didn't you let me die and be done with it all!"

"Because I know what it's like to be helpless! I know what it's like to be part of the wrong crowd and you lie in bed at night wondering what you were doing with your life! I've watched my family do horrible things in the past, things so horrible that even the mere thought of it still hurts me! I didn't have the courage to stand up and tell them what they were doing was wrong, but even when I did, it didn't change the fact that I was still a part of their family! You think it was easy watching my family get dragged off to jail and getting disowned where I stood was easy!? No, it wasn't, but at least my conscience be put at ease knowing I had to do the right thing, but even after that one good deed I did, everything started to fall apart!

"Every job I applied for in this city was rejected because of my record! No one wanted to be my friend! I had no easy way of making my monthly on my rent! I had no money to buy me food that would last me for another week, let alone another day! I wanted to end my life too! I tried to slit my own wrists with my kitchen knife, but I couldn't bring myself to do it! That's when I realized that killing myself wouldn't be the answer to my problems! It would've made them a lot worse! I wasn't close to my family, but at least there were some people in my life who owe me theirs, and committing suicide would've only added salt to their wounds!"

The man then got closer, holding Sunset's forearms firmly as she looked at him with the saddest look of hopelessness that he himself one wore in a legitimate sense. His eyes started to water, his breathing became labored with choking down his sobs, and his voice started to quiver and crack.

"Don't you see what I'm trying to tell you!? If you had gone through with killing yourself, then how do you think that would've made the people who actually cared about you feel!? Did you even stop to think about how they would've felt if they learned that you killed yourself!? The death of a loved one is one thing to be sad about, but it's another thing when a loved one kills themselves because they couldn't find another way to make it! They would've been sad beyond repair! They wouldn't be able to pick up the pieces! They won't stop mourning your loss because once upon a time, they were close to you and vice versa! What do you think what would happen to them if they can't move on!?"

Beep... beep... beep...

Hss... hss... hss...

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Beep... beep... beep...

Hss... hss... hss...

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Beep... beep... beep...

Hss... hss... hss...

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Everything else seemed to fall into silence.

Sunset stared at the man with widened eyes. Subconsciously, she turned her head to face the ceiling, her gaze staring down into space, deep in pondering.

Celestia.

Not just Principal Celestia who gave her another chance in this ugly little world.

Her Celestia. Princess Celestia mourning the loss of a pony she once considered a daughter.

The thought of the grief-stricken princess standing before Sunset's marked grave in the cemetery... one more headstone in the cemetery who were dead and laid to rest six feet under the dirt. She could hear her voice again, but only in the form of gentle sobbing while a delicate tear rolled down her cheek, dropping onto the recently patted dirt covering the coffin containing her empty mortal shell.

And Twilight... oh, dear heavens from above, Twilight!

Her one and only savior... her only friend from Equestria!

Princess Twilight Sparkle standing next to her inconsolable mentor and mother figure, silently sobbing into her chest while said Celestia pulled the younger distraught alicorn close to her and cried together with her. The two ponies in her life who actually loved her and befriended her in her life, the only two ponies who, plus a few others for support, bothered to attend her burial in her native homeland on a dark, dreary, rainy day.

Everypony's face dropped in sadness.

The tears washed away in the rain.

A single floral pot with a fiery lily sprouting from the soil.

Over her grave... because she killed herself.

The thoughts alone twisted something deep inside her heart.

Her face scrunched again as a new wave of guilt broke through the dam. Choking down a sob, Sunset broke her arms from the man's firm grasp and clasped her palms over her face again. She saw the reality of the sadness she'd leave behind for her loved ones and how it would've deeply affected them that those wounds on their hearts would never fully heal. She knew they would pay the price of her death with their sadness and guilt for letting it all happen. They didn't deserve this pain like she did! No one deserved it!

In the height of her pain, adding to the horrible realization of what her suicide would do to her friends and only family, Sunset only wept harder while the green-skinned man allowed her to pour her sorrows out like a flash flood. "I'm so sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry~!"

The man placed his hand on her shoulder. "Listen to me. There's nothing to be sorry about, okay?" he assured the girl as best as he could. "Sure, you've made some poor choices before, but that doesn't mean you're a bad person. I can tell you've tried so hard to change, and whatever happened to you was beyond bad, and I'm so sorry that you had to go through such a bad time. But ending your own life will never solve your problems. It'll only make things worse before they can get better. If there's anything you need, anything at all, then I won't be too far away."

What surprised the man next was his body being wrapped in Sunset's bear hug. He could feel her sobbing into his vest as her tears soaked through the fabric easily. "Thank you! Thank you so much for being here for me! I'm so sorry I tried to kill myself!"

"Hey, it's not your fault, alright?" The man gently broke Sunset's hug away and lifted her chin up for her to meet his eyes. "The only people who should be sorry is 'Anon-a-Miss' and no one else. They're the ones who spread those rumors and secrets, they broke up your friendship with your friends, and they drove you to kill yourself. I'll have Lieutenant Armor look into it and we'll bring them to justice. That much I can promise."

Sunset stifled a sniffle, wiped her eye, and smiled. "Thank you. That's all I needed to hear."

"It's no problem. I'm just looking out for the wellbeing of my kindred spirits."

The man gently laid Sunset back into her bed. "Here, why don't you get some rest? It's late in the evening, and tomorrow is a new day."

Now that he mentioned it, Sunset felt drained and exhausted. "Sure. That sounds fine."

"Good." The man stood up. "Now, if you need anything, I'll just be outside the room."

The green-skinned man walked to the door.

"Wait a minute."

He stopped just as he held onto the door's handle. He turned to Sunset's direction as she looked at him with half-lidded eyes.

"Before you go, I've never got the chance to learn your name," Sunset said, making the man smile.

"It's Thorax," he introduced himself.

"Thorax?" Sunset smiled as she slowly closed her eyes. "My name is Sunset Shimmer. It's nice to meet you."

Thorax's smile spread a little. "Likewise. I guess we're gonna be good friends from here on out."

Sunset chuckled a little. "Yeah, that's what I need the most..." she yawned. "A friend..."

With it, the fiery-haired girl quickly drifted off to sleep, initiating an eight plus hours' worth of rest to regain her strength.

Thorax exited the room and shut the door behind him. There, Shining Armor got up from his seat and approached him, expecting a full report from the convict-turned-protected witness. "I saw everything happen from outside. Did she say anything?"

"Yeah, and it's not good," Thorax sighed dejectedly, a frown drooping from his face. "The girl's name is Sunset Shimmer and she attended Canterlot High School. It turns out the reason she walked into the cold without any thermal clothing on was because she was trying to kill herself."

"What? Why would she do that?"

"It turns out she was a victim of cyberbullying that's been going around the school. This MyStable user, 'Anon-a-Miss' spread her friends' secrets all over the school and she was framed for that. Her friends broke off all ties with her, she had nowhere else to go and she tried to freeze herself to death. I haven't seen anything like that in a long time."

"Damn. And she's just about my sister's age, too." Shining Armor took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair. "Well, we'll have to put her on suicide watch just in case. In the meantime, I'll have to personally look into 'Anon-a-Miss' and see if we can dig up any dirt to see who's pulling the strings. I won't tolerate anyone who deliberately tries to make people commit suicide, let alone people her age."

"Um, Lieutenant?" Thorax called for the ivory police officer. "I'm not sure if this is 100% legal or not, but I think it's worth asking."

So Shining Armor listened closely as the green-skinned man asked his question.

Chapter III

Morning crept over the entirety of Canterlot City and everywhere outside of its city limits.

Even though the grey winter clouds from high above were brightened by the filter of the morning sunlight, it didn't mean that the day for every middle-schooler and high-schooler in Canterlot High was going any brighter. Everyone was either suspicious of each other, on edge with each other from earlier arguments, or chose today to call in sick for the next few days. The venom that was "Anon-a-Miss" had finally spread around the veins of the high school, starting by sinking their proverbial teeth into six teenage girls and quickly taking the student body within the last few days.

One of those girls was the stubborn and sulking form of Applejack, mulling over yesterday's events as she approached her locker only to find that a few students had once again vandalized it. The front of her locker was littered with sticky notes, some of them scribbled with her nickname written in text or drawn in the form of a smiling cartoon pig face. The extra insult to injury was added when someone wrote "Piggly-Wiggly" on her locker in red marker!

Groaning with a growing sense of frustration, Applejack ripped the sticky notes down, took out her black marker and scribbled the red away. She forced her locker door open, inserted her books, and slammed the locker door shut with gusto.

"A rough start to your morning, Applejack?"

Applejack jumped to the inquiring voice. There, standing just beside her, was the stoic visage of Vice-Principal Luna, leaning up against the lockers, her arms crossed over each other as a symbol of business. Applejack placed her hand over her rapidly beating heart and sighed.

"Vice-Principal Luna. Ah didn't see you there."

Luna broke a little grin. "That's alright, Applejack. I tend to frighten my students just by making a small inquiry. It's a habit that my sister wants me to kick, but you know what they say about old habits."

But Applejack didn't share in the frivolity; not only did she not feel up to it, but she and other students knew that the vice-principal wouldn't casually walk up to them unless she meant business. "This ain't about mah locker, ain't it? Ah swear, Vice-Principal, Ah don't know who did it, but..."

"This isn't about your locker, Applejack," Luna interjected firmly, "rather it is a matter involving the name scribed on your locker. I believe it has something to do with an incident involving your friends and a certain student that suddenly disappeared in the middle of the school day yesterday."

Applejack felt a knot twist in her stomach. She looked away shamefully, not wanting to meet with the vice-principal's eyes.

"Yeah, it does, but Ah don't really wanna talk about it."

"Not here with me," Luna clarified, "but perhaps my sister would like for you to talk about it. She sent me to find you personally."

"Huh!?" Applejack gasped. "B-But, Vice-Principal, Ah've got first period in a few minutes!"

"Don't worry, Applejack, I'll see to it that you are given a written excuse. Your meeting with my sister will also be the perfect excuse to keep you out of the prying eyes and ears of students." Luna placed her hand behind Applejack's back and escorted her to the office. "Come, you know my sister does not like to be kept waiting."

As stubborn and proud as she was, Applejack couldn't really go against the vice-principal's wishes. After all, being vice-principal, she has as much authority to the school as her older sister does! So with great reluctance, Applejack went with Vice-Principal Luna to the principal's office where Luna rapped her knuckles on the glass pane which was immediately followed with a gentle "come in." Luna opened the door up for the cowgirl who stepped inside and stood before the graceful and lenient principal, hearing Luna close the door behind her.

"Please, take a seat, Applejack," Principal Celestia said, gesturing towards the seat on the other side of the desk. "Thank you for coming to see me at this hour."

"In all honesty, Principal Celestia, Ah'm glad that you called me up here," Applejack said, taking her seat. "Ah guess Ah kinda needed the distraction."

Principal Celestia smiled. "That's alright, Applejack. Talking to a friend or an adult about your own problems makes for a good distraction." She then clicked her tongue. "Now, it's come to my attention that you and your friends have been on the receiving end of cyberbullying recently, right? Something about having an old nickname popping up on a social network site?"

"It ain't just me, Principal Celestia. Every student in this school had a secret or two that's swarming around the school like a swarm of fruit flies," Applejack defended herself.

"I see," Celestia nodded in understanding. "Then forgive me for asking you this, but you have noticed the number arguments in this school that have been spiking as of late, yes?"

"Eeyup. Everywhere Ah turn, there's always an argument or a fight happenin' anywhere that ain't a classroom."

"And you have noticed a number of students who failed to show up for school?"

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Sorry fer askin' ya this, Principal Celestia, but what's this meetin' got to do with anything?"

"Straight to the point then," Celestia said, sighing as she composed herself into her professional listening acumen. "The reason I have called you up here, Applejack, is because it's come to my attention that a student, someone who has a perfect attendance record, passes every class with flying colors, and a part of your rock band has just recently disappeared. Normally, I may overlook an absence or two because they are excused, but after checking the attendance list from yesterday, that student had not shown up for classes for the rest of the day, and that raises a red flag for concern."

Applejack immediately understood the principal's intentions.

"After checking in with her teachers and after overhearing some rumors from other students in the hallways, I have noticed that the student had disappeared right before second period begun, and this coincided with the rumors that you and your friends had an argument with her." Celestia placed her arms on her desk, held her hands together in a professional view, and leaned forward to the cowgirl.

"So all I need to know from you and your friends is that something happened between you, your friends, and Sunset Shimmer that would entice her to skip the rest of the school day with no excused or written absences, and I'd like to know from your point of view what it was."

Applejack looked back to her previous recent sleepovers, the ones she had with her friends and Sunset Shimmer. The mere thought of sharing the story of "Piggly-Wiggly," Rainbow Dash's poor grades in her studious classes, and the group photo of her and her friends from their last sleepover together made it all the easier to think about the outrage that she and her friends felt. It wasn't hard to look on it back then, and it wasn't hard to look on it now.

"It ain't what ya think, principal," Applejack said. "A couple of weekends ago, right before 'Anon-a-Miss' began ta pop up, we had a sleepover at Pinkie Pie's place. Me, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, and Sunset Shimmer. We were havin' a blast right up until mah sister called up because Granny Smith told her ta check up on me and see if everything is alright. She wished me goodnight and called me 'Piggly-Wiggly,' and then when my friends got all curious-like, Ah told them the story of how Ah got that nickname."

"And that's when you discovered that someone took your personal nickname and spread it across the school, making you the first victim of this cyberbullying," Celestia finished. "I still don't see how this relates to Sunset's disappearance from this school."

"Now hang on, Principal, there's more to it," Applejack interjected. "During our sleepover at Rarity's, Sunset took a group photo of us together. That happened just a few days ago, last Sunday. Yesterday, me and mah friends got a notification on our phones, and it turned out that 'Anon-a-Miss' had gotten ahold of our group photo from Sunset's phone, called us 'dorks' in the caption, and posted it on MyStable for everybody to see."

"I am still struggling what this has to do with your argument, Applejack," Celestia said, genuinely confused.

"Don't ya see, Principal Celestia!? The photo came from Sunset's phone and she never sent it to us in our group text! She was the only in our group who listened in on our secrets! She had her phone with her at the time so she could post those secrets and make laughingstocks out of us! She humiliated us, principal! She was the one behind the 'Anon-a-Miss' accounts! We couldn't move anywhere in the school without the students harassin' us from every direction! We didn't have a choice! We had ta cut off our ties with her for good, but even then, the secrets are still comin' out!"

Principal Celestia attentively listened to Applejack's rant, soaking in every angry word spoken against the missing fiery-haired girl. She had her doubts about the accusation, sure, but being the most generous authority over students in the school district, it was Celestia's duty to give her students the full benefit of it.

"Really?" she only said in response at first. "Then do pray tell, Applejack, why do you think that Sunset Shimmer is the mastermind behind 'Anon-a-Miss?'"

"What more do ya want, Principal Celestia? She was right there with us!" Applejack barked, pounding a fist on the desk, to which Celestia didn't stop her for her need to vent her anger was great. "She was at the sleepover at Pinkie Pie's place with us when we shared out secrets! She was the one who wanted ta know more about mah nickname! She already had some old photos of us saved on her phone that she originally intended ta use ta blackmail us before Princess Twilight came along, but she decided ta post 'em anyways so she would drive me and mah friends apart, like she did before!

"And if that weren't enough, she tried ta act all innocent with those fake crocodile tears and her little sobbing princess act! Ah'm tellin' ya now like Ah should've told you this a long time ago, Principal: she's a bad apple, she's always been a bad apple, and she will always be the most rotten apple in the school! Everything you see happenin' right before our very eyes is because of her!"

Principal Celestia allowed herself to absorb these facts for a moment. She broke it off by clearing her throat and shifting herself forward in her seat. “These are plausible facts, Applejack, but I see only a few problems with your theories. Yes, Sunset Shimmer's presence in your sleepover parties does indeed coincide with the start of 'Anon-a-Miss,' yes, all the evidence does point to Sunset's favor, and yes, you have every right to be angry about it; but there is just one thing that we need to understand."

Applejack groaned, slumping back into the chair she was sitting in. "What's there to understand? Sunset Shimmer is as guilty as sin."

"In the past, maybe, but the thing we need to understand is that Sunset Shimmer has worked hard to earn her redemption in this school. I am sure there are others who don't think so, like the students that she blackmailed, humiliated, and put down emotionally, but even I can see that she wanted to change her ways and had you and your friends to give her some support.

"I've learned from personal experiences that you should not be hasty to jump to the wrong conclusion," Celestia continued. "Sunset's phone did contain some demeaning photos of you and your friends, and she may have kept your secrets hidden somewhere in her notes, but do you actually believe that is was Sunset that started all of this?"

Applejack was hesitant to answer this. "Well... Ah don't wanna believe it. No one else in our group would wanna post our secrets online."

"And yet, you somehow came to the conclusion that Sunset was the prime suspect."

"It ain't just us, ya know! Everyone in this school thinks Sunset's responsible!"

"You are trying to justify yourself by shifting the blame onto the entire school body?"

"Ah ain't tryin' ta justify anything! Everyone else is following 'Anon-a-Miss' to the point where they post their friends' secrets and causing rifts in their relationships! They're usin' some gossiping website that was started by some nobody and turnin' this school into a madhouse! If they aren't directin' their laughter at us, then they're tryin' ta throttle each other by the throats!"

"And do you feel that you've already throttled Sunset by the throat?"

In that one single question, Applejack felt all emotions replaced by surprised.

She wanted to answer... she tried to answer... but she couldn't make the words out.

"Ah... Ah don't..."

"Let me ask you this, Applejack..." Celestia leaned forward to meet her gaze deep into the country girl's eyes. "If Sunset really wanted to betray you girls, then she would have done it after the holidays are over, right? I understand that your grandmother is hosting a Christmas party for you and your friends next week, and she told me that you invited her up to your house. I know how students your age tend to get together and party in celebration of the holidays, but if Sunset really wanted to expose your secrets to the public, then even she would've wanted to wait until the new year to post your embarrassing stories online.

"Do you really think Sunset would risk that for the chance to publicly humiliate the people she called her friends? Or, the better question you should ask yourself is, do you really think that Sunset would throw her redemption and her friendship with you and your friends away just to relapse back into her old tyrannical ways?"

Applejack was about to answer the question the same way Rainbow Dash answered a question similarly told by Fluttershy earlier. She opened her mouth to speak, but still the words came out like she was choking on air. All of these questions caused her to doubt herself now, it was almost impossible to release her breath from her lungs.

Celestia saw this as a window of opportunity to get through to the stubborn cowgirl. "Now I'm going to ask you something, and knowing your honesty streak, I know you will answer it truthfully." Her face transitioned into that of a stone cold demeanor, making it scary clear that she meant business. "What did you and your friends say to Sunset Shimmer that would make her run away from school and possibly not come back?"

Applejack felt a new negative emotion today: guilt. She felt so guilty, she dared not look into Celestia's eyes as she looked down on her knees. In just ten words, she summarized her last fateful meeting with her former friend with, "Only the worst last thing to say to a friend."

Beep... beep... beep...

Hss... hss... hss...

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Sunset immediately made out what the noises her, and the first thought that came to her head was where she was at.

She was still laying in the comfortable hospital bed, still in the hospital where she last found herself.

She figured it meant that her head was mentally refreshed from that sleep.

Her Celestia knows that she needed it.

She smacked her mouth; her mouth was dry, her tongue was like sandpaper, and her saliva was all foam.

She reached for the nurse call button beside near her pillow and pressed it.

A moment later, a voice was heard from the other side of the speaker.

"Can I help you?"

"Hi, can I have some water, please? I'm as thirsty as a camel," Sunset asked.

"Hang on, I'll send up a nurse or an assistant to send you some water up."

Sunset then turned her gaze up to the ceiling, delving deep into her thoughts.

She was saved from taking her own life by a kind stranger who had a bad history quite similar to her's.

She was getting some good treatment at the hospital.

She slept better than she did for the past week.

The question she would have to face is: now what?

Where would she go from there?

She couldn't go back to Canterlot High; there was nothing for her there, anyway.

Nothing, except for the bad memories that still lingered there.

By now, someone would have sprayed some kind of profane hate message on her locker, and...

Sunset suddenly felt a paralyzing shock course through her system.

Her locker! She left all of her stuff back in her locker!

Her books! Her backpack! Her magical journal!

Her journal! It was the only way to reach out to Princess Twilight!

She had to tell the princess what's happened the last past few days!

What if someone already messed with her books? She couldn't make contact with Twilight without her journal!

While she panicked internally at this, the door to her room opened.

To her surprise, the person who walked in wasn't a nurse or a nurse's assistant. No, it was Thorax, the man who saved her life and forced her to confront her sadness head-on. He came in with a jug of ice-cold water and a plastic cup in both hands, and a smile spread across his lime-green face.

"Good morning. I had the nurse have me bring in the water," Thorax said, showing off the water and the cups.

Sunset shifted in her laying position until she was upright and stretched. "What time is it?"

"It's uh..." Thorax pulled up his sleeve and checked his watch. "... about 8:23 right now. You've been out for nearly eleven hours now."

"Eleven hours?" Sunset parroted for clarification. "Huh. I guess all that crying really did a number on me."

"Hey, you were emotionally exhausted from everything that happened to you. That's nothing a good night's sleep couldn't handle." Thorax poured the water into the cup and handed it out to Sunset. "Here. The nurse told you mouth was as dry as a bone."

Sunset took the cup without question and graciously emptied the clear contents into her mouth. She swished and sloshed the water around in her mouth like she mixing in mouthwash, trying to moisturize her tongue and her salivary glands underneath. With a big gulp, she sent the cool liquid down her throat and handed it back to Thorax, who poured some more of the water into it before she swiped it into her hands again.

"Thank you," Sunset said, taking a big gulp of the water, emptying it by halfway.

"It's no problem," Thorax said. While he watched Sunset drink the rest of the water in the cup, and after refilling it for her, he sighed deeply. "Hey, listen, uh... Sunset, was it? There's something that I want to talk to you about, and I've had to wait until you woke up and until I could talk to you about it so you'd give me an answer. It's about your, uh... current situation, what with you trying to commit suicide and all."

Sunset held the water in her mouth from her last sip as she listened in on what her savior had to say. "After you fell asleep, I talked to Lieutenant Armor about what you told me and he suggested that the hospital would put you on suicide watch just in case you tried to do it again. Now, I didn't argue about it with him because I have been placed under the watch before, and let me tell you, it wasn't fun. So, instead, I asked him if it was perfectly legal for me to gain temporary guardian custody over you until the entire 'Anon-a-Miss' ordeal at your school blows over and the real perps are brought to justice."

Sunset swallowed down her mouthful and looked down into the cup, staring deep into the water inside. "That's... nice of you to do that, Thorax, but I'm not sure if I am ready to go back there, you know? Even if the 'Anon-a-Miss' perps are caught, and I really do hope they go to jail for everything they put me through, I'm not sure if I can look at my... former friends the same way after they dumped me."

"I didn't say that you could go back there now," Thorax said. "If you don't want to go back there anymore, then that's your choice. There's another school nearby that you could transfer to, and it won't turn you down because of your permanent record, but that's also up to you. In the meantime, Lieutenant Armor is going to look into 'Anon-a-Miss' personally, and I'll be looking after you for a while, just until this whole thing blows over. What do you say?"

"But... but I have a place to live back in the city," Sunset protested, "and I have my books and my book bag that I left in my locker."

"I'd like for you to stay home too, but after your suicide attempt, we're not gonna take anymore chances," Thorax insisted the girl. "Lieutenant Armor can grab your things from your school and meet me back at my apartment. He knows where I live, since he also happens to be my parole officer."

"Your parole officer?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah, we meet up once a month at his office so I can report my case."

"I guess that does explain why they know each other," Sunset thought.

"Anyway, you need someone to look after you not because you tried to kill yourself, but because you're lonely," Thorax said, getting back on topic, "and since you've got no one else to turn to, and the holidays are coming up fast, I thought maybe you could use a friend like me. That's why I'm inviting you to my place, because no one deserves to be lonely on Christmas."

That did sound like a good proposal, not to mention that it also brought up a good point.

Sunset had no friends to turn to either, and with the portal to Equestria currently closed, she had no other option.

But with Thorax, though... he's certainly earned her trust. He'd done more for her in a week than friends did in the last six months.

Finally making up her mind, Sunset sighed and smiled at her newfound friend.

"Thorax, you saved me from making a horrible mistake and you never once left my side while I needed someone to talk to," Sunset said, staring into his violet spectacled eyes. "You've done the greatest thing a friend would do for their friend in need, and I can tell that you and I were destined to meet like this. I'll be more than happy to stay at your place for however long this will take."

Thorax's face brightened with a smile. "That's what I wanted to hear."

Thorax looked into the jug and saw that it was already less than half-empty. "Oh. Looks like you're almost out. I'm gonna get some more down the hall and I'll be back soon, so try not to go anywhere."

Sunset raised an eyebrow towards the man. "Was that supposed to make me laugh?"

"Not really. I stink at making jokes," Thorax confessed.

At this, Sunset smiled before she broke out in a small giggle.

Just as Thorax got up, he stopped and turned to the girl. "Oh, and one more thing: the nurses say you're in perfect health now, so you're going to be discharged in my custody later this afternoon. I'll be signing the papers for your release. I thought you'd like to know."

Thorax turned around and walked out. "In the meantime, you just take 'er easy. I'll be back in a second."

With that, the smiling green man walked out of Sunset's room, leaving her alone in her bed but having a gracious smile spread on her face.

"Thank you, Thorax. Thank you for everything."

Having nothing else to do at the moment, Sunset used the remote control on her speaker to turn on the TV in the room and watched the morning news unfold live.

"Why should I talk about her?" Rainbow Dash grumbled. She slumped her body against one of the chair's arms and letting her legs hang down and over the other arms, crossed her arms over each other, and wore a forlorn expression of her azure face. "I don't like talking about friends who stab me in the back. It's like stepping on a rusty nail and getting that disease later."

"You compare thinking about Sunset Shimmer to contracting tetanus?" Principal Celestia asked for clarification. "Isn't that a little harsh, even for you?"

"Well, why shouldn't it?" Rainbow Dash retorted in the form of a question. "I've had a history of so-called 'friends' stabbing me in the back!"

"You are referring to the incident with Gilda Griffon, if I'm not mistaken."

"Yep. You definitely hit the nail on the head on that one, Principal."

"Would you care to elaborate on that?"

Rainbow Dash sighed outwardly, hinting her stress. "She and I used to be the best of friends at Junior Soccer Camp, you know? Just a couple of gals who learned how to play soccer at our age, took down the camp bullies, stuff like that. She and I barely connected with each other for seven years. When she transferred here, and when I really got to see her again, I thought she would've been the same friend I made when I was younger, but then I realized that she just completely changed, and not for the better."

Principal Celestia nodded her head once. "Yes, I have received numerous reports that Gilda was engaging in inappropriate behavior that would've had her suspended from school with the snap of my fingers."

"Yeah, and she made Fluttershy cry just because she bumped into her while she was helping a family of ducks across the yard! To me, that was crossing the line, but I was willing to give her one last chance, so Pinkie Pie and I threw together a party for her in the gymnasium so she could make new friends. We even put together a few harmless pranks just to show that were were only having fun, but she took things way too seriously."

"And how so?"

"She lashed out at Pinkie Pie because she was well-known for pulling pranks on other students. She didn't take the joy buzzer too lightly, she didn't like the punch being spiked with a dab of hot sauce, and don't even get me started on how she reacted to the old "holes-in-the-drinking-cup" gag. She tried to beat up Pinkie Pie because she thought she ruined her leather jacket, but I had to fight her off and tell her that the drinking cup gag was on me! She and I had to break it off then and there, and it hurt to see her go. She was my oldest friend, and the way she treated my friends like that... I couldn't forgive and forget that."

Principal Celestia absorbed the story; she could understand why her student was hurt over the alleged accusations against Sunset.

"So you were hurt because you believed that Sunset used your test scores and your group photo to humiliate you, and so you and your friends left her alone in her tears" she interpreted, "but there is something I need to understand from you, Rainbow Dash: you were willing to give Gilda another chance, despite the behavior she showed towards the other students and your friends. Why weren't you willing to give Sunset Shimmer another chance?"

"Would it have mattered?" Rainbow Dash asked. "We gave Sunset a chance after Princess Twilight asked us to look after her, and look how she repaid us with!"

"Yes, I have seen what she repaid you with. A spot in your band, a helping hand in defeating the Dazzlings, and a contribution to charity and community service."

"What!?" Rainbow Dash almost swiveled herself out of her seat as she jumped from her slumping and sat straight up. "Don't tell me you're falling for her sappy sad act!"

"There is no act in Sunset Shimmer's tears, Rainbow Dash, nor was Applejack's guilt a facade when she had done her wrong. You are as loyal as they come, and that is a commendable trait to have, but it seems to me that given how you have abandoned a friend in need, your loyalty has come into question. You have never left the side of others when they need it, and yet, you were led to believe that your friend would return to her manipulative ways and left her alone in the halls without giving her a chance."

"And how would you know that!? You weren't there when she took our group photo! She's the only one who took that picture!"

"And do you believe that after everything she did for you and your friends, she would upload that photo onto MyStable with a crass caption, knowing that she would risk everything she worked hard to redeem herself just to humiliate you?"

"Of course I do! She was lying in wait like a cheetah, waiting for the chance to pounce on us when our guards were dropped!"

"That was the way the old Sunset Shimmer thought in the past. I am talking about the Sunset Shimmer of today, the same Sunset Shimmer who disappeared yesterday and never showed up for her classes this morning. What does her absence mean to you, Rainbow Dash?"

The tomboy snorted. "That she's off somewhere planning her next move or something. I don't know."

Principal Celestia shook her head, sighing sadly. "No, it means that you and your friends have driven her completely away from this school without taking her book bag and her books with her. Sunset Shimmer would never leave her intellectual supplies behind unless the grief of having her lost her only friends was so great that she abandoned everything she had here and wandered into town."

"Don't you mean back to Princess Twilight? She's only a hop, skip, and a jump away from..."

"Sunset Shimmer never went back to her world."

Rainbow Dash's heart skipped a beat.

"What? What do you mean? I thought Sunset Shimmer could..."

"Her bootprints were found at the base of the statue," Celestia informed firmly. "There was also scuffs in the snow, indicating that she had been kneeling at the base for quite some time before she got back on her feet, turned, and wandered off into town. I don't know where it is that Sunset Shimmer went, but what I do feel is that the bridge between this world and hers is closed. She can never return home."

At this, Rainbow Dash felt something grip her heart like an invisible hand had somehow reached through her chest and grabbed ahold of it with its cold, unfeeling hands. This was the hand of guilt she felt, the weight of her conscience now laid bare before her as she now realized what she had done wrong. She, the most loyal, athletic, and supportive student in Canterlot High had driven Sunset Shimmer, one of her best friends away from the school because she blamed her for something she didn't do! She was much as a victim of "Anon-a-Miss" the rest of the students, and now she can't return to Equestria!

What had she done?

Her friend was gone, and it was thanks in part to her!

Rainbow Dash felt sick to her stomach, but she also felt something heavy build in his chest: anger. Anger at herself for letting this happen, anger towards "Anon-a-Miss" for exposing her secrets and driving the wedge between her and her friends, anger towards the other students who followed them like the bunch of ignoramuses they were! She really felt like slugging the first student who would dare follow her with a sneer on their face.

"I understand you feel angry about this, Rainbow Dash, but violence will not solve your problem," Principal Celestia said, reading closely on Rainbow Dash's body language. "If you really want to resolve your anger, you will have to find a way to make it up to Sunset Shimmer, providing that we can find her first."

Rainbow Dash growled. "Fine, but I really can't make any promises to keep my anger in check with 'Anon-a-Miss.' If I find out who they really are, then I can't be held irresponsible for what I'm about to do to them."

"Even someone like you has to see the flaw behind your logic. If you strike 'Anon-a-Miss' down, you are only encouraging them to do them more harm than good."

"I know." Rainbow Dash tightly clenched her fists. "But it'd make me feel a whole lot better."

Author's Note

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Hope you are all enjoying your turkey, cranberry sauce, and apple pies!

More to come on the way.

Chapter IV

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