Diaries of the Anonymous Filly

So as it turns out, ever since Twilight's rainbow laser of friendship during her first visit here, people who've been exposed to Equestrian magic seem to, for unknown reasons, randomly undergo a process this group has started calling 'Ponying Up'. Sounds made up as fuck, but the video footage of green horse-ears appearing in my hair speaks for itself. Given that they all describe it as happening in relation to music or extreme enthusiasm, I'd be inclined to think that it's some sort of magic manifestation, not unlike when Aunt Twilight turns into the Pony Torch. Some spin-off of a heartsong maybe?

The fact that these five are imbued with magic and have these manifestations tells me that this world must have some magic. Even if they don't have a way of intentionally and actively channelling it, just knowing it's here and functional could be useful. Wonder if I can utilise it here through the use of runic magic? I felt myself beginning to smile as I finished off what was left of my coffee. If Anon-a-Miss won't out themselves, I might be able to get Twilight to translate something like Zone of Truth into a Weaved Spiral runic spell and send it through the book. It's already an all-in ruse I plan on employing, but I don't think that Anon-a-Miss has the cards necessary to beat a hand like that.

"Ya know, Ah was happy fer the silence," Applejack said with a sigh, "but the way she just started smilin' is really startin' ta give me the willies."

I bit my lip and started pulling on my cloak. "Just thinking about work," I murmured. Glancing at the clock and then Fluttershy, I added, "I've got some things I need to take care of on my own. I'll still shadow your other classes this afternoon, but in the meantime, I'll be in the library. If I'm not there, I'll be at the office."

"Work?" Pinkie almost shouted. "You just said you were eight!"

Rainbow Dash spoke up before I could answer. For a moment, I thought she was even about to blab that I was gonna be looking into Anon-a-Miss, but then she went and said, "I think she's talking about something she was doing for Twilight."

I shrugged. "You can explain that to the other four when you're sure it's just the five of you," I said in a serious tone, picking up my bag. "And that's only sorta what I meant. It had more to do with the revelation that magic works in this world." Before the five teens could say anything more, I took my tray, dumped the trash from it, and then set it aside. Once that was done, I was off navigating the school's halls in search of the library.

The vibe in the school seemed to differ as the day went on. I could hear whispering when they thought I wasn't close enough to hear. Something had changed, even since Rarity had shown me the footage of me magically sprouting pony ears. Had someone overheard my 'story' and already submitted something? Had someone commented something that was riling people up? I already intended to check out what was happening on the blog.

When I entered the library, I was reminded of photographs Twilight and Spike kept of their old home—Ponyville's destroyed library. There were a lot of similarities. In the middle of the main area was a ring of computer desks set up around the bust of a horse's head. Bookshelves ringed the outer perimeter, breaking off into stacks on its upper and lower levels. There was even a check-in/check-out desk at the front.

Miss Cheerilee—or at least a woman who looked just like her—was lecturing a familiar trio of girls at one of the computer desks when I entered; apparently, they were being a bit too loud while editing a video. Just as she was telling them to pack their shit to get out, however, she was interrupted by the bell. It didn't take long for them to pack up and take off.

What's with those looks? I thought as the three girls passed me. There was a cocktail of emotions radiating from them when they looked at me. Suspicion, curiosity, fear... There was something else, but I couldn't identify it among everything else in the school. It felt like I should know it, though. It felt like I should know them, too, but for whatever reason, my brain couldn't—or wouldn't—make the connection.

Once they were out, I took my bag over and set it at one of the computer stations on the side of the circle opposite of the doors. Shortly after, I draped my cloak over the back of the chair. I didn't immediately sit down, though. Under the watchful eye of Cheerilee—Did she double as the librarian, or did she just not have a class right now?—I browsed the stacks closest the computers, checking for any other guests.

Once I was sure that nobody else was present, I approached the woman. Holding out my hand, I smiled at her. "Did Miss Luna get in touch?" I asked. It took her a moment to accept my hand and shook it. "You know why I'm here?"

She nodded, glancing at the door and then the computer those three girls had been at. "This goes against so many of our library social media policies, but this has to stop," was her response. "Several of my students have disclosed that they don't feel safe here anymore, and more than a few have been going into the stacks to cry. If this isn't resolved by the new year, I imagine many parents will be pulling their children out of CHS."

I sighed, shaking my head. "Here's hoping my gamble works, then," I grumbled. "I've gotta bait a trap and do some snooping, but in the meantime, can you recommend a free online mail service?"

After pointing me over to a certain service, and showing me a few helpful hotkeys and browser features, she left me to my devices. I was grateful for the help. For all the times I'd been to a library back on Earth, I'd never had much instruction on how to use a computer; a young person asking for help using a computer was apparently some kind of 'trick' or I was intentionally wasting their times. Even when I'd use my co-worker's gaming laptop on the boat, it was only the basic 'This does this, don't go to weird sites, and don't go snooping'.

The first thing I needed to do was get an email set up, but it was easier said than done. Anonymous was a straight-up no-go; MailCavalry wouldn't allow it, and I wasn't exactly sure I wanted to try variations. Another problem was that I didn't want to do anything relating to Emerald Flicker more than I had to. It was bad enough that a dead girl's name was probably getting drug through the mud.

Hmm... An idea crossed my mind. I let my fingertips dance across the keyboard, filling out a name. PointNemo@MailCavalry.net is available. Perfect. If I can't be Anonymous, I can use my old name and the most isolated place on Earth. Suitable alias for the most isolated pony on this planet at the moment. Filling out a suitable password, I completed the account registration process and was brought to my inbox.

Opening up a new tab, I typed in MyStable in the address bar. Thankfully, it was apparently visited so frequently on these machines—despite apparentsocial media policies—that the address was offered in a suggestion; I was expecting to have to find it by search engine. I navigated my way through the account creation screens, and soon, a profile for Point Nemo was created, sans any personal details like age, sex, or location. Then, it was back to the inbox tab to verify the account.

Anon-a-Miss's profile wasn't my next stop, however; first, I needed a bit of information. Somebody had submitted video of me without their name showing up, so surely it wasn't something too difficult to achieve. A third tab open, I began my search. 'Nameless MyStable profile' was my first search through the address bar. It brought me to a search engine called JourneyMommy, but it just left me with several indexed profiles of people whose names contained Nameless. God, there are more people just as bad as my sperm donor.

'Hide your identity on MyStable' had a few more likely results and even gave me a good hint on the second page. Apparently, if you set your display name to something in a 'character set' that MyStable doesn't support properly, it will accept the change, but just leave a null space where your profile name should be in comments and messages. Apparently, the Neighponese and Xiaoma alphabets were popular choices.

Since I look like something out of one of Evening Script's manega, why not use that? A quick look-up told me that Neighponese had three character sets, but one was pretty much reserved for writing out foreign words. Shortly after that, I found a tool that would take an input and convert it to that alphabet, or it's closest phonetic approximation. I could just be lazy and plug in my name, but where's the fun in that?

I translated my chosen input and copied it to the clipboard before switching back to the MyStable tab. I went to my profile settings, and emptied the display name field. Hitting the paste hotkey, my display name became 'ジャスティスフォーサンセットシマー'— Justice for Sunset Shimmer—for a short time. Once I hit save changes, it took me back to my profile page. Sure enough, the name space was blank when it loaded.

Near the top of the page, there was a search bar. I plugged Anon-a-Miss into that, and immediately I was brought to the profile page, complete with the avatar blown up. A frown creased my face as I internally facepalmed. Seriously? They even used Sunset Shimmer's silhouette in addition to her colours. People just went with it, and accepted it for what it was. Disgusting.

Clicking Send Private Message brought me to a new page where there was a space for a subject line, and then a space beneath for a message. I simply wrote 'Emerald Flicker' tip in the subject space. The message was a bit harder. My first thought was to frame it as though I was one of Twilight's five friends, submitting a comment because of 'something Emerald had told us'. No, I don't want to risk getting them at each other's throats if Twilight spent so much effort getting them back together.

'I overheard the being calling themselves Emerald Flicker talking to Rainbow Dash and her friends at lunch,' I wrote, deciding on taking the 'concerned citizen' route. 'I made this dummy account because I don't want Rainbow to find out I'm telling you all this; I'm pretty sure she'll do something like hit me if she did, but I gotta share this. Emerald said she used to be a guy in his twenties before becoming a pony. They were in the showers with us just this morning! I feel so violated!'

I clicked send, and when I was taken back to Anon-a-Miss's profile, I leaned back in my chair. Alright, 'Anon-a-Miss', the hands have been dealt. There's a two of diamonds, a five of diamonds, and a seven of spades on the flop, a six of diamonds on the turn, and a king of hearts on the river. And I know you've been dealt a two of clubs, and a two of hearts because I've stacked the deck. I thought to myself, imagining I held a three of diamonds and a four of diamonds in my hand. I've just gone all-in. You still have the opportunity to fold and retire, keep what little chips you have left, or you can go all-in on this farce too. What'll it be?

The account still showed as offline, so a response wasn't forthcoming. Probably someone here at the school after all. I still had plenty of time before this period was set to end, so I decided to get some other snooping done. Who was it that they said was on the yearbook committee?

I plugged the name I thought sounded right into the search bar and hit enter. The profile of 'Wallflower Blush' popped up, and sure enough she was a student here at CHS. Kinda mousy looking, but she's green like me, which is neat. It even said that she was online right now. There was even a chat option available here.

___: Miss Blush, Principal Celestia advised me that you're on the CHS yearbook committee, and if I had to guess, you know the student body quite well. I'm investigating Anon-a-Miss on behalf of several interested parties, and I was wondering if you could answer a few questions.

Wallflower Blush: I'm in class right now; can this wait?

___: Perhaps. That said, I'm trying to defuse this before anybody gets any more hurt than they already have.

Wallflower Blush: *sigh* Fine; teachers never notice me anyway. What do you want to know?

___: How would you describe Sunset Shimmer before the fall formal?

There was a pause while a chat bubble filled with a bouncing ellipses occupied her side of the chat screen. It was like that for several minutes; whatever she had to say, it was a lot of text, or it might have just been that she was typing on a phone. Wonder what she has to say.

Wallflower Blush: She was a total bully, but she was smart about it. She cunningly manipulated, threatened, and blackmailed to keep people out of her way, and from getting on her level. She covered her tracks, though; if she could help it, Sunset never did anything that could be traced back to her. Never resorted to violence, she never crossed certain lines, and she never did anything that wasn't of some benefit to her.

___: Certain lines?

Wallflower Blush: She never targeted students over their age, sex, gender identity, religion, or orientation. It didn't matter if it made them an easier target; up until she blew up the front of the school at the Fall Formal, she also never did anything that could be considered dangerous, put lives at risk, or would normally get the police involved.

That seemed like really important information that a lot of people were overlooking. After all, Anon-a-Miss recently outed a lesbian couple. That sounded pretty fucking dangerous to me. Depending on where you were back on Earth, that sort of thing could get someone killed because it was 'unnatural' or 'against God'. At the very least, that sort of thing didn't seem universally accepted here, based on Roseluck's outburst this morning.

___: So you don't believe Sunset is Anon-a-Miss?

Wallflower Blush: No. As much as I hate her for everything she pulled over the years... and for how quickly she was able to win everyone over after the Sirens... she was turning herself around. I can't see her doing any of this now when it serves no purpose.

___: Besides most of the student body, can you think of anybody specific who might have a vendetta, but might not have been as familiar with her methods?

Wallflower Blush: I'd look at the kids in the middle school program. Even if she didn't really target them, they've all probably been told stories of her reign of terror from their friends and family, or witnessed the results.
Wallflower Blush: Look, I gotta go. Teacher's actually starting to notice for a change. Lucky me.

Closing the chat, I navigated my way back to Anon-a-Miss's profile. Upon the change of the page, I saw a notification that I had a new private message waiting. There was a response that said simply, 'That's so gross; thanks for the info!' On Anon-a-Miss's profile, there was already a new post. That didn't take them long, although I'd been chatting with Wallflower for quite a few minutes.

Posted by:
Anon-a-Miss five minutes ago.
This just in! Someone who wished to remain anonymous sent in this juicy tip. She said she overheard our otherworldly Emerald at lunch saying she used to be a dude before she became a pony! How gross is that?
Lightning Dust: You gotta be ****ing kidding! That tranny was in the locker room with us, and saw several of us naked!
Spitfire: Hey, cut that out Lightning! That crap isn't cool!
Snips: So jealous!
Diamond Tiara: Gross!

I blinked. Wow, I thought to myself as more and more comments popped up in rapid succession. Hitting the log out button on MyStable and closing the tab, I marvelled at how well that'd gone. As I logged out of the email tab, I couldn't help but shake my head. Looks like they're all-in. They're so fucked, and they don't even know it. Now it's time for Celestia and Luna to call for us to show our hands.

Since I wasn't feeling as cold anymore, I packed my cloak away into my bag, and slung one strap over my shoulder. "Right, that should be everything," I said aloud to myself. Turning to regard my teacher's counterpart as I walked to the door, I smiled. "Thanks for letting me do this, Miss Cheerilee." The woman looked surprised as I exited the library. After all, she hadn't actually told me her name, and that fact was probably only just setting in.

The halls were barren as I started to make my way over to the principal's office once more. It was honestly kinda fucking eerie given that it had been so much more lively when I slunk off at the end of lunch to set my plan into action. Oh the lack of staring eyes was nice, but the emptiness was unnerving. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I'd purposely painted a target on my back?

I'm just being paranoid. It's a school, kids are in class. Nothing sinister is happening.

I was maybe ten metres down the hall from the library door when I heard the squeak of shoes on the floor tiles behind me. Someone was running, and they were moving at a fair clip. I moved as close to the nearest row of lockers as I could in order to stay out of the way. Turning around and looking sooner might've saved me a metaphorical and literal headache, as I would've had time to dodge.

As I finally turned to regard whoever was running in the halls, I realised my mistake. The last thing I saw was a turquoise fist flying at me, accompanied by a shouted, "Fuck off and die, pervert!"

~ 24 ~

An unfamiliar ceiling swam into focus, at least as in-focus as anything can get with my ruined eyes, and it felt like somebody was dancing along to the pony polka inside my fucking skull. I tried to sit up, but my entire body was unsteady, and my lower back on my right side was killing me. The only thing the action rewarded me with was a wave of nausea.

"Where..." I murmured, rolling onto my side. Things weren't coming any more into focus, and I realised that I wasn't wearing my glasses. "What happened?"

A familiar voice greeted me, although it was hard to focus on it over the pounding in my skull. "I was hoping you could answer that question," said Nurse Redheart as she stepped into view. Why's she a monkey though. "You were found unconscious near the library a few minutes ago. How do you feel?"

I struggled to focus on her face. "Like ponies are going to start talking if we keep seeing each other like this." I brought a hand—Not a hoof?—to my cheek, and winced as I felt the welt forming there. "My head is killing me."

She sat down on the foot of the bed with a clipboard and a pen. "You may have a concussion," she said in a quiet voice. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" It was hard to shake my head without rubbing the welt on my left cheek into the pillow beneath my head. "Right, can you tell me your name?"

"Anonymous Flicker," I replied instantly. After a moment, I blinked. Wait, is it? "That doesn't sound right, but... I also don't hate it. Seems like a lot of ponies with marks for magic have two names."

Shaking her head, she jotted down a note on that chart of hers. "Let's try focusing on a different question," she said after staring at me for a few moments. I couldn't make out her expression at distance, but she seemed just as confused as I felt. "Can you tell me the date?"

I had to think about that one for a moment. Oh, right. I'm not in Equestria right now."Um... The seventh of October, last time I saw a calendar, but I think time works differently here?" I struggled to remember what Celestia said. "I think Princess Celestia told me it was the Nineteenth of December here."

She scribbled some more notes down. "And do you recall what were you doing before you lost consciousness?" she finally asked. "There's no wrong answer, dear."

What was I doing? "I remember I was in the library, doing my part in setting a trap for Anon-a-Miss," I said after a moment of reflection. "I think they took the bait, but after that... I don't remember leaving the library."

"So you didn't see who hit you then," she said. When I shook my head, she sighed. "You were found unconscious down the hall from the library. You hadn't even been gone two minutes, according to Miss Cheerilee. On top of the mark where you were hit in the face, someone kicked you in your lower back, so if you find blood in your urine later, it's most likely nothing to be alarmed about. Other than that, you seem to have only a mild concussion."

Lovely, I thought to myself as my stomach churned once more. Who the fuck sucker-punches an eight-year-old filly?

She gave me an apologetic look as she stood up from the foot of the bed. "There's a bucket on the floor beside the bed if you need it," she said, moving over to her desk. I think she had a laptop there, but without my glasses on it was hard to tell. "You wouldn't be the first person to need it after a head injury."

After that, I was left to lie there on the bed. The lights were thankfully dim, because I can just imagine how much fucking worse my head would hurt if I had bright light shining in my eyes on top of this throbbing inside my skull. If I ever found out who hit me, I was going to break rule four—maybe the fire provision specifically. Actually, the rule specified ponies, so theoretically, aren't humans fair game?

While I was stewing on the bed and coming up with dark designs for my dumb-ass assailant, the nurse was there at her desk tapping away. I knew it was just her doing her job, but holy fuck the keys were loud. I almost wanted to pull the pillow over my head, if nothing else than to silence that incessant tapping, but at the same time, moving just made me even queasier.

In the end, I laid there trying to stay awake, right until the end of whichever period it now was. By then, the queasiness had gone away, and I no longer felt unsteady. I was able to locate my glasses, and my bag, and decided I was going to leave. But first, I thought, twisting around as far as I could, and tugging at my shirt, I need to change my top. There, on the back of my shirt, was someone's shoe-print.

Luckily, the infirmary bed had a privacy curtain, which I quickly pulled closed. I started pulling out stuff from my bag and setting it out on the bed. The white t-shirt I'd worn in the gym was slightly damp from sweat, although the jacket was surprisingly fine. With that in mind, I pulled out Sunset's journal, wrapped in my pyjamas, and took the other t-shirt. Surprisingly, the book didn't seem to be vibrating as if there were a fresh message, like it's counterpart had in Equestria. They must be busy on the other side and haven't had time to respond. Hopefully Sunset's getting the care she needs.

I stripped off my uniform blouse, threw on the t-shirt and the jacket. After a moment's thought, I also stripped off the pantyhose that'd come with my outfit. I didn't really feel like wearing it at the moment, so I threw it into my bag, alongside the book, my pyjama bottoms, and my uniform top. Finally, I took off the silver barrette that was in my hair, slid it into my jacket pocket, and pulled the long parts into a loose ponytail once more.

"Hey, Nurse Redheart," I said with an appreciative smile. When she turned in her chair to regard me, I threw my backpack over my shoulder and started to walk towards the door. "I'm taking off. Thanks for looking after me."

It wasn't worth my time to wait for her response. I stepped out into the hall, and started wandering, hands in pockets and shoulders squared. First thing's first, I need to find my way over to the office, I mused as I stopped at a water fountain for a drink. After a stray thought, I held my free hand in the stream of water, and slicked back my hair.

Turns out, the infirmary was just around the corner from the library, which was fortuitous to me. It meant I had a lot less time to spend under these bright fluorescent lights. It was a lot easier for me to navigate my way back to the office from here. Again, there was nobody out in the halls, but this time I didn't feel particularly intimidated by that fact. I found myself hoping someone would try to jump me. Nobody was around, though.

After a few minutes, my headache was finally starting to abate somewhat. Just in time, too, since the office doors were suddenly right in front of me. It was a glass door, so my reflection was visible in it. Between the bruise on my cheek, the swept-back hair, and the baggy jacket, I looked almost like a different person. Hell, if not for the skirt, the gentle swell of my bust, and the long ponytail, I could easily have passed as an admittedly effeminate boy right then. It helps that I look like I'm itching for a fight.

When I pushed open the door with my foot, Raven did a double-take. "Are you... alright?"

I shrugged and glanced at Principal Celestia's door. "Been better," I replied. "The boss lady free?"

She gave me an uneasy look, and then said "Miss Celestia and Miss Luna were just getting ready to make an announcement regarding the security footage shared to the school's MyStable page."

"Ah, perfect," I murmured, walking past her desk. She tried to say something, but I just ignored her. Upon strolling up to the door, my hand was already outstretched and ready to knock. "Knock knock."

"Come in, Emerald," came Principal Celestia's response. I did just that, shutting the door behind me before dropping my bag on the same chair I'd sat in this morning. I half expected her to greet me with a 'You look like hell,' but instead she was straight to business. "As you've no doubt been made aware, Anon-a-Miss has taken your bait, and we have posted the security footage from this morning."

"We were getting ready to make an announcement when we heard that you were in the infirmary, so we chose to wait until Redheart let you go," Miss Luna added. "I'm glad to see you're alright, if a bit haggard."

I was more than a little tempted to snark at her about my concussion, but I thought better of it. Instead, I walked right up to Celestia's desk and sat my palms atop it. "I was wondering if I could make that announcement for you, at least in part," I asked, regarding them both with a mischievous smile. "I feel like I owe it to the student body to clear the air about Sunset Shimmer, why I'm really here, and who I really am."

While those two conferred in whispers, I glanced out the window, chewing my lip as I tried not to eavesdrop. I knew exactly what I wanted to say, and how to say it. I only needed the opportunity to do so. They both looked uncomfortable, with the idea.

I'm sure they're gonna say no.

Much to my surprise, Principal Celestia withdrew that same microphone I'd seen just this morning, and sat it on the desk. "Don't make us regret this," she said. She depressed a button, and spoke into the mic. "Attention staff and students; please stand by for a special announcement." She released the broadcast button, and then gave me one more stern look. "No vulgarity, please."

I nodded as she slid the mic across the desk. "You have my word," I said with a smile. Leaning down closer to the microphone, I depressed the button. "Greetings, staff and students of Canterlot High School," I said with a voice of faux cheer. "Those of you who've encountered me have probably been told my name is 'Emerald Flicker'. That said, the reason given this morning for my presence here was not entirely truthful."

I picked up the mic and planted my ass on Celestia's desk, much to the woman's indignant grumble. "The truth is that I am actually here on behalf of your good friend—and my guardian—Princess Twilight Sparkle, to address this Anon-a-Miss situation," I said, my voice becoming more sombre as I went. "So, so many of you were convinced that this had to be the work of my countryman, the former delinquent known as Sunset Shimmer. Despite the fact that she would gain absolutely nothing from turning on all of you now, after working so hard to win back your trust, you were quick to condemn her.

"Unfortunately, just as she tried so many times to tell you, Anon-a-Miss could not possibly have been her." I struggled to keep the anger out of my voice, as I gave Luna and Celestia a sidelong glance. Hell, I found myself wrapping my index finger in some of the slack from the microphone cable. "As of this morning, shortly after six to be more precise, Sunset Shimmer returned to Equestria, and the portal was once-again closed behind her. Before meeting me at the portal, she had no hint as to my identity, and thus could not possibly have scheduled this morning's initial post."

Heaving a sigh, I kicked at the air. "I don't know who tried to push her down the stairs, or defaced her desk in Mr. Noteworthy's room, or ruined her locker and several posters, but if you feel even an ounce of guilt over tormenting an innocent young woman, turn yourselves in." Celestia tapped at a watch on her wrist and then drew a spiral in the air with her finger. Yeah, I know; hurry it up. "That brings me to the important bit. My name in Equestria isn't Emerald Flicker; it's Anon, derived from Anonymous, meaning of unknown name. You're making a mockery of my name, Anon-a-Miss, and ruining lives in doing so. I don't know who you are, or why you were so intent frame Sunset Shimmer and destroy her social life, but you've lost. By taking the submission I made after lunch, you've ensured her innocence is undeniable. Turn yourselves in before you hurt anyone else."

I released the broadcast button, and set the microphone back in front of Celestia. She reached for it, but I reached back to depress the button. "Oh, and before I forget," I growled. "Whoever sucker-punched and concussed the eight-year-old filly, your Mom's a hoe."