Diaries of the Anonymous Filly

I didn't end up following through with my assurance that I would catch up with Fluttershy, or accompany her to her final two classes. Instead, I'd set myself up in the office's meeting room with the lights dimmed. Although I'd shown a bunch of bravado in making my earlier announcement, I didn't feel amazing if I was being honest with myself. My head was still killing me, and the nausea had returned.

That said, my hands weren't idle while I sat there. I'd unpacked Sunset's journal and set it aside so that I could read it immediately if it rang. In the meantime, I'd taken out one of the empty notebooks, and was in the process of recreating the contents of my magic notebook. Every rune that I'd ever studied, memorised, and written down in the book sitting on the bedside table back in Equestria, I reproduced on paper there. Even as human, I could still feel my special talent guiding my hand. A special talent is such an intrinsic part of being a pony, so to strip one of it through transformation would be to strip away a part of their very identity.

Once I had my entire repertoire of runic knowledge reproduced for reference, I started charting out some ideas for personal defence. I didn't fancy trying to reproduce whatever spell my talent allowed me to instinctively create in when Chrysalis tried to snatch me up that time; at the time, it'd left me a mess. No, instead, I sketched out a few other ideas that I felt better equipped to construct.

The first idea I sketched out was something a bit outside what I'd experimented with thus far, but had a pretty good understanding of. It fell into the category of a buff or an enchantment. Whereas before I'd played with the evocation school through the use of conjuration, affecting things outside, enchantment could either benefit the self or another depending on the spell's set of programmed instructions. More to the point, they weren't something I'd need to continue to channel through a runic array; it was purely fire and forget.

The core parts of this spell were amplification of exerted force. My first thought was an exponential amplification—effectively squaring the amount of force my body could exert—but I found two problems with that. Firstly, assuming the amount of force I personally exerted in a punch as a human was only 136 kilos of force on the lowball estimate, that'd turn into 18,496 kilos of force, or 18.496 metric tonnes. That sort of impact would probably kill anyone I hit with it.

That in itself would lead into all sorts of other catastrophic effects. Even with magic, Newton's—sorry, Neighton's—Laws of Motion still came into play. The recoil from such a punch would probably shatter every bone in my body, to say nothing of the tissue damage. As such, I built a limiter to cap that force at one and a half tonnes: half again as strong as a horse's kick. It'd be enough to do some real damage, but not nearly enough to be catastrophic to a living being.

Still, even that could put a strain on my body. But the thing about magic is that though the laws of physics still apply, you can still bend them with the right effects. For example, if you were to invert or redirect the counter-force exerted in reaction to that 1.5 tonne output, you could technically get away with it unscathed. Still, it has to go somewhere, or else you've lost skeleton privileges. If I had more time to study, I could probably even have dispersed the counter-force into the air as excess magic.

The last major bit were the fail-safes. Until I could finalise the spell, the enchantment's duration was set to thirty seconds. No point in trapping myself in a state where I can't pick up anything without crushing it—or worse, exploding my bones. Similarly, before the force multiplier became a straight-up squaring, I'd have to test iterations going from powers of two. That would also help ensure that I could find faults in the redirection before it got too powerful.

To tell the truth, I wasn't even sure that I would have the opportunity to test it; I was doing it mostly to serve as a distraction. Just prototyping this fractal mess helped take my mind off the pain and the fact that some dumb motherfucker was too cowardly to attack me from the front. Never mind the matter of Emerald Breeze. No idea how the fuck I should handle that.

I idly twirled the pencil as I thought out the other spell. This one was closer to what I was used to, and thus a lot easier for me to construct. Built around the conjuration of air, the spell would create a projectile of condensed air. I'd need to find out the speed rubber bullets or bean-bag rounds—I don't want to kill anyone!—were fired before I set the velocity, but when triggered, it was set to launch the projectile from just beyond the tip of my index finger. I reckoned a sphere about 9 millimetres in diameter would be good for that. If only I knew how to program in a somatic component; how fucking cool would it be to point my finger at someone, say "Bang!" and fire an air bullet at them?

A smile started to work its way across my face as I set the pencil down. This is so fucking stupid, I mused, drumming my fingertips across the table. I have no guarantee that this sort of magic will even work, and here I am tailoring runic spells specifically for this human form. The fuck is wrong with me?

The sound of intermittent buzzing filled my ears, and I found myself cringing at how droning it sounded. Finally, I thought as I dragged the book over. I never thought I'd be so impatient to hear back from them, but with that time differential, it could've been a few days to a week already. Immediately, I dragged the book over and puled it open.

'Emerald',

I've spoken with Cadance at length regarding your situation with Emerald Breeze. She suggested that, as a mother, she'll know deep down you aren't her daughter should you meet her. Such a meeting could at least provide her with a sort of closure. It's not a pretty situation, to be sure, and it could very well be a no-win situation whether you agree to meet her or not. Although I'd rather the knowledge of the Equestria's existence, and the presence of its magic, be contained to Canterlot High's students and staff if you can help it, I understand that the choice is ultimately yours. I only ask that you remember to keep kindness in your heart, and try to make her smile if you can.

As for the matter of the Emerald Flicker, I've already sent out information requests to major cities across Equestria cross-referencing her name, sex, colours, and tribe, as well as the mother's name. Due to the way bureaucracy works, I cannot guarantee when—or if—we'll receive any results. That said, if I find anything, I promise not to act on it without you.

Sunset isn't comfortable discussing the human Emerald Flicker with me, or writing it down in this book. Whatever happened, she's been very private about. Although she's promised that she'll tell you everything—if you haven't already found out—when you come back, I worry that it might be for the best if you don't push her for that information.

If you're already seeing results, then Harmony was right to choose you to solve this friendship problem. Please keep me appraised of your progress, and if there's anything that we can do from this side that's within our power, we'll try to help out.

Twilight Sparkle

I shook my head as I read the message. So much of it was a non-answer. Maybe the only helpful bit was that she said that she'll try to help in whatever way she can from that side. She didn't even tell me how Sunset was doing. That could be bad or good. For that matter, there were also no messages passed along from Starlight. Was she still not back from her own mission? Or was she helping Twilight take care of Sunset?

Conveniently, there was a pen left on the table from whatever actual meeting was last held here. Lucky me, I thought as I penned out a response. I knew exactly what I needed to say, and wasted no time putting it down on paper.

Twilight

Give my thanks to Cadance for her role in coming up with that advice. I think I would have eventually come to the same decision, but it helps knowing that she agrees. It's validating.

Now, I've got some good news, some bad news, and some disconcerting news. I'll start you off with the good news first. With the help of Vice Principal Luna and the CHS staff, I've pretty much definitively proven to the student body that Sunset Shimmer cannot be Anon-a-Miss. If Sunset were to stroll in the door tomorrow morning, I think she's got a better chance of getting apologies than getting lynched.

The bad news is that I'm no closer to finding out the true identity of Anon-a-Miss. I asked Wallflower Blush, a member of the yearbook committee, what she knew about Sunset, and truth be told she actually didn't believe this could be Sunset's doing. They've been too indiscriminate in their rumours, and she said this whole farce provides absolutely zero benefit to Sunset. So all I've got is a suggestion that it might be one of the younger students.

Bit of a silver lining to that whole conversation. I know she said she hated Sunset because she has trouble being seen by others while Sunset was able to win back the school's trust, but she was still willing to go to bat for her. I think maybe if the other five girls don't work out—if they can even face her after stabbing her in the back and twisting the knife when they called her family, so close to Christmas—maybe she can give Wallflower a shot. After this, I think all eyes in the school will be on Sunset, and if she can get some attention by associating with her, it might help her with her own self-image.

The disconcerting news is that some dumb mot so-and-so decided it would be a bright idea to sucker-punch me in the hallway outside the library not long after Anon-a-Miss posted my bait. Clearly someone didn't like finding out that someone who was a dude in their previous life shared a locker-room with them. 'cause, y'know, if there's something eight-year-old fillies are known for, it's their lasciviousness. Never mind the fact that I can hardly see a thing without my glasses on. So yeah, I'm a bit concussed right now.

That might be why I lost my cool a bit when I revealed over the PA that Anon-a-Miss couldn't have been Sunset. I might have put all the students on blast for being so goddamn gullible, and advised anyone who felt even a modicum of guilt over the harassment, attempted murder, and vandalism to turn themselves in. I even revealed my name to the school while calling out for Anon-a-Miss to turn themselves in.

In the event that I am once again attacked—I did call my attacker's mother a hoe over the PA—I would like to inform you that I am invoking my self-defence caveat to Rule #4. I don't need any more brain trauma, and if it takes me breaking someone's knees to keep it that way, so be it.

I do have one request of you. If you think it's possible, could you translate the spell Zone of Truth into its runic components and put it in a Weaved Spiral format? In the event that Anon-a-Miss doesn't come forward, I would like to have the option of interrogating the student body alongside Celestia and Luna if possible. I will likely be be using a clay disc for this, so it might be necessary to add on the energy storage component from my runic lock experiment; it should be the page of my magic notebook with the bookmark sticking out, everything being notated on the opposite page as usual. Please also check to see if anyone can manually open the cereal box on my bedside table yet.

Anonymous Flicker

The moment I set the pen down and shut the book, I saw that I wasn't alone. At some point, Vice Principal Luna had come in, and was now standing over me. More specifically, she seemed to be looking at the still-open notebook with my diagrams. It was opened to the buff spell, where I needed to go back and correct my formulae.

"It's strangely beautiful," she said, her eyes slowly following each property and its derived properties. I had to admit that she wasn't wrong; the more complex a spell in the Weaved Spiral format got, the more likely you were to lose yourself looking at it. "What does it mean?"

Reclining back in the chair I'd appropriated for myself, I stretched and stifled a yawn. "It's the blueprint of a spell in an obscure format of magic," I explained. "If this were engraved in a surface, such as the dirt or clay plate, and had mana pumped through it, the spell would trigger and perform whatever instructions are laid out in the spiral. This specifically is a beta for a spell intended to amplify one's strength by a power of two. At current, it's only a straight doubling until I can test it and ensure its safeguards are operational and working as planned."

With a shrug, I gestured to Sunset's journal. "I was just writing a status update to fill in Aunt Twilight," I redirected. "I put in a request to her for a spell that could help us find the culprit if they don't come forward. If it turns out runic magic works on this side of the divide, I wanna get this shut down hard." A sigh slipped out as I shook my head. "No word on Sunset's status, and honestly, I won't blame her if she chooses to stay in Equestria."

She sighed as well, looking out the door. "Celestia and I will be leaving the building at six," she murmured, facing her back to me. "I know you said you were content staying in the school library as Twilight did, but with your concussion, I think my sister and I would rest easier if you stayed with us tonight." She turned slightly, holding up a hand before I could choke out an answer. "I'm not saying that you have to come with us; just think about it, and if you decide against being alone, be back here at six." She looked slightly relieved when she continued. "That said, several students have already come forward either confessing to providing information to Anon-a-Miss, or some of the lesser harassment towards Sunset, so we need this room for a staff meeting. After everything that has happened today—and over the last few weeks—we need to have a staff meeting to address the failings of how this situation has been handled, how severe the punishments should be, and draft safeguards to rely on in the future."

I nodded, moving my stuff back into my bag. No fucking shit, Lady! Luckily, I smart enough to internalise that thought after having their couch being on offer. Telling her just how badly she and her school's faculty screwed the pooch. Things had gone so far off the rails that it likely had its own pooch-screwing zip code. She probably knew that too, so me rubbing it in was just unneeded.

"I'd rather you stay in the office where someone can keep an eye on you, since you were assaulted on campus," she said as I slipped past her. "That said, I understand if you would rather move about, all I ask is that you avoid being alone with anyone you don't implicitly trust."

~ 25 ~

People were steering clear of me as I stalked the halls of the school, looking for something to do. It was clearly after school now, but there were still plenty of students around. Extracurricular activities and clubs, probably. Those who weren't whispering the name Anonymous—not Anon-a-Miss, though—looked pretty fucking chastened. Nobody was making eye-contact, and a path seemed to clear ahead of me. As you should, you fucking morons.

It was hard to know whether the next bit was good or bad, though; there were several scared-looking students dotted through the halls as I sought Twilight's human friends. A few students looked almost ill, but I think the worst-looking group was that same trio of girls I saw back in the library. They froze the minute they saw me walking past, rubbing at the welt on my cheek. The pale one was even started shaking when she saw I was looking at them.

Where the fuck do I know them from? I wondered as I peeked into the cafeteria. There was Spitfire, and the other Wonderbolt-lookalikes, along with that turquoise blonde who was giving me the absolute stink-eye; no sign of Rainbow or Pinkie. I mean, the pale girl in the striped tee and magenta coat almost reminds me of...

The realisation hit me like a tonne of bricks. Oh fuck me. Those three are the Crusaders! Now that I thought about it, that was Scootaloo I bumped into in the hall when I left the band room. How could I have not recognised them before? It was painfully obvious looking back. The only thing that I could figure is that I didn't connect them to my friends because I wouldn't have expected to see them at a high school setting; an elementary school would've made more sense. It's this weird fucking age disparity in this world, I swear.

Stepping into the cafeteria, I strolled up to the group—I think they were soccer jocks, like Rainbow—not bothering to give Lightning Dust the satisfaction of any acknowledgement. "Hey, Spitfire," I said in a casual tone, as if I hadn't just lit a fire under the student body's collective asses. "Any idea where Rainbow Dash and her other four friends are? I don't imagine Applejack and Rarity have gone home without their little sisters."

She nodded, though if she thought it was odd that I knew the two had sisters, she made no comment. "If they're not in the band room, check the gymnasium," she answered, cool as a cucumber. "If we all really did have the wool pulled over our eyes about Sunset, she's probably looking at burning off some steam. I think Rainbow's group was the harshest to her."

"Thanks, Spitfire," I replied with a false smile. You have no idea just how harsh they were, Spits.

As I spun on my heel to leave, she spoke up again. "Is it true that someone jumped you?" I nodded, not looking back. "We'll look into it, right guys?" Spitfire said to a chorus of agreement, although I'm not sure the entire group was in on it. "It's so cowardly to get the jump on someone—especially someone smaller like you—and then leave them unconscious in a hallway. Totally uncool."

Part of me wanted to suggest they hold whoever did it down and let me test my new spells on them, but that was a bit too vengeful for my tastes. Plus, I don't think I actually had the stomach for human experimentation. "As long as there's no violence," I called back as I exited the cafeteria. "If they're scared enough of a little girl to hit her with a sneak attack, rather than look for a fair fight, they can't be all that tough."

Sounds like someone's grinding their teeth back there. That girl had an unbridled amount of hatred radiating off of her, but she surely had a better places to direct that anger than little old me. If she was smarting about Anon-a-Miss, well, I'm sure she'd be better served directing that inwards or towards the real culprit.

The first thing I did was make my way out in the direction of the band room. The girls that I now recognised as Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were no longer where they'd been standing around chatting. Why did they seem so scared of me? It didn't really make much sense to me. The three in Equestria were leery of me at the start because I'd gotten AJ locked up, but after I stood up to Ivory and Ebony on Bloom's behalf, we got along great. Hell, all of their mathematics grades had gone up since I started helping out in class.

The band room was a bust; in fact, it wasn't even open. The doors were locked up tight, and all the lights were out. Just for good measure, I pressed my ear up against the door to check if they were just hiding in there with the lights off, chatting in the darkness that probably mirrored their moods at that particular moment. Not a sound was to be heard.

My next stop wasn't the gym, but rather the arts room on a bit of a whim. While the art teacher wasn't present, there was a teacher's aide closing up for the day who was more than willing to entertain my question. Specifically, I was interested to see if they had any modelling clay that they didn't mind selling me. Apparently they had a ball of scrap leftover from the day's lesson that would likely just go to waste otherwise. It didn't matter that it was a mishmash of colour, wadded into one ball a bit larger than my fist and stuffed in a resealable plastic bag. Didn't even want anything as payment, so into the jacket pocket it went.

If I start experimenting with using magic in this world, I probably shouldn't use an untested buff or a projectile. I mused, making my way towards the gymnasium. The only stop I bothered making was to switch out to my sneakers, as the janitorial staff would probably hate seeing my loafers scuffing up the floor with their black soles. Good thing I've pretty much committed conjure light to memory.

Rather than go in through the women's changing room and ditch my bag in an unused locker like I did this morning, I went in through the main gym doors. Bingo! Just as I expected, Rainbow Dash was aimlessly kicking a soccer ball against the wall, occasionally stopping to pick it up and stare at it as if it held all the answers to her problems. Meanwhile, Applejack was sitting on the stage, Fluttershy and Rarity both crying into her shoulders. I wasn't close enough to hear what she was saying to them, but she didn't quite look like she was believing her own words. It probably isn't gonna be okay, is it? But you're lying to them because the alternative scares you.

Then you had Pinkie Pie. I was almost sympathetic enough to affix 'poor' as a descriptor to that girl in that moment, but she was stuck in an emotional quagmire that was partially her own fault for stumbling into in the first place. She was sitting in a corner of the gymnasium, hugging her knees and burying her face in her arms. That wasn't enough to hide her hair, which had somehow gone straight... She can't have taken a straightening iron to her hair that quickly, could she? No, this is probably a Pinkie property.

Unsurprisingly, Dash was the first to really notice me, after she kicked the ball a bit too hard and it bounced over to me. It rolled to a stop by my foot, but rather than kick it back, I mimicked something I'd seen other students do during the kickball game; I gave it some momentum with a tap of my foot, and then thrust the toe of that same foot beneath the ball, popping it into the air where I caught it.

"Here to rub it in some more, Anon?" she snarled, her fists clenched at her side. "Didn't you say enough over the PA?"

I just shook my head, continuing across the gym. "Nah; if I really wanted to to make you all feel bad," I said, underhand tossing the ball to her, "I'd have called you all out specifically during the announcement. As much as it might vent my own frustration, though, it's not constructive."

Applejack looked up at me with a hateful look. "Ya'll knew from the start she was innocent, didn't you?" she accused. "Ya knew and didn't tell us! Even lied about why ya were here!"

Again, I nodded, and upon reaching the stage, I sat my bag upon it and clambered up. "True," I agreed. "I could've told all of you, and was even considering it this morning, but can you honestly tell me that this morning you would have believed me?" It took a moment of rooting through the bag to get out Sunset's journal, and find the letter from Twilight. I tossed the rolled-up scroll, its wax seal still intact despite being shuffled around in a rucksack all day, over to AJ. Rainbow joined them, but Pinkie stayed where she was. "That was meant to be given to you guys this at lunch, and from there you probably would've been able to infer exactly why I was here.

"After my talk with Rainbow there in the showers, and her earlier display riling the other girls against Sunset, I changed my mind," I said. While they were all poring over the letter from Twilight, and looking more and more guilty as they read it, I opened Sunset's journal to her first letter mentioning Anon-a-Miss—the night of her second, and potentially last slumber party with the girls.

"Now, I'm not doing this to hurt you guys or make you feel any worse than you already do," I said, sliding the open book over to them. "Oh, you will feel bad after reading this, but I want you all to understand that I'm showing you this to show you what you're fighting to fix." I thought about digging out my notebook, but set that idea aside, instead pulling my legs into a half-lotus. "To emphasise the importance of her last response to Twilight, I need to impress upon you that when I met Sunset, at least one of her wrists was bandaged. Make of that what you will."

While they were busy reading, I decided to do something I probably should've done this morning. Shutting my eyes, I turned my attention inward. Back when Twilight was finally getting me ready to studying magic in earnest, she'd made me read Your Horn and You. One of the exercises in that book was one intended to make a caster more aware of their thaumic system, and the natural flow of mana through their body, in addition to guiding and channelling it. In the exercise, it asked the reader to cast a spell—even just a formless concentration of magic would do—and while holding that, they were supposed to mentally follow the flow of mana back to its source. From there, they'd follow its circulation throughout their being.

Now, that wasn't exactly something I could do in this body. That being said, it wasn't a useless exercise here. One's core, although a metaphysical construct, existed alongside one's heart. It was theorised by some that mana was one portion spiritual energy, and several portions processed magic, so it made sense that the body's font of life would share its location with its conceptual magic engine. As such, the first step of the exercise could be skipped.

This body... it did have an extant thaumic system, but its flow was almost nonexistent. Oh, all my mana was still sitting in my reservoir, but it was inert and thick like molasses. So what was a girl to do? Think, Anon; I 'Ponied Up' because of that heartsong, and the others apparently did so in relation to enthusiasm. What did emotion, enthusiasm, and music have in common? Excitement!

I started to imagine my magical reservoir growing turbulent, swirling like the clouds caught up in a hurricane's storm front. It took some focus, but I began to feel a familiar warmth spreading through my chest. My ears began to tingle and flick as I started mentally guiding that energy throughout my body. The whispering of the girls over there was more noticeable, and if I strained, I could hear them clearly. A quick touch atop my head even found familiar, fuzzy ears poking out of my hair. I felt more like me, with my magic flowing naturally.

Opening my eyes, I continued consciously circulating that vital energy throughout my body. Holding up my right hand in front of my face, I pushed a bunch of mana into it. It was faint, but an anaemic aura matching my characteristic blue magic manifested around my hand until I released the flow of magic. Now for the big test.

From my jacket pocket, I withdrew the bag of clay and separated a chunk of it. It was soon rolled into a smooth ball and flattened out into an even disc across my left palm. Using the edge of my index finger's nail in place of a proper tool, I carefully inscribed the formula for Conjure Light from memory, although instead of instructing it to conjure above my head as I normally would, I instead etched in the moon-glyphs for above left hand. I was somewhat glad that I'd sought out such words despite the sheer unlikelihood of needing them.

I glanced over at the girls. They all seemed like they were fighting back tears—well, Dash, AJ, Rarity, and Flutters. Pinkie was still sitting in a corner away from the rest of the group. She hadn't even bothered getting up to read the journal with the others. Yeah, she definitely already knows just how much they all fucked up.

Sighing, I hopped off the stage and made my way over to her. All the while, I kept on circulating that mana inside me. It was harder when moving because although it too was inert, this world definitely had its own magical field, and it was quite content to be inert. It was actively resisting my attempts to passively pull in magic from the environment. Here's hoping this'll work.

Tapping pinkie's foot with my own, I crouched down to her level and pumped mana into my left hand, focusing especially on the clay on it. Sure enough, a small orb of blue light flickered into existence over my hand, casting everything in a blue glow. "Hey, Pinkie; I know you're feeling blue right now," I said in a soft voice when she looked up at me with reddened eyes, "but you looked like you could use a bit of light in your life."

I internally cringed at the pun I'd made, but I could see the corners of her mouth twitch ever-so-slightly upward. "I appreciate you trying to make me feel better with puns," she replied in a monotone that didn't sound all that appreciative to me, "but I don't think I deserve to laugh after the huge mistake I made. I'm a horrible friend."

I mean, you're not wrong, but I can't exactly say that when I'm trying to cheer you up and motivate you. "You definitely made a mistake," I agreed, keeping my tone soft, but loud enough that the others could hear as well. I actually felt kinda guilty manipulating her like this, but somehow, it seemed to me that getting her and the others to help in fixing their fuck-up was the greater good that overrode personal feelings. "You had the wool pulled over your eyes, and did exactly what Anon-a-Miss wanted you to. Now that the blinders are off, though, I reckon you can actually help fix this mess."

I reached out my right hand, and set it atop hers. "Will you help me catch this no-good, dirty scoundrel, Pinkie Pie?" I asked; for this, I at least didn't have to fake emotion or use falsehoods to stroke her ego. If this Pinkie were anything like 'mine', she definitely knew the who's who of the school. "You know just about everyone in the school, right? Between you and me, I think we have a good chance of catching Anon-a-Miss."

She stared at me for a good few moment, her eyes occasionally darting from my eyes, to the glowing ball of magic in my hand, and then the hand I'd sat top hers. After a few moments, she sucked in a deep breath, and gave me a determined look. Hell, her hair suddenly seemed a bit curlier—not full-on Pinkie poof, but close. More than that though, I felt hope radiating off of her. It might've just been a misguided hope that Sunset might forgive her, but it was a positive feeling that could influence others.

"You're right," she said, grabbing my right hand with hers. I stood up, pulling her up along with me, and then wrapping her arms around me. Unlike the first time I met Equestria's Pinkie, I successfully resisted the reflexive compulsion to throw her. "I can't even begin to make her an apology cake or throw her an 'I'm Sorry!' party if I can't even help catch the baddies!"

While my face was being smushed into the taller girl's collar bone, a hand clamped down on my shoulder. This in turn made me jump and break my concentration on mana circulation. The light spell collapsed above my hand as I turned my head to find Rainbow's own bandaged hand on my shoulder. I didn't even hear her coming!

"You're not gonna leave us outta this," she said with a look of resolve. Behind her stood Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, who was clutching the journal to her chest. "She might never forgive us, but you were right this morning. The school's on the verge of exploding, and Sunset's no longer there for them to easily blame. After what we did to her, we owe it to her to bring this to an end before anyone else gets hurt."

"Jus' tell us what ya want us ta do," Applejack added. "We'll get it done."

Once Pinkie released me, I wadded up the clay in my hand and added it back to the bag. Fluttershy passed the journal back to me, and I went back over to my bag to start packing stuff away. "I'm gonna be crashing on Celestia and Luna's couch tonight," I explained. "I'm hoping Twilight will get back to me with that spell I requested, which'll make things easier, but in the event that she can't do it, I want you guys to brainstorm who Sunset hurt that might be seeking revenge. Whoever might have reason to hurt her, no matter how slight. If you need something to soften the hurt, I hear your friend Tree Hugger—" I looked at Fluttershy specifically when I said this. "—has some stuff that could take the edge off while you work."

I threw my bag over my shoulders and walked away from the group. Pinkie's hope had spread to the others, just as I'd expected, and it was building into real resolve. Casting one last look over my shoulder, I called back, "In the meantime, I've got another bomb to defuse."

~ 25 ~

Things all seemed to be lining up quite nicely, I'd decided when I found myself standing outside the principal's office once more. Magic worked in this world, albeit sluggishly. It'll probably be more responsive here the more that I use it and stir it up, but until the local magic lets me start drawing upon it, I've gotta hope that my body is still metabolising sugar the way it does when I'm a pony. Then there was the fact that Anon-a-Miss was on the ropes, and Twilight's friends were willing to work to fix their colossal fuck-up. Hopefully by morning, they'd have something.

Pushing open the office door, I quietly greeted Ms. Inkwell and took a seat. I hadn't been gone too long, so Celestia and Luna were still in their staff meeting. That left me with nothing but free-time to rest and think. Rest was what I needed right about now. I'd been going since six am and it was something like four-ish now. Although I'd rested before coming over from Equestria, I was still starting to run on fumes. Even caffeine couldn't keep me going forever when I hadn't had a daytime snooze.

So as I leaned back in the chair I'd taken, I closed my eyes and decided to catch some quick shut-eye. It was doubtful I'd actually fall asleep, but at the very least they won't start to dry out. Funny; I haven't even been like this a day, and I'm already looking forward to going back to being an underdeveloped eight-year-old filly who can take an afternoon nap without judgement.

Still, what should I do about Emerald Breeze? She'd cause increased public scrutiny to the school if she couldn't get a proper answer. After what Twilight told me, I'm kinda surprised the government doesn't have eyes on the school after the Fall Formal and the Sirens, but I wasn't about to look a gift pony in the mouth. Knowledge of Equestria's existence was seemingly limited to just the school, and Twilight was intent to keep it that way for now. Increased scrutiny would likely reveal the existence of the portal, and Sunset living in this country as an illegal alien. Then portal would either have to be 'destroyed', or it would be relocated to some government facility for testing, stranding any Equestrian guests on this side, or any visiting humans in Equestria.

I'm going to have to meet with the woman after all, I realised with a sigh. What would be the best way to go about it? Have Celestia or Luna act as an intermediary? Or should I reach out to the woman myself through social media? No, I think that despite how well I've handled myself so far, giving myself that degree of autonomy would just result in me making things go from bad to worse.

Then there's the matter of what I even tell her. Twilight said to keep kindness in my heart and try to make her smile. Kindness and Laughter... She was pretty big on applying the six facets of Harmony, so what of the others? Generosity would be even agreeing to see her, and thinking of her rather than myself wouldn't it? Honesty was easy enough to apply. Just be as truthful as I can without volunteering anything that I can't speak for certain on. Magic could easily be demonstrated in displaying honesty. Now that I'm sure I can use it here, I could demonstrate a spell.

That left me a big problem. How in the fuck do I keep loyalty in mind?

I might've dozed off a bit at some point, because the next time I opened my eyes, it looked as though Celestia and Luna were packing up to go. In fact, Luna was smirking down at me. Although, that might've been because I'd apparently drooled a bit.

"Long day?" she asked in a joking tone. Despite her own long day, and how fucked her school was, she was still able to smile.

I nodded and wiped my face with the back of my hand. "The longest," I answered with a smile. "I got Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack working on figuring out who might've wanted to do such a shoddy frame-up job, got a concussion, discovered I can still work my magic in this world, pulled one over on the one that pulled the wool over the collective eyes of the school, had an anxiety attack, hit a dude in the face with a ball, got to eat meat again for the first time in several months, and may have saved someone's life this time."

Her smile faltered, and I realised that I'd let slip something I hadn't meant to bring up. "Pretend I ended that two words earlier, please," I said quickly. "Anyways, I think it'd be for the best if we arrange a meeting with Emerald Breeze. Just... can it be tomorrow? I'm so freakin' tired."

Celestia was suddenly at her sister's side. "Are you sure, Anon?" She actually looked kinda worried. "I'm sure we can find someway to placate her without you getting involved, if you don't feel like you're up to this.

I shook my head. "I don't think she'll let this go," I answered with a yawn. "Especially not with the way this is probably blowing up on social media. We need to show her that her daughter's image isn't being exploited by bad-faith actors, and I think the only way she's gonna get an answer she might accept is if she sees me."