This Is the Opposite of Anon-A-Miss, Actually...
Sunset Shimmer slumped out of Canterlot High, covered in frosting, paint and various remains of tomatoes. It was going to be an ordinary Tuesday, however a new scandal had overrun the school. Wiping off the assorted garbage from her clothes, she pulled out her phone and scrolled through the website that had been the bane of her existence for the last several weeks; MyStable.
Post after post of hurtful remarks, lies and secrets. Over the last month or so, Anon-A-Miss had been building up a following around Canterlot High. It was the talk of the entire school and despite that, nobody knew who was behind it. Mostly because they were too busy blaming Sunset for all of this, despite not even having a MyStable account. All of this had accumulated in the entire school turning against itself. Not a day would go by without a fight breaking out between students, and the faculty couldn't do anything about it without knowing who Anon-A-Miss was. Pressure was mounting to do something before the winter break started, though.
Sighing, Sunset put her phone away and leaned against the iconic statue of Canterlot High. She needed time to figure this all out, but it was dwindling rapidly and nobody could trust her with anything anymore. The chill of winter perfectly synchronized with the cold loneliness she felt. Not since leaving Equestria had she felt so alone.
"Why not go back?" A smaller version of her, with devil horns and wings flew into her vision. "Screw this place, let it all fall apart. If the student body wants to get on your case for something so minor, it's on them, not you!"
"But I can't abandon everything again. These are my friends that are suffering too."
"Perhaps there's a way to solve this," A purple alicorn flew in from the left, wings carrying her miniature frame through the cold winter afternoon. "You might not have friends anymore Sunset, but there's no reason to completely give up on Canterlot High."
Sunset narrowed her eyes at the pair. "Is this that shoulder angel/devil thing I see on TV all the time?"
"Yes." they replied simultaneously.
"Also I believe this hallucination is caused by leaking Equestrian magic from the portal, so once you leave this area it should disappear."
The devilish Sunset rolled her eyes. "Nerd," before pointing at her larger counterpart. "And as for you, don't go full goody two shoes on me now! Being all nice and passive has gotten you into this mess, so I say you should at least learn who Anon-A-Miss is before leaving!"
Sunset crossed her arms, both in an attempt to look unimpressed and to keep herself from getting any colder. "And how do you suggest going about that? Anon-A-Miss has their account locked up tight, aside from the public posts."
"Report them to the proper authorities and wait it out?" the tiny Twilight interjected, attempting to keep her charge on-track.
Sunset squinted at the pony. "I did that two weeks ago." she raised her left hand, placing her index finger on her thumb. "Now's not the time for passive reporting. Now is the time for action."
"Buck." Mimi-Twilight replied, before being flicked off into the distance.
"So," Mini-Sunset flew back into Sunset's vision. "You're going with my plan, then?"
Slamming open the door to her cozy apartment, Sunset strolled in, exhausted from her trek from Canterlot High through the blistering snow. Taking off her sodden coat before hanging it up to dry, she sat on the desk chair, prepared to exact her revenge on Anon-A-Miss. The desk in front of her was rather barren, save for a computer and a corresponding monitor in order to research and stay in touch with friends. Or in this case, exact revenge.
Taking a look outside, she could see that the snow had started to fall again, as the sky started to darken. It was fortunate that she had decided to go shopping earlier in the week, as this now left her the entire evening to think of a plan. Especially with her social life being the shambles it was at the moment.
Sitting down, she booted up her computer. It was quite the powerhouse... When she first got it. The years had taken their toll, and it was thoroughly average now. It was by no means bad, it was just not up to the standard that technology dictated in this day and age. This meant there were thousands of files scattered across the computer. Some were benign and innocent, such as photos of puppies or her steamy collection of games. Others were quite morally grey, such as some movies acquired from illegitimate sources and maybe a less than legimate copy of photo-editing software, taken back when she couldn't afford that sort of thing...
Then there was the folder marked "My Old Life", notable for being password protected. Sunset always hesitated at this part. She knew the password, for obvious reasons but never got beyond this step, due to how the prompt barricaded her from her old tactics. It gave her enough pause to stop whatever she was doing and find another way.
Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to check to see if there was anything I could use. Sunset typed in the password to the folder, and the screen filled with illegal material. A list of CHS emails, several tools used to obtain sensitive information, even credit card numbers from back when she did that sort of thing to get by. Sunset gagged at how low she stooped back then, but persevered in searching for a way to expose Anon-A-Miss.
She glazed through hundreds of files, opening the occasional one to jog her memory of it, before closing it and continuing her odyssey down her past life. It was rather nostalgic, in a horrific "What was I doing with my life" sort of way. Eventually, after many minutes of file searching, Sunset finally found something she could use in order to expose Anon-A-Miss; A fake Mystable login screen.
Glazing over the outdated UI of the facade site, Sunset's mind turned as she calculated exactly how she could use her tools, thinking back with a tinge of regret on her black hat days of extracting sensitive information and using it to blackmail her fellow students.
Suppose I could try the classic "MyStable login page" trick. Sunset pondered to herself, as she examined the hack-job of code that she once called a web page. Not only was it severely outdated due to how MyStable changed the UI every 2-3 months, but from her limited recollection the page barely worked anyway. A lot of blackmail was lost due to poor coding and it was probably why the trick was used so rarely, even back when she was a full time blackmailer.
Sunset lurched forward, feeling sick to her stomach from her own transgressions. Even after Canterlot High "forgave" her, she couldn't let go of her own guilt. This new transgression wasn't going to help matters.
No, I can't be like that anymore. Even if I'm resorting to dirty tactics, this is a one-time thing. Sunset steeled her resolve as she opened her web page editor of choice and dived back into the harsh world of website coding. It was that one semester of coding class all over again. At least now she was using those skills for relative good.
Hours of furious typing passed by, as the cold afternoon turned into bitter night. Sunset's face was lit by the monitor, which happened only source of light in the room. Transfixed on copying MyStable's page down to the code, that she didn't notice the rumbling of her stomach indicating that she should probably take a break and have something to eat. Her stomach would go unanswered for a good four or so hours before she finally noticed the pangs and relented.
Yawning and stretching her limbs, Sunset got up from her chair and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
Alright, I need a break. Can't code on an empty stomach. Well, emptier. Sunset decided, after several hours of typing furiously
Sunset bumbled over to the light switch and turned it on, showering the apartment in light as she headed towards the kitchen. Grabbing some bland-name noodles from the cupboard, she set about preparing them whilst considering her next course of action.
Okay, so the page is set up, how am I going to get Anon-A-Miss to it? Sunset pondered while the kettle boiled, steam rising from the spout, forming into shapes as the wisps slowly descended into the sky. It was pretty, in a momentary distraction sort of way.
After several minutes of starting at steam, the kettle finally completed boiling, allowing Sunset to pour it into her noodle container. After letting it stand for a few moments while taking a quick trip to the bathroom, she grabbed the noodle soup and went back to her computer, feeling invigorated and ready to work again.
Hmmm, I could do a fake raffle, Sunset postulated to herself, letting the scent of cheap noodles fill her nose with the vibrant scent of chicken and mushrooms. Make up something about a raffle, send the fake website link to Anon-A-Miss via private message and see if she takes the bait.
There was one problem, however. Anon-A-Miss had already leaked photos from her phone, which she had the entire time during the last slumber party she was at. This either meant that Anon-A-Miss had access to her phone during that time, or that they were at least savvy enough to take the photos from it without physically being there. While the former sounded plausible, due to the fact that she never put a password on her phone, she couldn't pin the leakage on any of her friends. Who would deliberately attempt to sabotage their own friendship and frame her for it? It was ludicrous.
Still, Anon-A-Miss might be smarter than I give her credit for and might track me down if this fails. I'd best cover my tracks with this. Sunset noted to herself, before opening her "My Old Life" folder again and scrolling through until she found a fake email generating program and a program that would conceal her IP by pretending it was from another part of Canterlot City. Covering her tracks was part of the reason why she was never caught, after all.
Setting up her programs, she finally generated a believable fake email to sign up to MyStable with:
Shimsham@Pmail.horse
Okay, that's incredibly stupid, but I'll have to roll with it. Sunset rolled her eyes, as she opened up MyStable and clicked "Create Account."
Typing in a bunch of completely fake personal information, (There was honestly no need for all this, since you could just type complete gibberish in and the website would accept it as your name regardless.) Sunset made her way through the signing up process for MyStable, including verifying her email in order to gain access to site features, such as private messaging. After all, if she truly wanted to take Anon-A-Miss down, she needed to get them and them only. Posting it publicly would only result in a lot of innocent users being tricked, muddying the results and increasing the chances of being found out by the proper authorities and blowing the entire plan.
Sunset shook her head, attempting to dispel these thoughts from her mind. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it right and get it done without hesitation. Quickly sending a friend request to Anon-A-Miss, she was surprised by how fast it was accepted, before a private message window popped up.
Private Message - Anon-A-Miss
Anon-A-Miss: Hi! Got any dirty laundry you want aired Anon-A-Missly?
Sunset visibly cringed at that pun. It was clever, but oh so awful at the same time. Steeling herself, she replied.
Shim Sham: Congratulations random user! You have won the big MyStable raffle! Click on the link below to receive a free iPone 6 www.mystabIe.com/raffle!
It was innocuous enough, and quite a few students in the past did fall for it over the years, but most of the time she just ended up blocked before the account was shut down minutes later due to attempting to scam users. She was prepared to go further with it, but then Anon-A-Miss replied:
Anon-A-Miss: Sweet! I'll claim that now! Thanks a lot!
Sunset blinked several times at the reply. She was either being taken for a ride, or Anon-A-Miss, despite her treachery was really naive when it came to internet scammers. There was only one way to find out, though.
Logging back into her fake website, she went onto the page that only she could view: the place where all the emails and passwords were stored for "safekeeping." She had long since cleared it out, due to it being completely unprotected and it being mostly a temporary storage for her victims before they were transferred to her personal files for future use. To her surprise, there was one set of credentials there.
email: canterlotmovieclub@canterlothigh.com
password: CMC4ever
Huh, Sunset thought to herself. That was easy. Adjusting her location spoofer just in case this was a trap, she logged onto the Canterlot High website and proceeded to try this combination of email and password to see if it was truly legitimate.
To her continued surprise, it worked and she found herself with email after email. Snooping around, she saw that a lot of emails were newsletters from various gardening, fashion and e-sport websites, along with a ton of "Welcome" emails from various websites in the previously stated genres. There was one in particular that stood out to her, though.
Welcome to MyStable, Anon-A-Miss! Please verify your email!
Not only was it a welcome email for Anon-A-Miss, but it was dated just a day or two before this entire Anon-A-Miss incident started. This was definitive proof! Sunset leapt out of her chair and celebrated. Clear, decisive evidence of her being innocent was what she needed.
Calming down a bit, Sunset sat back down, contemplating her next actions. Sure, Anon-A-Miss was no longer tied to her, but that doesn't explain who they were in the first place.
Canterlot Movie Club... Where have I heard that before? Sunset thought to herself, as she gathered various screenshots and saving it all to one folder named "Anon-A-Miss". So we have their email, but their interests are so... Weirdly varied. Gardening, fashion and competitive gaming, there's certainly some people in Canterlot High who are into that sort of thing, but none with anything against me. Or at least, no more than anyone else. If anything, they remind me of Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash with their interests, though Applejack is way more into apples than anything gardening related and Rainbow Dash is more into real-life sports than e-sports...
My Celestia. I think I know who it is.
It was early morning in Canterlot High. The weather was even colder, the school was deserted and Sunset was alone, again. Wednesday was always a weird day for her. It was always the turning point of the week, where it felt ever closer to Friday than Tuesday was, as well as being the halfway point of the school week. Still, she had something to do before classes started and that's why she was in at exactly 8:15.
Wandering down the various halls, she listened out for the chattering of three teenagers in particular near the library. Sticking her head in to peer quickly, she saw the three members of the Canterlot Movie Club standing around a powered on computer monitor that was facing away from her, watching some silly video about what appeared to be a children's card game. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were none the wiser about Sunset's brief appearance, which was fantastic due to Sunset's entire plan hinging on them being unaware of her next and final move in this game of chess.
Heading to Principal Celestia's office, she knocked gently, but with a sense of urgency that couldn't be ignored. Opening the door, the tall iridescent women answered. "Oh good morning Sunset Shimmer," she greeted with the warmness Sunset knew all too well, "What can I do for you this morning?"
Sunset put on her best saccharine voice. "Well Principal, I was around yesterday cleaning up a little bit to make the janitor's job a little easier and waiting for the terrible weather to go away, when I went to library and found that the Canterlot Movie Club had left their computer logged in." she explained, having Celestia eating out of her metaphorical palm. "Now being the absolute Samaritan that I am, I went to go log them off so that some nefarious individual wouldn't delete their files or something similar. But... It was logged into their Canterlot High email and I saw that they had signed up to MyStable on that email address."
"Oh." Celestia said neutrally, slightly disappointed at the lack of news. "Well Sunset, it's their email, as long as they aren't doing anything against school policy, I don't think that's anything to worry about."
"But that's the thing!" Sunset spoke up again, her voice cracking slightly in mock desperation, before grabbing her backpack and opening it. "I took a quick glance and they had signed up to MyStable as Anon-A-Miss! The email even is around the same time as this whole mess started!" she exclaimed, before passing Celestia a piece of paper with a screnshot on it showing the Canterlot Movie Club emails, including the offending Anon-A-Miss one.
Celestia looked at it for a few moments, before her voice turned serious. "I see. Thank you for your time, Sunset. With this, I think I can finally punish this Anon-A-Miss accordingly. Do you happen to know where the Canterlot Movie Club members are so I can question them?"
"In the library, Principal Celestia." Sunset pointed in the general direction of it, attempting to hid her devious grin under the pretense of being glad.
"Fantastic. Then this can be sorted before the school day even begins. I'll be sure to make an announcement once first period starts. Then we can put this mess behind us." Celestia replied, before striding off the library with the tranquility of a murderous swan. Sunset simply walked in the other direction, no longer needing to hide the deviousness plastered on her face.
Just like old times.
Sunset strolled into first period, a grin plastered across her face as she took her seat. Looking around, she saw that her classmates did not share that sentiment. Even their grim expressions couldn't melt the smile she had, even if it meant getting a few funny looks from fellow classmates and whispers of being Pinkie Pie in disguise.
Suddenly, the seldom-used Public Address system crackled into life. "Attention students of Canterlot High," Principal Celestia's voice rattled out with a static tone due to the age of the equipment. "We have been aware of the presence of Anon-A-Miss for the last couple of weeks, but have been unable to do anything about their reign due to a lack of evidence. However, due to the efforts of Sunset Shimmer, the culprit has been found and they will be punished accordingly. Due to threats of retribution, they will not be named, but they will be punished by both the school and their guardian once they leave, so please do not attempt to investigate this further. Their MyStable account has also been terminated and no further personal information will be revealed by them under threat of being expelled from Canterlot High entirely. Thank you."
The entirety of the class turned to look at Sunset, still wearing a cheeky grin.
"Told you it wasn't me."
The morning went by like a blur, with most of the first break period being spent being pat on the back by the student body for solving the mystery of Anon-A-Miss seemingly out of the blue. Still, she never saw any of her friends for the entire morning, but the praise was a nice contrast the the constant harassment she faced throughout the last couple of weeks and Sunset took in every bit of it with humility and grace. She also avoided any direct questions about investigating Anon-A-Miss with a "It's in Celestia's hands now, I'm not saying a word about it."
Still, lunch period rolled around and she sat down at a nearby empty table, prepared for another lunch alone, but at least there wouldn't be any trouble. This was before the Rainbooms converged to the table and placed their own trays on before sitting down. Silence descended upon the table.
"So..." Sunset started. "Anon-A-Miss."
Rainbow Dash let out a groan of disgust. "Ugh! I can't believe Scootaloo would do that to us! What a twerp."
"Sweetie Belle will be getting her own punishment, don't you worry girls. That is no way for a lady to act." Rarity added, contempt all over her face as she daintily nibbled at her salad.
"Eeyup, Apple Bloom is going to get a spanking herself. Ma and Pa would be mighty disappointed in her right now, Ah feel." Applejack finished off, at the very least looking apologetic to Sunset. "Sorry about that though, sugarcube. Sometimes situations aren't as clear as they seem and Ah think we all jumped the gun on blaming ya."
"Well," Fluttershy started, attracting the attention of the other 5 girls. "I thought we weren't allowed to discuss Anon-A-Miss now that the incident's over with... Also sorry for not believing you. I should have known better than to treat your with contempt."
Sunset shrugged. "I would have done the same, honestly. Makes more sense to blame the girl with a history of deception and bullying than it is to blame your own flesh and blood."
"Oh! Does that mean we can throw a "Sorry For Blaming You For Everything" party on Friday? I'll be sure to ask Maud if she can get us something special~!" Pinkie Pie joined in the conversation.
The others murmured in agreement, as the subject of Anon-A-Miss faded from their mind and their friendship with Sunset reforged.
Every friendship broken by Anon-A-Miss was reforged eventually. It did sometimes take time and patience from the hurt party, but friends forgive and forget. It's a part of life, so I've learned. There's bumps in the road, but you get through it, you know? I also learned that while my past may be full of mistakes, but sometimes those mistakes turn into things you can use in the future! Anyway, I'm supposed to be at Pinkie's slumber party soon, so I should wrap this up. Have a nice weekend, Twilight!
Your Friend
Sunset Shimmer.
Author's Note
It's weird. When I started this story, I intended it on being a Comedy where Sunset just completely blows Anon-A-Miss out of the water entirely and the situation is resolved without any issue. Instead, I took it in a slightly more serious direction than I originally thought.
Okay, it's not Dark or anything silly like that, but considering that Mini-Sunset was going to be a central character and the entire thing was going to end with Twilight saying "What the buck is wrong with you?", I'm pretty glad I didn't take it in that direction. I write enough Comedy as is, and I should really spend more time writing some nice fluffy one-shots.
And ultimately I know I have no in-universe justification for Sunset having her apartment when she was clearly in a library during the events of the original Holiday Special, or that she managed to get into Anon-A-Miss with little trouble, but it's fun to turn stories on their heads like this, I feel. Even if it took weeks to get out.
Although I do fear this may be labelled a "Fix-Fic" due to the nature of me re-writing a heavily disliked story. I know there's a lot of fics out there that do that, but this isn't intended as one. If it does come off like one, I'm sorry. My intentions were just to write an alternate take on the Anon-A-Miss story to incorporate a solution that also delves into Sunset's past a little bit and attempts to strengthen why she was so feared before her reformation.
I'm getting off-topic. If you enjoyed this, fantastic. If you didn't, tell me where I went wrong. I do strive to improve in my work, after all.
Also I managed to leave a sentence half completed. This is why you proof read, folks. Or at least pay attention.
