Anon-A-Fix

Chapters

Chapter One: Not A Holiday Girl
Chapter Two: First Slumber Party
Chapter Three: Anon-A-Miss
Chapter Five: Betrayal?
Chapter Six: Meeting in the Hall
Chapter Seven: Gossip Spreads
Chapter Eight: What Do I Do?
Chapter Nine: Revelation
Epilogue: Happy Holiday
Chapter Four: Second Slumber Party

Chapter One: Not A Holiday Girl

A cold wind howled through the busy streets during a Winter morning just south of downtown Canterville. A freak snowstorm the previous day had blanketed the area in a carpet of white. However, since the previous week had been rather warm, nothing stuck to the road, so schools were still in session. This included the public high school, CHS, where hundreds of well-bundled students calmly if coldly walked through the front courtyard past the massive horse statue towards the surprisingly ornate decades-old building, all of them thinking in the back (or front) of their minds that term would soon end.

Sunset Shimmer and Applejack were among the throng, admiring the sudden alteration of their normal scenery. Applejack wore a large smile. Sunset wore a puffy purple overcoat and knitted hat very different from her usual leather vestments.

“Wow,” said Applejack with a nearly religious sense of awe.

“Yeah,” Sunset replied, albeit with much less enthusiasm. “They’ve really made a lot of progress fixing that façade I destroyed. It’s only been seven weeks. And I was able to get two nice leather jackets from the work I put in before they fired me. How was I supposed to know my punishment violated the closed shop rule?”

“What? Naw, that ain’t what I meant, sugarplum,” Applejack corrected.

“Oh, sorry. What were you talking about then?” asked Sunset.

“The weather. I love winter!” Applejack said brightly. “Hot cocoa, the feel of new snow, buildin’ a fire in the hearth, not… havin’ ta do as much farmwork,” she muttered as her eyes darted around from the guilt before continuing. “But, really, the best part is just bein’ at home for Midwinter’s Day with my closest family!”

Sunset briefly looked at Applejack with a decidedly neutral expression.

“Ain’t that the best?” Applejack asked Sunset, clearly expecting an answer.

“Well, as far as it goes, I was actually born in what you might call a ‘Winter Wonderland’ were it not for the… *ahem* Anyway. I’m always one to enjoy cocoa but, as to family, I wouldn’t know,” Sunset said, her tone more than a bit forlorn. “I haven’t been home for the holidays in a long time.”

Applejack’s face dropped as she realized her faux-pas. “Oh… right. You’re a foreigner. Hey, they got the same holidays back, uh, where you come from?”

Sunset thought for a second before responding. “Eh, sort of? Kind of… not really. Aristeque’s calendar is very similar to Equestria’s: thirteen months of twenty-eight days plus a solstice separate from the lot as a major holiday. However, there, our most important day was opposite: the Summer Sun Celebration, when a new Royal Year would begin. The closest holiday to your ‘Ȝeolla’ we have is called ‘Hearth’s Warming Eve’ where peop— uh, ponies, especially in the hinterlands, spend time with their families. Well, not mine, certainly not with me, but you get the idea.”

As the two reached their adjacent lockers to put away their packs and coats, Sunset continued. “I wasn’t close with my family, even before She took me in to train me. I never spoke with them afterwards. They’re probably just fine with that. Then, my first several years here, well, I wasn’t close to anyone. You can’t exactly blame people for giving me a wide berth, right? I mean, I did spend no less than three years lying, sabotaging friendships, and manipulating everyone and everything with reckless abandon.”

Applejack’s expression shifted to one of incredulous worry. “So, ya mean to tell me you’ve been alone each an’ every holiday, for years?!”

Sunset nodded and replied simply, “Yes.”

“Bu-but… that’s awful!” Applejack said, barely able to contain her sadness.

“Maybe,” replied Sunset dully, “But, like I said, this is the way my life has been for a long time now. I’ve grown used to it; you don’t need to worry about me. If nothing else, at least I have friends like you now.” She gave Applejack a quick hug, breaking it off with a friendly if tired, “I’ll see you later, AJ.”

“Uh, yeah. Later, Sunset,” Applejack said, almost in a daze.

With that, Sunset trudged off to wherever it was she went during the day. No one had ever seen Sunset attend classes. In the meantime, just as the first warning bell rang, Applejack pulled out her cellphone and readied it to send a mass-text to the other four members of her quintet: Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy.

Hey y’all, we gotta pull a lil intervention on the friend front. Meet me in the library after school. DO NOT TELL SUNSET.

After the daily monotony of classes had ended yet again, Applejack made her way down the corridor of the school’s third floor towards the library.

Pinkie Pie was already there, typing rapidly on one of the school’s computers. She had bypassed the school’s flimsy firewall and was updating her 72,480 friends (which she concluded was about 99% of the city’s population that were on social media at all) on MyStable, the posting site of choice for CHS students, about her excitement over getting to spend time with her sisters. Or, in her own words:

yolla break coming soon! cant wait 2 live it up w my SISTURZ! YEAH!! :D

To which her older sister Maud, off studying geology at the University of Aristeque on the other side of the city, had replied simply,

Yes. I am also looking forward to it.

Pinkie interpreted this as Maud’s enthusiasm.

Shortly after she made her post, a tap on her shoulder startled her to the point that she nearly split into pieces. An older-sounding voice situated just behind her right ear said, somewhat playfully yet sternly, “Oh, Pinkie~!”

She turned around to see a woman in her thirties with shoulder-length fuchsia hair, pink skin, a green floral print long skirt, and a brown sweater vest: Cheerilee, the unofficial librarian and CHS faculty’s whipping girl due to her lack of tenure.

“I hope you’re not using a school computer to visit MyStable again!” Cheerilee said in a singsong voice, a knowing smile on her face.

Pinkie laughed guiltily. “O-of course not, Miss Cheerilee!” she said as she quickly erased her browser history and shut down the computer.

Within a couple of minutes, Applejack moseyed into the library and stood next to Pinkie, who remained seated for the moment. Not long after, the other three came in at once.

“Hey girls! Over here!” Pinkie called loudly to Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. Cheerilee did not care, as the school day was legally over so no point in enforcing the rules, and decided to just leave. Fluttershy took a seat at the computer terminal on the other side of the table, but the others remained standing, forming a crude semicircle.

“So what’s the emergency, AJ?” asked Rainbow Dash. “What’s up with Sunset? And, uh, why should we care?”

“Well, I think the poor gal gets lonely around the holidays,” Applejack explained. “An’ I think we can help her get through that!”

Rarity approached Applejack, intrigued. “She does seem lonely of late. I saw it when she bought her jackets at the boutique. Even with end-of-term exams upon us, it’s absolutely awful to feel glum so close to the end of Særrajeol and the holiday break around Midwinter. So, what is your plan, dear?”

“Two words:” said Applejack matter-of-factly, “Slumber Parties!”

Everyone except Pinkie looked at AJ as if she had sprung a screw. Pinkie, for her part, sat with a growing smile as her eyes lit up.

“Basically,” Applejack explained, “we should have parties at everyone’s homes, once every few days, leading up to the big shebang at my family home two nights before the Ȝeolla-day proper!”

The other girls all nodded their heads in agreement, except for Pinkie, who seemed to have temporarily blinked out of existence.

“That’s a lovely idea!” said Rarity.

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash agreed.

“I’d love to!” said Fluttershy.

At that, Rainbow Dash looked askance at Fluttershy. “You know, in the ten years we’ve known each other, I don’t think I’ve ever met your family.”

“Really?” asked Fluttershy. “Well, they’r—”

The rest of her explanation was interrupted by Pinkie who had somehow managed to reappear, balancing on top of an empty book cart to give herself a height advantage to interject from above. “Ooh! Ooh ooh Ooooh! ME FIRST!!”

Applejack raised her eyebrow, but Pinkie deflected with her simple but heartfelt declaration, “Parties are my LIFE!”

“Uh… Well then, sounds good to me, Pinkie,” Applejack said after a moment.

“GREAT!!!” Pinkie replied within a millisecond. “I’ll go tell Sunset!”

Down on the ground floor, Sunset Shimmer stood at her locker, the one she had kept for so many years that some of the books on the top shelf had become conduits for cobwebs. She sighed as she grabbed her useless bookbag out of the locker, noting its slowly fraying threads. Once she shut the metal door and turned the built-in combination lock, she found herself face to face with a full-smile Pinkie Pie, who was so excited she could barely keep her hands to herself, able only to vocalize, “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!”

Sunset stared at Pinkie, expression neutral, as Pinkie grabbed her by the arm and led her outside the school, still making that sound, her stance unchanged.

The other four were waiting for them by the horse statue. Rarity stepped up to Sunset, shooting an exasperated but non-threatening gaze at Pinkie.

“I assume by that confused expression on your face that you have no idea what’s going on? Well, dear, tonight the five of us are throwing you your very first slumber party! At, uh, Pinkie’s. She volunteered. So, go home, gather a change of clothes including nightie, your toiletries, and meet us back here in an hour and then we’ll all head over there. That will give Pinkie time to set her home up for us.”

“That’s… wow… that’s fine by me, but how can you get away with this on a school night?” asked Sunset, her logical mind taking over. “You all do have finals coming up.”

“Fake study session!!” Pinkie said as she jumped around the snow.

Sunset smirked. “That’s the best excuse I’ve heard in years.”

Chapter Two: First Slumber Party

As the sun, mostly blocked by clouds, began to dip below the horizon, the girls found themselves in Pinkie Pie’s bedroom. She lived with her older sister Maud in a townhouse in Uma District on the south-central side of the city, within walking distance of CHS, near the University of Aristeque. Pinkie finally allowed her squeeing to subside and, after taking a deep breath to try and restore some oxygen to her brain, said to the group, “Welcome, girls, to Party Central!!”

Indeed it was. The entire room was painted a pastel yellow, accented with bright pinks for maximum good feelings. The green carpet had several redundant circular purple floral patterned rugs, all of which were covered in large pieces of pink confetti. Several balloons floated against the ceiling, some of which had streamers attached for no real reason. In the middle of the side wall, flanked along it by magenta curtains that matched those of the room’s single large window, sat the bed with its heart-shaped headboard. The bedside table lamp continued the motif with its heart lampshade. Facing the bed was a decent-sized flat-screen television with at least one game console plugged into it. In the far corner of the room near the window sat a small circular table adorned with six pink cups, a bottle of pre-made non-alcoholic punch, and a massive pink bowl filled with popcorn.

As most of the girls looked around in awe, Pinkie smiled in self-satisfaction.

“Wow, Pinkie. You really went all-out!” Sunset said, slightly in awe.

“Only the best for my gal pals!” Pinkie replied proudly before a humanoid gust of wind blew by them both.

“Dibs on the games!!” yelled Rainbow Dash as she ran to, and plopped herself in front of, the television. “Someone wanna take me on in Magic Drive Racer 6 Deluxe?”

As Fluttershy happened to be standing closest, Rainbow Dash thrust a controller at her. “Here, Fluttershy. Try a round.”

Fluttershy shuffled her feet, unsure. “Um, but I don’t think—”

“C’mon! It’ll help you relax!” Rainbow Dash interrupted as Fluttershy sat on the floor without realizing it.

“Thanks, but—”

“Look! You can play as a fuzzy widdle (barf) bunny! With a monster truck!”

Fluttershy’s eyes went wide and lit up as a newfound fiery passion burned from deep within. “I shall destroy all my enemies!”

As Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash battled it out on the simulated racetrack, Pinkie poured Applejack a glass of punch, as well as three or four for herself. Meanwhile, Rarity, sitting on the bed, motioned for Sunset to sit at the side of the bed. Sunset, with a nod, reluctantly agreed. As soon as she did so, Rarity began braiding Sunset’s hair, a contented smile on her pale face.

Not much time had passed before Applejack sat down against the wall opposite Sunset while Rarity finished the first braid and began a second; evidently braided pigtails had been the goal from the beginning. Sunset sat back and took it; for all the finger dexterity she had built up over a decade living as a humanoid, she still failed at braiding hair, especially her own. She looked to her right as much as she could given Rarity’s grip on her hair to find Pinkie passed out on the floor near a pile of plush objects, likely from a sugar crash.

“So,” Sunset said to Applejack, “Is this what you do at slumber parties? Just… hang out? Mill around?”

“Pretty much,” Applejack confirmed. “Eat, gossip, watch movies, tell scary stories…” and then she was interrupted with a thrown throw pillow to the face.

“Don’t forget pillow fights!” interjected Pinkie, who had regained consciousness by about half and had instinctively found the nearest object to pitch.

Sunset stared at them. “Wow. At least she didn’t toss her alarm clock,” she said.

“…this time.” Applejack immediately replied flatly.

Just then, Rainbow Dash led a badly twitching wide-eyed Fluttershy across the room. “Uh, I think Fluttershy needs to lie down for awhile,” she said with a twinge of guilt.

“Jump the blue shell and drop the banana peel, Mister Fuzzles!” said Fluttershy in a wavering voice.

As Rarity was still using the bed to finish Sunset’s second braid, Rainbow Dash lay Fluttershy down on the opposite side of the room to everyone else, her yellow body still convulsing from the experience of extreme (by her standards) gaming.

About five minutes later came a knock on the door. Like a jack-in-the-box, Pinkie sprung upright, saying a bit too loudly, “Ooh! I got it!”

At the door stood Maud Pie, clad as usual in her drab cerulean dress, which nonetheless complemented her teal eyes, purple hair, and grey skin perfectly. She carried a stack of pizza boxes as tall as her.

“Hello Pinkie. The sixteen pizzas you ordered have arrived,” Maud said in her standard monotone.

“Oh Maud! You’re the best sister ever!!” cried Pinkie as she glomped her elder sibling.

“They’re dripping grease on my shoes,” said Maud in a not-so-subtle hint to Pinkie to please remove the cheesy burdens so she could get back to examining an unusual rock she’d pocketed on the way home.

As the night wore on and the pizza was consumed (mostly by Pinkie), the girls changed into their pyjamas, rolled out their sleeping bags, and split off into smaller groups. Rarity insisted upon giving Applejack, still wearing her cowboy hat, a manicure. Fluttershy took a nearby brush and began work the knots out of Rainbow Dash’s hair. Pinkie continued eating. Sunset, meanwhile, lay on Pinkie’s bed taking it all in, making a mental note to herself that some scientist really ought to study Pinkie’s absurd metabolism.

“Hold still, Rainbow,” said Fluttershy sweetly yet firmly.

“But it hurts!” Rainbow Dash near-growled. “I’m not used to this!”

“That’s because you’ve never really had long hair before now. I can tell you from experience: it mats up badly if you don’t take care of it.”

“Maybe I should just cut it short again,” Dash opined, “Even if it does make me look like a junior high boy.”

Fluttershy’s smile drooped. “Please don’t. You look so good with your hair long, a-and I don’t mind helping you maintain it.”

“Eh, whatever.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Rarity was finishing her work. “And… there!” she said as she put the finishing touches on Applejack’s nail polish. “Now don’t touch anything until they dry, okay?”

Applejack rolled her eyes before meeting Rarity’s own. “I don’t know how you can use this stuff all the time. Seems a mighty big hassle.”

“Well, dear, it is one of the sacrifices we must make for beauty.”

“Eh, gimme a clean shirt an’ a hair-tie an’ I’m good.”

From the bed, Sunset Shimmer, her hair still in braids, unmoored breasts prominent under her nightshirt, let out a loud, contented sigh. All the other girls turned to her.

“Thank you, girls,” she said, smiling. “I haven’t done anything like this in, well, ever. I never thought I would say this, but I’m glad to have some friends.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash agreed with a yawn, which quickly spread to Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity. “I don’t know what my life would be like without you girls.”

Applejack, laying on the bed perpendicular to Sunset, nodded. “Same here. It means a lot to me. Havin’ friends to support me makes—”

The calm was interrupted by a tinny rendition of “Turkey In The Straw”. Sunset glanced at Applejack with a smirk.

“Consarn it, that there’s my phone. Could one of y’all get it for me?” Applejack asked.

Sunset reached over and grabbed Applejack’s cellphone, placing it between them and, reluctantly, pressing the ‘answer’ button.

“Whoever this is,” said Applejack with more than a touch of blithe sass, “Ya just ruined a gen-yu-wine heartwarmin’ moment.”

Sunset facepalmed at the schmaltziness of that line. The voice coming through the phone, high pitched and matching Applejack’s own rural accent, was unmistakable: Apple Bloom, the youngest sister of the Apple family, who was in her second year in CHS’s junior high division.

“Big Sis, y’alright? Where in the world are ya?!” Apple Bloom asked, her tone clearly upset.

“Hm? Oh, I’m doin’ just great, Apple Bloom. I’m with all my friends!” Applejack told her little sister bluntly.

“What?!” Apple Bloom nearly yelped. “You’re s’posed to help me with my homework tonight. I got that big social studies final comin’ up!”

“Oops,” Applejack said, almost nonchalantly. “Granny gave me the go-ahead; I figured she woulda told ya. See, we kinda had a thing come up, so all of us are at Pinkie’s place helpin’ Sunset get used to bein’ ‘round friends, since she ain’t ever had none.”

“Seriously?” Apple Bloom asked flatly.

“Yes,” Sunset interjected. “They even got AJ to wear nail polish! Hey, when is your test, Apple Bloom? I could help—”

Apple Bloom interrupted. “So yer sayin’ you’re choosin’ Sunset, former gang leader and she-demon, over yer own family?!”

“Well, when ya put it that way… Guess so,” Applejack said, her voice tinged with guilt. “Look, get Mac to help ya tonight, an’ I’ll see you at school tomorrow, okay?”

There was an audible growl on the other end of the line. Sunset looked to Applejack, concern writ large on her face.

“Well, some girls jus’ get surly when they’re growin’ up, y’know?” Applejack whispered to Sunset, who shrugged in reply.

“Have a good night, Piggly-Wiggly,” snipped Apple Bloom. Then silence.

Applejack shook her head in shame, though no one could tell for whom.

Sunset adopted a puzzled look. “Did your sister just call you ‘Piggly-Wiggly’?”

“Um, yeah. She did,” Applejack admitted to the assembled group, all of whom except herself and Sunset appeared tired but interested. “I was really hopin’ I wouldn’t have to tell this story again.”

“Oh, do tell,” said Sunset with a smirk.

Applejack began with a defeated, embarrassed sigh. “When I was real little, I used to follow Granny Smith ‘round the farm while she was doin’ chores. I always loved pig-feedin’ time. Dunno why, maybe the look an’ sound of slop hittin’ and sloshin’ ‘round the trough, or the pigs themselves. Smarter critters than most folks give ‘em credit for. Anyway, one day, I snuck into the pigpen and started playin’ with the pigs, gettin’ down and dirty with ‘em in the mud. Granny says I wouldn’t leave for the whole entire day. After that, Ma started callin’ me ‘Piggly-Wiggly’ and it stuck as a family nickname. Apple Bloom uses it when she thinks I’m gettin’ too big for my britches.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Sunset said, “I never had any embarrassing nicknames as a filly. Given what I was called, ‘embarrassing’ would’ve been preferable.”

“Well, that’s family for ya, I guess,” replied Applejack with a smile as she put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Gotta take the good with the bad.”

A snore jogged the two out of their conversation. Pinkie had crawled into her bed and fallen asleep. Around them, Fluttershy, Dash, and Rarity had also passed out.

“I didn’t think your story was that boring,” Sunset whispered.

“Uh… maybe we oughtta sleep too. School night,” Applejack murmured as she carefully shuffled off the bed to avoid waking Pinkie. Sunset followed suit.

“Go ahead. I need to write,” said Sunset at her lowest volume as she reached for a book.

“What’s that?” asked Applejack.

“One of my journals. I’ve kept them since arriving in Aristeque to document my… experiences? Observations? Not sure how to explain it. I have an older diary too, but that one is… special.”

“Y’ain’t gonna write my nickname down in there, are ya?” asked Applejack with an accusatory glare.

“Please,” replied Sunset with a wave of her hand. “I have more respect for you than that. We all have secrets we don’t want getting out, especially me. I promise I won’t tell a soul.”

“I appreciate it. G’night, Sunset.”

Sunset nodded in reply. Once Applejack was out, Sunset began to write:

Status Update, Særraȝeola 11…

Chapter Three: Anon-A-Miss

The next morning, just as cold as the last, all six girls walked into CHS together, looking very much the worse for wear, especially Sunset, who sported noticeable bags under her eyes. Even Pinkie Pie was unable to suppress a great yawn.

“Ya sleepy, Pinkie?” Applejack asked with a knowing smirk.

“Never!” Pinkie replied with less-than-full enthusiasm. “Parties give me energy! Parties are my… my… my something important!” She thrust up her finger in conviction, then promptly fell forward, faceplanting in the snow, snoring. Sunset helped her up.

As Applejack rolled her eyes, she heard a male voice call out, “Hey, Piggly-Wiggly!”

That woke her up. As she turned her head to the crowd of random students, nearly smacking Pinkie in the face with her ponytail in the process, she asked herself, “What? Did someone seriously just—??”

“Sis, ya need ta see this!” Apple Bloom said as she ran up to Applejack, grabbing AJ’s cell phone, punching a few buttons, and shoving it back in her face.

On the screen was Applejack’s MyStable profile page (985 friends, mostly family). An account Applejack had never seen before, titled “Anon-A-Miss”, had posted three hours earlier about her silly nickname in an extremely demeaning tone:

Hi everyone! Did you know when AJ was a kid she loved playing with her pigs? OMG! She flopped in the mud for hours! Her whole family calls her “Piggly Wiggly” because she loves them so much! Guess it takes a pig to know one!

The post had several dozen upvotes and a few comments agreeing the nickname was worth making fun of.

“W-WHAT?!? How th—? What th—?” In what might have been a first, Applejack was rendered unable to form a complete sentence as she took her phone back.

Apple Bloom said simply, “It just got posted a couple hours ago.”

“Who’s this ‘Anon-A-Miss’?” asked Pinkie Pie upon seeing the phone.

“The profile was created the same time as the post,” said Apple Bloom pointing out the poster’s information in the sidebar. “No idea who it is. And she made the post public; it’s on my page, your page, everyone’s pages. The whole school probably knows by now.”

“How do you know a girl did this, Apple Bloom?” asked Sunset, but then sighed. “…Actually, it makes perfect sense. I could have pulled off something like that back in the bad old days, had MyStable existed. Tch,” she spat in obvious self-loathing.

Apple Bloom pointedly turned her back to Sunset, ignoring her.

Applejack pursed her lips as she heard the soft knowing laughter of her classmates. “W-well, it’s fine. I won’t let it bother me. After all, I ain’t so delicate that I can’t take a little teasing,” she insisted.

“Fine, but what about this ‘Anon-A-Miss’?” Rainbow Dash asked. “How did she know about your stupid nickname?”

“And why would she post it online?” Fluttershy chimed in sadly. “That’s… that’s just cruel.”

The warning bell rang, putting an end to the conversation.

“Guess any questions or answers are gonna have to wait ‘til after class,” said Applejack as she adjusted her backpack.

Sunset Shimmer placed her hand on Applejack’s shoulder. “Let us know if we can help, A.J.”

“Sure thing, Sunset,” Applejack replied as Sunset turned to head up the stairs toward the library. Once she was gone, Applejack felt a tug on her shirt sleeve.

“Uh, about this Anon-A-Miss…” said Apple Bloom.

“What about her?”

“Y’know,” Apple Bloom began, “The only people who knew your nickname were your family an’ your friends. You sure ya didn’t tell anyone else?”

“What’re ya gettin’ at, Apple Bloom?” asked Applejack, her eyes narrowing.

“Well, look at Anon-A-Miss’s profile. It’s Sunset’s colours,” Apple Bloom said as she pulled up Sunset’s sparse profile to prove it. “And Sunset only found out yer secret last night, an’—”

“Now you just stop right there!” Applejack interrupted gravely. “Sunset’s my friend and she promised she wouldn’t tell anyone. A promise is sacred; she knows that.”

“Fine, fine. Just a thought,” Apple Bloom said. “See ya after class.”

With that, she turned towards CHS’s junior high annex on the far south side of the campus, her long red hair swishing behind her as she walked away.

Chapter Five: Betrayal?

As was typical for mid-Særrajeola, the morning was chilly. Literally about freezing, driven home by the uniform expanse of grey that covered the sky toward the horizon in every direction. Of course, most CHS students still had to walk to the main building, as the bus drop-off point was on the south side at the Junior High Annex.

A couple of days had passed since Rarity’s slumber party. Sunset Shimmer was in a good mood for once despite the cold, and walked into the school with a bit of a bounce in her step. She was later than usual due to taking the scenic route through the snow and found her five friends already standing at Pinkie’s locker, which sat across the hall from her own.

“Hey girls!” Sunset greeted them happily. They did not respond. Confused, Sunset tried to spur a conversation. “What’s going… on?” she asked out of curiosity and a mounting concern.

They still did not respond.

Baffled and more than a little worried, Sunset turned around to grab a textbook from her locker, not that it really mattered since she was long past the point where she had to actually attend classes, when she felt a rather hard smack on her back. Turning around, she saw Applejack sporting an severe expression. The other four, still by the lockers, looked just as peeved, except for Pinkie who looked sad with her partly deflated hair, and Fluttershy whose expression gave the impression she had just witnessed someone she cared about die.

“Ow,” Sunset said, sticking her hand under her shirt to rub the sore spot. “What is it, AJ?”

“Sunset, do you… have ya lost your phone recently?” asked Applejack, her tone distinctly accusatory.

“Um… no?,” Sunset replied, mostly sure as she took it out of her bag and showed it. “It’s right here. Why?”

This answer caused Applejack’s expression to harden into anger. “Then ya need to explain this.”

She handed over her own phone, its browser open to the MyStable page where Anon-A-Miss had posted a trove of pictures. Sunset recognized them immediately; they were from the impromptu costume photoshoot at Rarity’s slumber party. All of the silliness of that night laid bare for the public to see. The few pictures with Sunset herself in them were conspicuously absent.

“What?!” she asked, shocked. “How did she get our pictures?”

“These ain’t our pictures, Sunset. They’re yours. All of these photos were taken by you, remember?” Applejack stated matter-of-factly. Both of them knew she was absolutely right.

Sunset’s eyes darted in all directions in vain hope of some sort of salvation that would never come before speaking again. “This… doesn’t make any sense. I’ve had my phone on me the entire time, so how did she…?”

“Yeah, how did she??” Applejack interrupted mockingly, shoving her index finger into Sunset’s sternum, causing Sunset to grunt involuntarily in response. “How’d she know my embarrassing childhood nickname that I only told y’all last Torsdaag? How’d she get the pics from your phone? Even a farm gal like me don’t need a map to figure this one out: You’re Anon-A-Miss!”

Sunset stared at her friends in shock, mouth agape. “W-what?!”

“We trusted you, Sunset! We thought you were our friend!” Rainbow Dash snipped.

“Wait!” Sunset tried to salvage the situation. “I didn’t do this! I would never hurt any of you!”

Rainbow Dash was not through. “But you did! You were only pretending to be our friend so you could find out our secrets and go back to your old tricks, weren’t you? What? Flash Sentry wasn’t a juicy enough target anymore, so you thought you could pull crap to destroy us again and expect us to just take it?!”

Out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie leaned in, pointing at Sunset. “You… you secret stealer!” she near-growled.

“N-no! I… I don’t know how Anon-A-Miss got this stuff, but it wasn’t me! I’m not…” Sunset protested as her eyes started to water.

“You’re not the person we thought you were!” said Fluttershy, her eyes already bloodshot from crying, her expression a whirlwind of emotion.

Then she stopped and looked up as if her train of thought suddenly pulled into the station before continuing, this time with cold precision.

“Actually… no. You ARE the person we thought you WERE. Before. You never reformed, did you? Now that Twilight’s gone, it’s probably easy for you to slip back into being a sneaky bully. I can’t believe I took you at your word when you apologized for harassing me for three years!”

“But I… I…” Sunset felt her throat seize up. Her legs grew weak as Rarity, silent up to this point, approached her. While Rarity’s face initially showed just as much anger as AJ or Rainbow Dash, as she moved closer to Sunset she looked more sad than anything. Instinctively reaching to take Sunset’s hand, she stopped herself and formed a fist instead, bringing it back to her hip.

“Spring Fling, freshman year,” Rarity said quietly, causing Sunset to flinch before staring at her like a cow would stare at an abattoir if it were sapient. “It’s not difficult to notice this feels the same as back then. You told me that Sunset was gone. How… how could you do this? After what we’ve all been through together? After what you and I have been through?”

“I didn’t,” Sunset croaked as her leg strength gave out and she fell to her knees in the middle of the hallway. A crowd of teenagers had gathered round by that point and had heard much of the conversation.

“This is it, Sunset,” Applejack spat, glaring, as she folded her arms. “Far as I can tell, ain’t no other good explanation than ya sold us out. Twilight told us to give ya a chance. We did. You blew it. We’re done. Go on an’ tell whatever secrets ya want. We ain’t gotta listen.”

With that, the five girls all turned on their heels and walked away, leaving Sunset a sobbing wreck as other students glared at her for another minute before dispersing to their own classes.

Over the next week, as the semester rapidly approached its conclusion, Anon-A-Miss continued her reign of humiliation.

Rainbow Dash entered the library to check a book out of the Science section after her less-than-stellar performance on her last Biology exam before the upcoming final, when she noticed several of the Nerd clique huddled around one of the computers giggling. Upon approaching them to see what all the fuss was about, she saw Anon-A-Miss had found her test – marked in red with a large ‘D’ and a note from her teacher Mister Cranky to see him after class. She resisted the urge to pound the weedy geeks through the floor and stormed out of the library in a huff.

Anon-A-Miss had also posted the video of Fluttershy’s impromptu song attempt from the slumber party and labelled it “Fluttershy Singing FAIL!!”. The ensuing laughter from fellow students caused the girl to break down sobbing on the front steps of the school as Pinkie Pie comforted her, trying to remind Fluttershy that she was in fact an excellent singer… when given time to rehearse.

Meanwhile, Applejack continued to be inundated with oinks, calls of her embarrassing nickname, and pictures of pigs. She growled, a tacit admission that it was getting to her.

Rarity had donned a big hat and sunglasses to escape notice, but students found her out as her skin, hair, and the clothes themselves were dead giveaways. They laughed at her anyway, partly from the knowledge that she had been the host, but also for the duckface, leading to quacking from some students. However, the fact that most pictures of her showed her wearing nothing but her strapless nightgown that left little to the imagination led to several boys and some girls calling her a slut and/or whore. Some boys tried to proposition her without success.

Not even popular boy Flash Sentry was immune. Anon-A-Miss insinuated that he was sexually attracted to horses. This was technically true in the broadest sense, given his relationships with Equestrians Sunset and Twilight, but still cruel. He tried his best to ignore it until the jocks wore horse masks.

The five friends would meet up whenever and wherever they could, just to have strength in numbers when facing the crowd, their single thought being:

“What do we do?”

Chapter Six: Meeting in the Hall

Amidst the fallout from Anon-A-Miss’s gossip-mongering stood an unusual, perhaps ironic, circle of calm: Trixie Lulamoon, known throughout the school for her massive ego and delusions of grandeur indicated in part by speaking of herself in the third person, as well her love of watching others suffer. Finding minions to help with her nefarious but ultimately inconsequential deeds, such as the Cow Catastrophe, was easy, but she generally preferred working her magic alone. Also being alone to enjoy her vice, peanut butter, recently banned at CHS due to overblown allergen fears.

This day, Trixie accessed her locker in an empty dead-end hall on the ground floor as the lunch period began in order to put away her morning textbooks, and also to get out her contraband jar of Porter Pann when she heard footsteps stop immediately behind her. She did not turn around, but had a fair idea who her visitor was. Her suspicions were confirmed when the visitor spoke.

“Hello, Trixie,” said Sunset Shimmer, an undercurrent of rage in her voice.

Trixie, not easily intimidated, turned around to face Sunset with a broad, sly grin. “Ah, Sunset. Trix— my lovely ex-comrade,” she said, dropping her pretense but keeping her singsong tone. “How are you today?”

“I’ve been better.”

“Such a pity to hear that,” Trixie said with absolutely no sincerity.

“Can it, Trixie,” Sunset near-growled, her voice as low as she could get it. “I know what you’ve been doing. You’re Anon-A-Miss.”

“Ha!” Trixie could not help but emit a hearty guffaw. “I wish! She’s stirred up this pathetic school more than I ever could! As far as I’m concerned, Anon-A-Miss deserves a medal.”

“The Trixie’s Great And Powerful Commendation for the Dissemination of Chaos and Destruction, bestowed by and upon Trixie,” snipped Sunset.

“As always, you give me far too much credit.” Trixie looked around her to make sure the two of them were the only ones around. Once she had, she turned around on Sunset and pushed her up against a locker. Sunset, clearly used to this, made no expression until Trixie began stroking her cheek.

“You never change,” Sunset said, frowning. “Even back in junior high, you were a massive pain in my flank.”

“Neither do you,” retorted Trixie, “Which is why your entire life here has been a lie. Hasn’t it, Miss Phoenix Rays, my dear tutor? I’m sure you had your reasons for leaving your old job to pose as a high school student, but you’d think someone else besides me would have noticed your little makeover: ditching the deep-red wig, out-of-style clothing, and thick glasses. The other kids here are so… stupid. After all, do pardon me for being five years late on this, there aren’t too many freshman girls in this city who already have these.”

Trixie placed her right hand on Sunset’s large left breast, then ran it down her body, tracing the concave curve of her waist before arriving at Sunset’s hip, then moving it back to rub her butt. Before Sunset could say anything, Trixie moved in and kissed her cheek.

“W-would you stop that!?” Sunset snapped in protest, her cheeks blushing involuntarily.

“Why? It’s not like you’re in any danger of getting fired this time.” Trixie ran her left hand from Sunset’s right hip until it cupped her right breast. She gave it a quick squeeze before turning to pet Sunset’s hair and kissed her cheek. “Besides, it’s not illegal if I do it to you.”

“That’s not how it works. Also, I don’t swing that way, if any way. You know it. Go after a girl your own age and orientation. Please. …And I swear if you lick my face again I’ll punch you,” Sunset said sharply.

Trixie sighed as she extricated herself from Sunset and blupped her tongue back into her mouth. “Well, can’t say I didn’t try my best.”

“If only you’d had that attitude when it came to your schoolwork,” Sunset snarked with a roll of her eyes. “You really could have gotten into Crystal Prep if you’d given half a damn and weren’t, well, you.”

“My point is, Sunset,” Trixie continued, her duller tone indicating she was through playing, “You have more than a few secrets that I know you don’t want revealed. If I’d wanted to destroy you, I could simply tell everyone what I already know. That’s far easier than setting up a fake social media account, stealing and/or hacking your phone twice, and then posting whatever dirt I found. You know me; I always prefer the direct approach.”

“Clearly,” Sunset snarked. “So you’re telling me you don’t know who she is?”

“Why, I had assumed you were,” replied Trixie at maximum smugness. “It’s certainly within your traditional M.O. Let’s see… You tricked your friends, stole their secrets, and posted them on a public forum for everyone to see. All of that after you spent seven weeks gaining their trust. I couldn’t have done it any better for I, I am but the apprentice before you, my master.”

“Except I didn’t…”

Trixie had already turned to walk away, greedily clutching her peanut butter jar while in search of a spoon, but Sunset’s former pupil stopped, fully willing and able to twist the knife one last time.

“Remember what you told me all those years ago when you were still my tutor?” she asked rhetorically. “You said: ‘Facts are facts, but they’re irrelevant in the court of public opinion. Ninety percent of people are idiots who create their own truth regardless of the evidence. So, always question everything. Never trust anyone blindly. If you do, you might get hurt.’ Who would have believed you’d forget your own lesson?”

“I never forgot it, Trixie. I… learned that life can be so much more if you allow.”

“Keep telling yourself that. It’s worked out so well thus far, yes? Ta-ta.”

With a slow wave, Trixie disappeared behind a corner, and Sunset was back to zero in her search for the identity of Anon-A-Miss.

Chapter Seven: Gossip Spreads

On the other side of the school, Rainbow Dash carried her cafeteria tray full of Aristeque Agriculture Department-regulation glop and slammed it down next to Fluttershy, causing Dash’s apple to bounce off the tray and slowly roll off the table.

The sound of the tray startled Fluttershy out of a glum stupor. She warily turned her eyes to look at her friend but did not initiate conversation. Fortunately, Rainbow Dash was in the mood to talk.

“Hey, Fluttershy,” said Rainbow Dash, unable to hide her anger at life.

“H-hey Dash,” Fluttershy stuttered, trying her best to keep her eyes fixed on her tray of glop, watching it jiggle as she poked it with her spoon.

Rainbow Dash proceeded to rant. “Can’t believe it. Y’know that biology pre-final we had last week? The one I bombed? It’s been posted on the Anon-A-Miss page! Now everyone’s calling me a dumbass! I mean, I know I suck at school, and it’s not like my parents would ever be disappointed in me no matter what I do as long as I bring home some dinky trophy for them to coo over. But still!” Her tone softened. “…You still getting teased?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy replied with a melancholic sigh. “I have to run straight to the animal shelter every day the minute school ends. At least the animals won’t make fun of me.”

“Well, at least we’re not the only targets anymore. Take a look.”

Rainbow Dash pointed over to a nearby table where now-former best friends Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were figuratively (and almost literally) at each other’s throats.

“Don’t lie to me!” Diamond Tiara screamed. “You stole my necklace. Anon-A-Miss posted a picture of it. That was a gift from Daddy!”

Silver Spoon rolled her eyes, then shot back, “Why should you care?? You were the one who said it was a crap gift and you didn’t even want it! Besides, it looks better on me anyway!”

A couple tables away, Greensleeves, the Eco-Club President with unkempt dreadlocks and velour beret, angrily shoved a jar full of butterflies at Bulk-Biceps, whose already bone-white skin somehow managed to lose more colour as he backed away in terror, with only a pathetic “Noooo!” as reaction.

Indeed, every single table in the cafeteria seemed to have at least one group arguing about something Anon-A-Miss had posted. Even Vinyl Scratch, the school’s normally unflappable turntable queen, sat alone with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face as Octavia Melody, the school’s cello virtuoso, sat a few feet away, facing the opposite direction but with a near identical expression.

“Seems like she wants to spill everyone’s secrets now,” said Rainbow with an air of resignation.

“Oh my,” was all Fluttershy could say in response to the spectacle.

Just then, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo entered the cafeteria as a group. Rainbow Dash’s and Scootaloo’s eyes met, at which point the latter immediately startled and fast-walked away to contemplate a ripped poster of a taco.

“Jeez. Even the squirt is ashamed of me,” Rainbow Dash said, dejected.

She and Fluttershy watched as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle slowly manoeuvred their way around the cafeteria, Sweetie Belle observing everything with slowly heightening despondence and alarm before Apple Bloom took her wrist and guided her out one of the giant room’s other exit doors, nearly bumping into Rarity in the process, for which they muttered apologies that Rarity ignored as she approached her friends and plopped herself down across from Fluttershy.

“Um…” began Fluttershy tentatively, “You don’t… look good.”

Rarity blinked, slowly. In fact, she did not look good. Her clothes were ruffled, her hair a bit wild, she wore no makeup, her eyes were puffy, she simultaneously looked like she had lost yet gained weight, and so on. When she spoke, there was almost a creakiness to her voice.

“Why should I?” Rarity tried to sound angry but her weariness overpowered it. “No matter what I do, everyone else at this school quacks at me or calls me ugly or… ugh! It really is just like freshman year, except now everyone is getting a big dose of what I was dealt… except my baby sister, thank goodness. Honestly, I don’t know how much longer I can take this.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I haven’t seen this many arguments, this bad, since… well… since before Twilight Sparkle came and set everything straight.”

“I miss her. I wonder where she is. I wish she’d come back,” Fluttershy said so quietly that Rainbow Dash could not hear her and just kept talking.

“All because of Anon-A-Miss. Or, Sunset, I guess.”

Fluttershy turned to face Rainbow Dash, a serious yet sad expression on her face. “Do you really think Sunset Shimmer is Anon-A-Miss?”

Rainbow Dash sat back and thought for about five seconds, quite a while by her standards. “I don’t want to believe it, but… Who else could’ve stolen all our secrets? Besides, like Rarity said, this isn’t too different from the crap she pulled three years ago. You might have had a point with that outburst of yours the other day. She never changed from back then.”

“I know what you mean,” Fluttershy agreed, on the verge of tears. “We let her into our hearts, and then… now… it…” she sniffled.

“She was our friend. More than that, with her around it felt like we had become a sort of family, y’know?”

“Well… family can make mistakes, right?” asked Fluttershy tentatively.

“Maybe, but…” Rainbow Dash said, shaking her head. “I don’t know if you can forgive them.”

Two storeys away from the din of the lunchroom, on the upper mezzanine of the library, under the frosted glass dome, Sunset Shimmer sat on a pile of books she had made into an impromptu day bed and began writing another entry in her beige diary. Through the tears and her arm quivering, she had difficulty writing, but tried her best anyway.

Status Update: Særrajeola XX:
I don’t know what to do…

Chapter Eight: What Do I Do?

Sunset Shimmer, clutching her diary in her arms, walked down the stairs from the library as meekly as she could, hoping other students would not notice her, ducking and weaving through the crowd in a desperate attempt to not make contact with anyone as students dispersed from lunch to afternoon classes. She thought she was through the worst of it, but then someone slammed into her hard enough to knock her to the floor. With a sad grimace, she looked up to find herself facing an angry crowd.

“Who did that?” Sunset asked.

“Maybe it was Anon-A-Miss,” snarked a redheaded boy, rubbing his arm.

“Wait. She knocked herself down?” asked a heavyset lavender-haired girl.

“Why not? Wouldn’t be the first time she’s pulled something like that,” piped in a weedy Science Club boy.

“Anon-A-Miss. Tch. At least back when she was queen of CHS, she had the guts to stab you in the front,” said a curly-haired jock.

“You got me in-school-suspension. Narc,” one of the burnout boys from the Environment Club said to Sunset.

“I can’t believe she did that,” groused a matcha-skinned junior high girl.

As Sunset failed to hold back the tears, the voices became indistinct and intertwined with each other: “Traitor. Bitch. Thief. Ruined my life,” along with occasional mean-spirited encouragement: “Way to go. Keep it up. This shit is gold.” She curled into a fetal position, sobbing as the abuse continued until eventually all the students went their separate ways.

Sunset lay on the floor for a minute, contemplating many things. Then she stood up, dusted herself off, made sure she had all her belongings, then ran towards the school’s recently rebuilt front entrance.

A few yards away, Sunset briefly noticed, partially obscured behind a corner, Apple Bloom watching the spectacle with a look of concern. That was all she could make out before her vision blurred completely. Were the other two there? Probably, but she could not see them and had neither the time nor inclination to check. She needed to get away.

“I really don’t like how this is turning out,” Sweetie Belle whispered as she removed her hands from Apple Bloom’s back.

“Yeah, it’s gone way too far,” said Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo sat along the wall and scratched her head. “Should we just—?”

“No!” cried Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in unison.

“Not yet,” Apple Bloom explained. “Things like this gotta be handled delicately. Or else they’ll get a lot worse.”

“They’re already worse. I want to, but I’m afraid,” Sweetie Belle admitted.

“If we do it, we do it together,” declared Apple Bloom.

“Right,” the other two agreed.

Sunset ran to the front doors, barely aware of anything around her, and promptly smacked into Flash Sentry. Involuntarily they embraced, although once Flash realized who he had kept from falling over, he immediately extricated himself and took two steps back, arms folded, levelling a glare that could melt a steel beam. However, it softened ever-so-slightly when he noticed Sunset’s eyes were bloodshot. Even so, he had a couple of choice words for his ex-girlfriend.

“Horse-lover?” asked Flash pointedly.

Sunset blinked in mild confusion as she looked up, her gesture for trying to work her brain, before eventually answering, “It’s not… incorrect. But, I never—”

Flash held up his hand in the universal gesture of shut up, which Sunset did. “Anon-A-Miss is pretty low even by your standards,” he said. “Also stupid. Why would you go after people like me who know some of your dark secrets?”

Sunset closed her eyes as she shook her head, saying nothing as she turned once again to exit the building.

As she did so, Trixie wandered into the area and immediately fixed her gaze on Sunset’s rear, obviously enough that Flash noticed.

“Ahh…” Trixie sighed. “Trixie hates to see Sunset go, but she loves watching Sunset leave.”

“Get professional help,” was all Flash could say in response as the door shut behind Sunset, a brief gust of cold air the only lingering reminder of her presence.

As a blanket of snow still covered the grass, Sunset kept to the sidewalks. Briefly she stopped at CHS’s iconic horse statue on its marble pedestal that, unbeknownst to most, doubled as a trans-dimensional gateway. She knelt down and pressed her hand against the pedestal’s southern face. Smooth. The portal was still closed. She sighed and slowly got back to her feet and continued on her way.

As she crossed Twelfth Street, heading north to her home, completely without regard to crosswalks or signals, she was nearly flattened by no fewer than two cars. Not that she noticed, or would have cared if she had. Life, to her, was little more than a sick joke with herself as the bad punchline. Sunset, much to her own regret, did not die an ignominious death in the road, so she had no choice but to continue her several-block journey.

Along the pine-slat privacy fences separating people’s yards from the hustle of Harmony Avenue and its cracked sidewalk, Sunset plodded forward, taking a few seconds to glance at the posters plastered every fifteen feet that implored citizens to vote for Orangeglow in the Governor election happening the next summer. All the posters had his grimacing face amidst a background reminiscent of the Aristeque flag. Some additionally had messages about ending ‘handouts’ or deporting ‘illegals’. Sunset scowled at that last one, being an ‘illegal’ herself. But, thanks to years around political leaders, she knew all too well the hypnotic effect of an effective siren song to the ignorant masses. She sighed sadly as she continued towards her home.

A few snow flurries fluttered down from the uniformly light-grey sky, accompanied by a light but chilly breeze from the Nordlein Mountains. She nearly tripped over a fire hydrant in her zoned-out state.

“How come, even here, North means cold?” she asked the hydrant. “Is Aristeque in the northern hemisphere of a planet? I mean, in the decade I’ve lived here, I haven’t heard of any other countries even existing …which does sort of make me imagine the thing about so-called illegals is a personal attack. After all, I’m the only one I know. No one else save Twilight and that dog-dragon of hers has crossed that portal, and they’re gone. Eh, what does it matter? I really don’t care anymore. Try and send me back, and when that doesn’t work hang me from a gallows in Connemara Square or tie me up at Central Station and push me off the platform to get flattened by the Evening Special. Nothing matters.”

The fire hydrant, being a fire hydrant, said nothing.

“You’re connected via a network of water pipes to most of the other hydrants in the city. I’m not connected to anyone or anything,” she explained to the inanimate hunk of metal as she began to walk away from it, still talking.

“I’m literally alone in this world,” she said to the falling snow. “I mean, I always was, but it takes an incident like this to really throw it into sharp relief. Always nice to know where I stand,” she concluded sardonically.

On the other side of the street, she noticed the soaring stone spire of the Harmony Avenue Sun-Kirk topped with its icon: a gilded stylized sun with eight rays atop a tapering pedestal with a cross-beam just below the sun. Despite the near-total lack of actual resemblance, Sunset always associated it in her mind with the Ancient Equestrian symbol The Eye Of Horse, or Wadjet as it was known at the time. She rolled her eyes at the shining topper, speaking to it in her tired and increasingly ragged voice.

“What’s the point in worshipping an invisible deity when I grew up with an entity as close as you can get to the real thing? And even with all the kowtowing by all those sycophants, She isn’t exactly worth worshipping. Unlike any god, She is fallible. After all, She took me in, right?”

The Sun-Pillar glinted in non-response. Sunset ignored it and continued the last couple of blocks to her apartment building, briefly looking over to the parking garage to ensure her motor-scooter had not been stolen.

Once she reached her building, she decided not to take the stairs as usual and instead rode the glitchy elevator up to the fifth floor where she lived, trudged down the hall, unlocked her door, and moped to the bookshelf in her bedroom, where she pulled out a leather-bound book emblazoned with her old cutie mark: a blazing sun where the red and yellow in the middle wrapped around each other to symbolize the duality of her personality and, indeed, her very existence. The book was also incredibly dusty, as if it had not been touched in ten years. Which it hadn’t.

Sunset blew the dust off the page edges, which did little to nothing for the cover, and opened it to one of the earliest pages. The writing on the top quarter of the page was distinctly childish.

Dear Princess Celestia, I don’t understand. Why are the other ponies so mean to me? I never did anything to them but be better at magic. You tell me to make friends, but what if no pony ever wants to be my friend? Will I be alone forever?

The response, which had appeared at the time within just a few minutes in gold-ish regal penmanship, read simply:

Dear Sunset, I am so sorry. It is never easy to lose even potential friends. I wish there was something more I could do to help you. But some journeys must be taken on one’s own. This is one of them. I chose you as my protégée because I have faith you can overcome this. It took me a long time to learn this lesson. I had to learn it more than once, with many regrets in between.

But what if I can’t? How do I do it?

Sometimes, all you can do is stay strong. Remember who you are. And you will find your family.

“Find my family, huh?” Sunset scoffed. Then her eyes lit up.

She pulled out her phone, looked up Anon-A-Miss’s MyStable profile, and began reading entries.

Chapter Nine: Revelation

Sunset Shimmer ran down the sidewalk as the snow began to fall again, trying her best to avoid the drifts that had built up at the corners thanks to the snowplows, and doing slightly less well at avoiding cars as she hurried to the Sugarplum Corner Bakery, where she knew the other five would be; they always met there at this time after school on Mundaag. She carried only her satchel, a special order from one of her first bosses who owed her a favour. It was orange, with one magenta and one yellow stripe on one side.

Inside the bakery, the five girls sat, absolutely glum, slowly nursing some milkshakes Pinkie had nicked for them… except for Rarity, who had ordered a hot chocolate. None of them said a word as the little bell above the door made its adorable ding-a-ling sound. When they turned to see who it was, they found Sunset standing in the doorway, completely out of breath, her hair flecked with snowflakes. They were, to put it mildly, less than thrilled to see her.

“Get out!” yelled Rainbow Dash.

“You ain’t welcome here!” said Applejack, completely disregarding the fact that Sugarplum Corner was open to the public and thus Sunset had a legal right to be there, since she had done nothing to get herself banned.

“No, wait. Please!” Sunset pleaded.

“Why?” Rarity asked, her voice tinged with sad anger.

Sunset, her hand shaking, reached into her purse and pulled out a book. “Look, I know you don’t trust me. A-and I don’t really blame you. I wouldn’t trust me with everything that’s happened. I can’t prove my innocence. But… I just want all of you to look at this. Please.”

She held out the book, which had a fancy blue bookmark placed near the end.

“So what’s this?” Applejack asked, suspicious.

“Remember Pinkie’s slumber party? When I pulled out my diary right as you were going to sleep and you asked about it? Here it is. In a way, it is me, the good and the bad. But what’s important now is everything after that bookmark.”

“And the stuff before it?” Rarity asked.

Sunset sighed. “We all have secrets we don’t want being aired. You all taught me that, via rainbow laser to the face. I’m not comfortable sharing the rest with you just yet. Sorry. I’ll explain, but first, please read.”

The five girls crowded around the decidedly not-magic diary. Fluttershy held it as the others looked over her shoulder, although Rainbow Dash preferred to spend her time shooting nasty glances at Sunset.

Status Update: Særrajeola 11 — Today I was invited to my very first slumber party! This is something I never even got to do back in Equestria, not for lack of trying on Her part. It’s apparently the first in a series to make me feel more at home here and get me acquainted with Aristequen customs. We’re at Pinkie’s place. No pony or humanoid has ever done anything like this for me before. These girls… Twilight was right. They really were what I needed, and I’m so glad they found it in their hearts to take me in. Right now they’ve all passed out from too much pizza and video games, giving me the opportunity to write. This has been such a wonderful experience. I can’t wait for the next get-together at Rarity’s on Sonnendaag. If I ever go back home, I’ll finally be able to tell Her that I made some actual friends like She hoped I would.

Status Update: Særrajeola 14 — My second slumber party and already I feel so much closer to everyone! I haven’t felt this loved, this accepted, in… well… ever! I finally feel like I have a family again. Or, I guess, a real family for the first time, since I never got along with mine. If I could tell the girls one thing it’s this: Without you, I’d be… well, you know what I would be, because you had to put up with me and put me, deservedly, in my place. Anyway, you girls have already conked out again, and I guess should get some sleep too, but before I do, I just want to let you know that I love you all.

Status Update: Særrajeola 16 — I feel like my entire world has shattered again. I’m accused of being Anon-A-Miss. Someone had to have hacked my phone, unless I’m actually a sleepwalker who does evil while asleep. Did that rainbow not successfully kill my demonic half? I’m getting scared. I hope I can figure this out.

Status Update: Særrajeola 19 — This makes no sense. Trixie isn’t Anon-A-Miss. Plus, she made an intelligent point; if she had wanted to ruin me, she could just tell the school my other dark secrets, the ones they don’t know about. I’m starting to be at a loss on how to proceed. Anon-A-Miss keeps going, posting gossip and secrets that there’s no way I could possibly know. The situation at this school is deteriorating before my eyes. It’s not unlike the discord I sowed when I ran the place, which is probably why everyone suspects me. I know I’m innocent, but it’s difficult not to suspect myself. No one will believe I’m not Anon-A-Miss, not even my friends. Former friends now, I guess. I don’t know what to do. Twilight… no. Princess Celestia… help me.

The final entry had teardrop stains. The five girls sat in silence as Sunset began to speak again, her voice quivering. The bell over the door sounded again, but none of them took any notice.

“That’s the story. You know, whether she meant to or not, the Princess reminded me something: You five are more than just my friends; you’re my family. You know me better than anyone… possibly even Her at this point. Ask yourselves: Would the Sunset Shimmer you’ve come to know over these past seven weeks, the real Sunset, the person I am now, would she have done such horrific things?”

Fluttershy, still holding Sunset’s diary, looked up at her. “If… if you’re not Anon-A-Miss, then who is?”

“That’s what I was pondering this weekend,” said Sunset with a sigh as she sat down at the table. She turned to Applejack. “AJ, you said we and your family were the only ones who knew your nickname, right?”

“Yeah,” Applejack said. “But I know my family would never tell. And I trust you fiv— you four.”

Sunset flinched at Applejack’s correction, but decided to keep pressing. Before she could, Rainbow Dash interrupted.

“Maybe someone overheard?”

“Possible,” said Sunset vaguely, in thought, “But that doesn’t explain the party photos. I had my phone with me the entire time after the party.”

“And the only people at the party were us!” Rarity interjected. “Well, you all and my family.”

Sunset’s eyes lit up like a pair of aquamarine beacons. “Your family?! Wait…” She turned to Rainbow. “Dash. Anon-A-Miss posted your bad science test grade, right?”

“Duh,” Rainbow Dash said in response to the obvious.

“Let’s leave aside that Mister Cranky and I don’t get along. Did you have soccer practice the day you got that paper back?”

“It was indoors because of the snow but, uh, yeah,” she confirmed.

“And the junior team was practicing too, right?” Sunset said more as a declarative than as an actual question.

“Well, yeah. They usually do their stuff at the same time as us. It was kinda cramped in that gym but we tried to give each other our space.”

Sunset nodded. She looked at all five girls with a serious expression. “I know who Anon-A-Miss is.”

“Who?” they all asked.

Sunset closed her eyes as she shook her head. “I really don’t want to say this, but it’s—”

“Yeah. It was us,” said Apple Bloom, who had just shuffled into the bakery with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo standing right behind her. All of them wore looks of extreme guilt.

“WHAT?!” every girl except Sunset cried out in absolute shock.

Applejack’s shock quickly turned to anger. “Apple Bloom, how could you?”

Apple Bloom ignored her older sister and approached Sunset. “We didn’t mean for it to go this far, honest!”

“I imagine not,” said Sunset, “but why did you do it at all?”

Apple Bloom turned away looked down at her feet as she spoke. “Well… because a’ you, Sunset.”

Sunset said nothing, but kept her expression neutral in anticipation of whatever the explanation would be.

“Y’see,” Apple Bloom began, “I was jealous that my sister walked out on helpin’ me with my schoolwork with no warning to do stuff with you. It got me real mad, and I wanted to… to make you look bad. So I created the Anon-A-Miss account, made it look like your profile, and posted the story about Applejack. Then I tried to convince everyone you did it.”

Sweetie Belle jumped in next. “After Rarity kicked me out of her room for her slumber party, I chatted online with Apple Bloom, and I felt the same way. I felt like Rarity had put your happiness over her own little sister’s. So after everyone fell asleep, I snuck into her room, took your phone, downloaded all your photos and videos, and spent the next day going through to find the most embarrassing ones to send to Apple Bloom to post.”

“And I stole your test out of your bag. Sorry, Rainbow. As soon as this whole slumber party thing started, you stopped talking to me, and it made me feel like you didn’t care about me anymore,” Scootaloo said. “But then, Anon-A-Miss got out of hand. After we posted what we could about all of you, other students started sending us their own gossip: embarrassing videos, incriminating pictures. We posted everything.”

“We’re so sorry!” Sweetie Belle said, nearly in tears, as she gave Sunset an impromptu hug. “We had no idea it was going to get so bad for you.”

Sunset let out an involuntary “Oof!” as Sweetie had practically leapt at her and nearly knocked her off balance.

“If I’d known what would happen to you, I never would’ve done it,” said Apple Bloom. “I know we prob’ly don’t deserve it, but… can you forgive us?”

Sunset sat down in the closest chair and motioned the young trio to approach her.

“I understand more than anyone what it’s like to feel alone. No one should ever be made to feel that way. And, truth be told, I’m no innocent flower. Personally, I see this as just another stage in my atonement for all the awful things I used to do. If I was beyond reproach, like these five,” she motioned to the others, “then framing me wouldn’t have worked. I’m disappointed in you three, but of course I forgive you. It’d be hypocritical if I didn’t, right?”

Apple Bloom nodded with a sniffle. She then turned to her older sister, whose upset practically radiated in sinews from her body.

Applejack sighed in maximum irritation as she held her forehead. “You girls…”

“Please forgive us, big sis. We’re real sorry!” Apple Bloom pleaded.

“Well, I guess I owe ya that much,” said Applejack. “You are my little sister, after all. And your friends were jus’ backin’ up their friend. I don’t know if we can forget this little incident. But we’ll worry about that later.”

The nine enjoyed desserts in silence.

Epilogue: Happy Holiday

The last days of school passed. Final exams came and went, then suddenly CHS and its partner across the street CJHS were thrust headlong into the holiday break. Teens and adults alike relished the eleven-day vacation, especially with the several inches of snow still on the ground, all the better for playing, though not for driving.

Eventually, the time came for the long-planned get-together at the Apple Family’s farm. Rarity and Sweetie Belle were, as usual, running late. Also contributing to this was that their mother had needed an extra several minutes to warm up the station-wagon that she had left parked outside and thus had to defrost.

Rarity hastily typed out a status update on MyStable to send out to her 2,624 contacts, a number that had jumped since the Anon-A-Miss incident, mostly from boys in neighbouring districts who harboured open crushes on her, as well as a couple of design majors from the city university who felt she would be a good addition to their program. It said, simply, «The holidays are here at last! My most favourite time of the year!»

Once she’d hit ‘Post’, she called out to her little sister, “Sweetie Belle! Are you ready to head out?”

“Yeah!” said Sweetie from the other room with a bit of impatience. “Let’s go!”

As the walked to their mother’s no-longer-frozen car, Sweetie spoke again. “Thanks for inviting me and Scootaloo along with you all even after… what we did.”

“Well, you’ve tried to fix it as best you can,” Rarity said as they got in the car.

Once they were well into the several-mile trip out to the Apples’ farm, Rarity spoke again. “You took down Anon-A-Miss’s profile, you confessed your actions to Principal Celestia, you apologized to the other students you hurt…”

“…and we’re banned from the internet, being moved to separate classes, and we all have detention for the rest of the year!” Sweetie said sadly.

“Sweetie, you should consider yourself lucky the punishment wasn’t worse. The three of you could easily have been expelled over this. I don’t know how or why Sunset has such pull with the faculty, but she spoke to them for just five minutes and kept you all in school. You owe her a lot.”

“Yeah, I know. But… all the stuff that Anon-A-Miss put out there is still out there. We can’t take that back.”

“No, you can’t. But you’ve tried, and put in your best effort to do so, and that’s what counts in this sort of situation. I think we’ll be okay, even if a few of our secrets are out,” Rarity said as she put her hand on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder.

“I guess…”

“And I suppose Applejack and I owe our little sisters an apology as well. We never meant to make either of you or Scootaloo feel left out. We shouldn’t have made you feel alone. It took Anon-A-Miss for us to understand how you all felt… and how Sunset felt before she met us.”

They finally reached the Apples’ main residence, close to the road but surrounded on three sides by a hundred acres or more of (snow covered) fields and orchards. In the driveway sat an old beat-up green truck, multiple sets of tire tracks from where the other girls had already been dropped off by their families, and a purple moped. Applejack and Apple Bloom had the front door open and greeted them, handing them hot chocolate with marshmallows as soon as they crossed the threshold. Inside, everyone else had already gathered and were chatting amongst themselves, having a grand old time. Granny Smith had baked a massive platter of cookies and applesauce muffins, which all her young guests happily devoured. Even the health-conscious Fluttershy helped herself to a couple of treats.

Sweetie Belle quickly joined her best friends, all of them knowing it was probably the last time they would be allowed to see each other for at least five months.

After saying her greetings and peace with everyone, Sunset broke off from the rest of the group and sat alone by an out-of-the-way window facing the pasture as she watched the snow fall. Rarity approached her, followed quickly by Applejack.

“I just… really want to thank you two for making all this happen,” Sunset said with a slight catch in her throat.

“And I need to thank you for saving our sisters,” said Rarity.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Sunset retorted. “I want to believe any of you would do the same for me. At least now that you know I never lied.”

“Sugarplum,” Applejack said as she placed her hand on Sunset’s shoulder, “Of course we would. After all, you’re part of our (non-kin) family now. And y’know what I love about family?”

“What’s that?” Sunset and Rarity both asked.

Applejack smiled as big as she could as she answered. “No matter how big it gets, there’s always room for more!”

Sunset nodded slowly. “I think I’m starting to understand.”

“Good,” Rarity said. “Now come on, dear. Let’s go back and join the others. After all, the night is still young, and it’s much warmer by the hearth.”

“Fair enough,” said Sunset as she pulled herself away from the window.

The three girls joined the gaggle in the living room in front of the fire just as Granny Smith began to tell one of the traditional Apple Family legends.

Author's Note

Please Read Me

Chapter Four: Second Slumber Party

A couple of days had passed since Anon-A-Miss had appeared on the scene, but the mysterious account had not updated in the meantime. Applejack stood on the side of the road near a crosswalk as the snow began to fall again, mulling over recent events in her head, including Apple Bloom’s bizarre accusatory warning. Before her brain could make any headway on these thoughts, she was knocked out of them by a horn honking. A purple car with slightly tinted windows pulled up next to her. The back door opened to reveal Rarity, acting for all intents and purposes like a limousine passenger, even though the ‘chauffeur’ was just her mother.

“Get in, Applejack!” Rarity called out. “We’re going slumber partying!”

Applejack gladly complied. “Thanks for the ride, Rarity,” she said as she sat and fastened her seatbelt.

“Not a problem, dear! I’m glad you were able to come!”

“Well, ain’t much you can do on a farm during the winter besides keepin’ livestock fed,” said Applejack in an exhausted tone that was clearly not a product of farm work. “Besides, it’s been rough. It’ll be good to relax.”

“Are people still… making fun of you?” Rarity asked, her face lined with concern.

“Oh yeah. I get oinked at in every class,” said Applejack bitterly.

“I’m so sorry,” Rarity said as she tried to console her friend.

Applejack opted, as was her wont, to put on a brave face. “Well, phooey to them! I don’t care about a buncha names! Let’s just get our party on!”

“Sounds good to me!” said Rarity with a big smile.

After driving a few miles west from the centre of the city into the upper-middle-class neighbourhood of Geldingsmond, they reached Rarity’s house, a smart two-storey wood-framed family home with large windows, a two-car garage, and a white picket fence. They noticed another car, a smaller sportier coupe, sitting in the driveway.

“Ah! Father’s home,” said Rarity. “That means Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are already here!”

“What about Pinkie? And Sunset… y’know, the reason we’re doin’ this?”

“Maud told me she would ferry Pinkie here once she had completed her day’s research… whatever that means, so she may be here too. Sunset assured me she has her own ride but might be late due to the road conditions,” Rarity explained.

“Fair enough,” replied Applejack as they entered the house.

Rarity’s father nodded at them briefly before rushing out the door to join his wife. Then they peeled off to enjoy a night on the town, and perhaps a burrito. Rarity made her way up the carpeted staircase and turned left down the hall before reaching the final door on the right: her room. She opened her door with all the subtlety of a tornado siren.

“Hello, girls!” said Rarity with an ostentatious wave.

“ ‘Sup?” replied Rainbow Dash.

Rarity sauntered into her own bedroom as a diva would own a stage, with Applejack following behind like the unassuming lackey or interviewer. The room was in many ways part workshop, a miniature version of the dress shop where she worked part time doing alterations. Two dressmaker’s dummies were situated along one wall in between a vanity and a five foot tall oval mirror abutting a raised purple platform for modelling. In the middle of the room, done up mostly in blues and purples, was a circular magenta rug. Tucked away in a corner, all the better for making room for crafting, was Rarity’s high-post bed, covered unsurprisingly with the fanciest and softest looking covers and pillows in existence.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy sat facing Rarity’s bed, on which lay Sweetie Belle, stomach-side down, head propped up, stocking feet sticking up slowly swaying. A neutral observer would conclude the three were having a nice casual chat, ignoring their age difference. Rarity, however, was not a neutral observer, and immediately pursed her lips in annoyance.

“We were just talking with Sweetie Belle,” Fluttershy explained. “She was just about to tell us what she and her friends have been up to.”

Rarity and Sweetie Belle locked glances. Sweetie attempted an innocent smile in hopes of being able to continue the conversation. It did not work, as Rarity forcibly moved her off the bed and led her to the door.

“Yes, well, I’m sure you’ve been lovely, Sweetie,” Rarity said as she continued to nudge her sister out. “But isn’t it almost your bedtime?”

“What?! Hey!” Sweetie Belle said. “No it’s not! I haven’t even had dinner yet!”

“Come on, little sister. It’s time for your big sister and her friends to spend time together!” Rarity said as she started pushing Sweetie nearer the threshold.

“Aw, c’mon! I can be cool!” Sweetie protested.

“Maybe when you’ve grown a bit. Goodbye,” said Rarity as she shoved her little sister out the door and locked it behind her.

“Uh, Rarity? Don’t you think that was a little mean?” Fluttershy asked. “She wasn’t harming anything.”

“She can be such a little pill sometimes, that Sweetie Belle. Always wanting to sit at the proverbial big kids’ table and horn in on my private time,” explained Rarity without apology. “Well, maybe I’ll make it up to her later.”

“So,” said Rainbow Dash, “Now that you’ve kicked Sweetie out, what do we do?”

“I’ll tell you what we do!” Pinkie Pie said as she popped up from out of nowhere, clad in a druid’s robe and holding a candle, a wild look in her eyes. “It’s time for ghost stories! I got some super-creepy tales lined up!”

Rarity shrank back, partly from the surprise but partly from her clear distaste for scary things. At this point, Sunset Shimmer casually entered the bedroom, hanging her riding helmet on a coat-rack near the door. No one questioned how she had picked the lock.

“Oh?” Sunset asked Pinkie with a sly grin. “You know, Pinkie, if you want weird stories about infernal beings from another world, I could just tell you about my foalhood in Stalliongrad or, maybe, that book about the Wendigoes I had to study for Ancient Equestrian history.”

“Really?” said Rainbow Dash, taking the bait.

Sunset smiled somewhat evilly, not unlike her standard expression prior to the Fall Formal Incident, only this time with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Imagine, if you will, a type of wraith that you can’t see except maybe out of the corner of your eye if you’re lucky, that both rides upon the wind and creates it, colder than the coldest night, feeding off of distrust and discord, turning everything they come in contact with into solid ice. And you don’t even realize it until you look down, and see your hoov— uh, feet, frozen fast to the ground as the ice slowly makes its way up your body, into your body, freezing your blood, eventually cutting off your ability to scr—”

“C-can we please talk about something else?” Fluttershy pleaded.

“Sure,” Sunset said with a chuckle as she put her hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean to scare you too badly. You all right?”

Fluttershy nodded with a sniff.

Just then, Rarity’s cellphone buzzed with notification of a text message: nothing but an emoticon of an angry face sticking out its tongue. She let out an exasperated, ostentatious sigh. “Sweetie Belle is still upset I kicked her out.”

“What?” Sunset asked. “That seems kind of harsh. Sweetie’s a good kid. Well, she seems to be; I don’t know her that well yet.”

“Yes,” Rarity said carefully, “but this party is your time. Not hers. I’ll make it up to her somehow later. For now, let us party, shall we?”

It did not take long for the six girls to change into their pyjamas and lower their inhibitions. Pinkie Pie stood on Rarity’s bed, grabbed one of her hairbrushes, and began singing into it as if it was a stage microphone. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash joined in. Applejack and Rarity sat at the corner watching the spectacle, bemused. Sunset, standing in front of the table, initially cocked her head in confusion. The song sounded vaguely familiar but she could not quite place it. She then pulled out her cellphone and pointed it at the caterwauling trio.

“Are you recording them?” asked Rarity with a mild degree of surprise.

“Yep!” Sunset replied, not facing her and trying to keep as still as possible. “I want to capture the memories. I don’t have very many good ones. Besides, my phone is paid up for once. May as well take advantage of it.”

As the song wrapped up, Pinkie suddenly screamed “STAGE DIVE!!” and leapt at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, who naturally ducked the hell out of the way. Pinkie smacked into the floor with enough momentum to send her tumbling towards Rarity’s closet, smashing through the lightweight purple wooden door in the process. After a moment of deadly silence during which the other girls ran through the kicked-up dust to what was left of the door to check if she was okay, Pinkie emerged from the hole she had made with several ties, socks, and sundry clothing accessories clinging to her.

“I guess *koff!* that works better when there’s an actual stage,” Pinkie said weakly.

“And a proper audience,” Sunset added as she attempted to help Pinkie up.

“So,” said Rarity, eyes narrowed, arms crossed, “How many doors does this make this that you’ve destroyed via dancing? Six?”

“Nope. Twelve,” Pinkie admitted, her tone wavering but not belying an ounce of regret.

“So, Rarity, what exactly is that closet?” asked Fluttershy, squatting down to look in the hole.

Rarity sighed. “Oh, it’s just my Closet Of Shame. It’s where I put the outfits I make or buy that turn out to be horrible.” She held up a giant pink feather boa. “From time to time, I clean it out and donate everything to a clothing drive. I should probably do so again before the new year. Apparently it helps my parents on their taxes or something.”

“Charitable deductions,” Sunset mumbled with a nod.

“What are you talking about?!” Pinkie near-screamed, suddenly clad in a formal-looking outfit that made her look like a magician, including top hat. “This stuff is great!”

“What.” Rarity said flatly, just before Pinkie grabbed her and pulled her to her side.

“It’s the perfect material for outrageous selfies! CHEESE!!” Pinkie cried out as she held up her cellphone and pressed the take-a-photo button, forever immortalizing herself in prestidigitation getup sporting a beaming smile, holding a thoroughly freaked-out Rarity clad in a pink nightie.

During this time, the other four had chosen outfits from the closet to wear. Sunset had chosen a loose rose sweater with loose blue belts, blue leggings, and light pink legwarmers. “These are pretty funky clothes by your standards, Rarity,” Sunset said. “I mean, this sort of outfit hasn’t been in style since… I first arrived here,” she mumbled more quietly to herself.

“Yeah, I mean, check me out!” Rainbow Dash said with more than a little enthusiasm. She had dressed herself up in a suit with ultra-frilly undershirt with similarly frilly cravat and bright red platform shoes with spikes on the bottom, adopting the look of a particularly coked-out glam rocker.

Rarity gave in. “Well… feel free to try them on, I suppose.”

How or why Rarity ended up with these clothes, she was unwilling to say other than the occasional protestation of “I was going through a phase!” or something similar.

What ensued was no less than the most insane impromptu costume shoot Canterville had never seen, courtesy of Sunset’s camera, as Sunset already had it ready and had by far the most space to spare due to her lack of social life before this week.

One photo was of Pinkie wearing an extremely loose yellow with blue flowers nightgown that bore a striking resemblance to a clown suit. She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue as Sunset’s phone made the camera shutter click sound. Rainbow Dash, still wearing her glam rocker garb, found a cheap microphone she could use and, standing under the glow of Rarity’s 150w mirror lights, pretended to sing some bizarre song about flying through the stars that she clearly could not remember half the words to. Applejack found some a ripped black shirt and ripped acid-washed jeans, along with some red bandanas, and decided to pretend to be a punk rocker; she wanted to pose with a guitar, but she had not brought her bass and the only thing Rarity had was one of those video game controllers that was made to look like one. More specifically, it was Sweetie Belle’s. Sunset drew the short straw and was forced to go to the younger girl’s room and requisition it.

“Seriously? You all kicked me out of Rarity’s room, and now you want to take my Guitar Heroine controller for some dumb pictures??” Sweetie Belle whined.

Sunset held up her hand in apology. “Sorry, Sweetie. I didn’t want to be the one to do this. Plus, um, you’re not using it right now.”

“And you still won’t let me join you all?” asked Sweetie, obviously upset.

“That was Rarity’s decision. Her room, her rules, I guess. Besides, it’s getting crazy in there.”

“Yeah. I can hear all the fun I’m not having,” Sweetie groused.

“The point is anything could happen in there at this point. I don’t want you or me or Rarity getting in trouble if your parents come back and discover we let you defy some sort of house rule,” Sunset attempted to explain, though Sweetie’s frown made it clear she wasn’t buying it.

“Here,” Sweetie snipped as she shoved the guitar controller into Sunset’s chest. “Now get out.”

Sunset did so. Once she made it across the hall to Rarity’s room, Applejack took the ‘guitar’ and the impromptu photoshoot continued in earnest. She tried her best to look like a hard-living rocker, but the plastic guitar made the scene a little pathetic, though still neat. Rainbow Dash, in the meantime, had put on a different, less-gaudy suit and pretended to be a vampire stalking Fluttershy. Sunset’s photo had the ‘terrified’ Fluttershy in the foreground cut off by the side of the frame while Count Dashula leapt for the girl’s thin yellow neck. Shortly thereafter, Fluttershy posed for a picture of herself wearing an old-fashioned workaday suit and fedora, the suspenders and oversized trousers making her look not unlike a hobo clown, albeit one with bite marks on her neck. Rarity herself eventually consented to being photographed wearing the feather boa around her dark pink nightie, but gave the camera a full duckface in mild protest of her closet being raided; she still pulled off her trademark ‘fabulosity’ in spite of that.

Finally, Sunset decided to get in on the action as well. Her first foray was with Applejack and Rainbow Dash; AJ dressed up as what she believed to be a hippie, giving a peace sign with a green and orange striped tie tied around her head, while Dash donned an orange sweater and big glasses that made her look like that one smart girl from that cartoon with the talking dog she often watched. Sunset herself put on a brown full suit with matching top hat and red bowtie; just before clicking the shutter button, she remarked she liked how it made her look like a ringmaster or MC.

The constant changing of clothes and other sundry insanity had begun to wear the girls down, but they all agreed there needed to be at least one shot of all six of them. Rarity held Sunset’s camera as everyone wore their last costumes for the group shot. Rarity still tried to maintain what dignity she had left by just adding the feather boa again; Pinkie wore the laughably out of style pink sweater and leggings Sunset had found, although it was even looser on Pinkie due to her noticeably lesser curves, and she had positioned herself so close to the camera that the costume was not even visible in the final shot; Rainbow Dash wore the brown MC jacket but supplemented it with an eye-visor clearly inspired by one of those science fiction television programs; Fluttershy had found the fluffiest, light-pinkest outfit imaginable (complete with puffy hat!) and wore that, making her look like one of those glamorous old-time movie stars; Applejack, already tired, wore nothing special except for a pair of dark-tinted horn-rimmed sunglasses she’d nicked from Fluttershy’s outfit; Sunset had discovered a costume that made her look like a stereotypical detective along with a magnifying glass – not unlike the hero of the mystery series she liked reading as a filly, Sheerluck Pones.

“All right. Say ‘Cheese’, everyone!” Rarity said. They did, she clicked the button on Sunset’s phone, and their moment of fun camaraderie was forever captured.

Almost immediately, it felt like something had been unplugged. The girls placed all the clothes in a pile outside Rarity’s now-broken closet door. Then, many of them yawning, they made their way towards their designated sleeping areas and, once the lights were turned off, essentially collapsed into contented sleep.

Except for Sunset. As the girls slept around her, she figured the light of the full moon streaming in through the window was sufficient for what she needed. She pulled out her diary, yes it was just enough, and began to write:

Status Update: Særrajeola 14…