“…Well, I guess that’s it.”

The young girl from Equestria spoke.

Her slight but firm voice surprised the other teenagers who were in front of her, sitting at one table inside of Sweet Shop.

After a silence caused by their bewilderment, the rainbow-haired girl in the group speaks.

“What are you talking about? What do you mean by ‘that’s it’?” Rainbow Dash asks, gaining the interest of her friends who all look at the former member of their group.

The former unicorn wipes the tears from her eyes and cheeks, before answering, while picking up the messages she had left on the table.

“I’m done with the test. It’s clear what the result is.”

That answer doesn’t clarify anyone’s doubt, and the five of them seem even more confused.

“What are ya talkin’ about Sunset?!”

The girl with hat asks with clear demand. Once again there’s a moment of silence before the red and gold haired girl answers.

“…I AM Anon-a-Miss.”

Although it shouldn’t, hearing Sunset confess that felt like a blow to all of them, some being more affected than the others.

It’s the athlete who regains her composure first.

“O-Of course! W-We already knew that.”

Although she appears confident, there is a certain tremor in her voice.

“Yes, you did.” Sunset responds with some disdain, and a very serious face. “However, you don’t understand why I did it.”

There is an emphasis on such phrase, and it again provokes a silence from everyone before the cowgirl responds one more time.

“That’s obvious! It’s because yer a liar and a fake friend! Ya lied ta us the whole time!”

“I never lied Applejack. Not before Anon-a-Miss… ” Sunset seems to correct herself before adding. “… but now I see that you do.”

There is a pause in which the five girls show their confusion and doubt about the words of their former friend.

With a semi-deep breath, Sunset lets out a small sigh to explain.

“After the Fall Formal, the five of you offered to be my friends, and teach me about friendship. However, it was obvious to me that none of you were comfortable, or happy with the idea.”

“And what exactly makes you say that, Sunset?” Questions the pale girl in the group.

“The comments alluding to my failures. The stares of doubt and suspicion. Always giving me the worst assignments at every meeting like to clean the kitchen after making the cakes for the Sweet Shop sale, washing Rainbow Dash’s uniform after her soccer game, carrying your groceries when we went to the mall, etc.”

Faced with these comments, one can notice a certain shame on part from the majority of the Rainbooms.

“Most importantly: the fact I wasn’t considered when the band formed.”

“Hey! We didn’t know you could play the guitar!” Rainbow Dash defends herself with some annoyance.

“You didn’t ask.” Is Sunset’s almost emotionless response. “You didn’t even ask me if I could, or if I’d like to be part of the band. You just left me out, without considering me at all.”

This time the shame and discomfort is bigger on everyone’s faces. Fluttershy in particular tries to use her hair to hide her pained look.

Again it is Rainbow who recovers her senses to answer back.

“I… whatever. That doesn’t excuse you! You made Anon-a-Miss and you embarrassed us all! You broke our trust!”

Although all, or most of the girls seem to share that opinion, Sunset remains impassive as she responds again.

“You can’t break what you never had. Thanks to Anon-a-Miss, I can see now that you never really trusted me.”

The five friends seem to want to ask, but before they could the former unicorn speaks again.

“It was only after the Battle of the Bands that you, and the whole school, accepted me and forgave my past. But I couldn’t help but wonder… if it was just the fact of saving you, or if you really trusted that I had changed.”

“What difference there are?” Questions Applejack.

“It makes a world of difference, Applejack. I needed to know if you girls really trusted me. If you saw me as your friend. That’s why I created Anon-a-Miss, as an invisible enemy to test our friendship. I created the profile and intentionally messed it up, so everyone would think I was the culprit. In other words, I framed myself.”

“But, Sunsie, why would you do such a thing?” Pinkie Pie asks, looking quite shaken by the whole confession.

“Because I wanted to know if you would defend me against an attack. If you would trust me and doubt that I was responsible.”

Such an explanation leaves everyone present speechless.

“With the clues I left, it was a matter of time before someone at school tried to frame me. And at that point, it was a matter of seeing your reaction…and we all know what was the result.”

The memory of seeing Sunset cry at the accusation and shouting from everyone comes to the mind of the six, causing a barrage of feelings.

Fluttershy has an averted look as she nervously rubs a strand of her hair, before getting up enough courage to turn her eyes to her former friend.

“But then… does that mean you just faked it when everyone accused you?”

“I never pretended, Fluttershy.” Sunset responds somewhat coldly, and then her expression turns hurt. “When the five of you accused me of being Anon-a-Miss, without even doubting it a bit, it hurt me…it hurt me that my friends didn’t even think for a moment that I might be innocent.”

There’s a pause where Sunset seems to be waiting for an answer, but neither of them says anything, so she continues.

“I left too obvious clues. I did an act that didn’t match to my way of doing things. I even cried and begged for you to believe me, but none of you doubted my guilty. You were all sure that I had returned to my bad habits.”

The Rainbooms can hear the growing pain in Sunset’s voice as she gives her explanation.

“I don’t!” Suddenly Pinkie calls out, surprising the group. “I didn’t believe it… I didn’t want to believe it… I didn’t want to believe that our friend would do that to us.”

“…me neither…” Fluttershy confesses. “When I saw you crying, I thought you were innocent. I didn’t think… you were capable of doing something like that.”

There is surprise on everyone’s face, especially Sunset. Although it doesn’t last long, and instead, the flame-haired girl’s face becomes hurt.

“And yet, neither of you did anything or said anything to help me.”

Both pink-haired girls look away, ashamed and harmed.

“Is that what this was all about? A test?” Question the dressmaker.

“One we failed?!” Adds the farmer girl in an aggressive voice, although she lets us notice a certain regret.

Sunset is silent for a moment. Eyes closed, arms half crossed under her chest, and head bowed.

“In hindsight it was a bad plan. I probably would have been left alone and friendless no matter the outcome.” She allows herself a sigh before finishing. “I’m barely learning about friendship. But, I did learn something from this… ”

Sunset’s light emerald eyes look around the group, each looking back at her with different emotions - conflicting emotions.

“…you are bad friends.”

With that statement, Sunset turns around and hastily strides out of the store, not giving any of the Rainbooms time to say or do anything. All of them remain silent, their gazes and expressions constantly changing, revealing their inner struggle with their mixed thoughts and feelings.

~*~*~ Anon-a-Miss ~*~*~

I

can’t

believe

you would do THAT!!!

Sunset sighed as she read the message, and the way Princess Twilight had written it, through her journal.

I know Twilight, I know.

Sitting on the couch in her ‘living room’, Sunset leans back against the armrest and has both feet on the couch, allowing herself to bend her knees up to rest the newspaper on her lap.

Sunset had to wait a couple of seconds before more words appeared on the page.

"You know"?

SUNSET! I think you DON’T know what you did!

You cheated on your friends and then you lied to them! You lied to ME!

Sunset looks worried, and somewhat sad as she reads that message, but she still answers.

I’m sorry Twilight. I needed to know whose side you were going to be on.

Also, your messages served to help me with this.

If they didn’t believe you, they would never believe me.

After stopping writing Sunset has to wait for a while for a reply. Several seconds pass in which Sunset is getting very nervous. She seems ready to write something else, but then the words appear on their own in the princess’s handwriting.

Sunset, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m… disappointed.

Though hurt, Sunset can’t help but roll her eyes.

Yeah, join the club. You’re not the first teacher to say that to me.

I’m serious Sunset! Why did you think doing this was a good idea?!

I confess that in retrospective, it wasn’t a good plan.

But the worst of this

Sunset allows herself a couple of seconds before completing that sentence.

It worked.

Not just the Rainbooms, but the whole school has shown that they don’t trust me.

Despite what I’ve done against the Sirens, and everything I’ve done to prove I’ve changed, to CHS I’m still the queen bitch who wants to hurt others.

“Hurting people wasn’t even my goal to begin with.”

Sunset thinks to herself, debating whether she should write it. Once again, it’s Twilight’s writing that stops her.

Whether it worked or not, what you did was a terrible thing! It will take a lot of work to earn back the trust of the whole school.

Sunset’s eyes narrow with some annoyance.

“I can’t get back something I never had.”

She thinks to herself, but decides to write something different.

Is it even worth it?

…

What do you mean? They’re your friends, Sunset.

The former unicorn shakes her head as she writes.

They have shown me they aren’t. Any little mistake on my part will make everyone hate me again.

It’s like you didn’t fix anything Twilight. The school can be easily manipulated.

The Rainbooms are not my friends, they never were. And after this, I don’t know if I want to be their friend.

This time it was my doing. But what would have happened if it wasn’t been me? Is it so easy to frame me to make them turn against me?

Is it so easy to fool the school and have everyone in it turn against one person?

Is that

Sunset needs to take a moment before she can write the end of her question.

friendship?

After writing that, Sunset looks at the diary for longer than she herself expected. Worrying later that several minutes would pass without an answer. Still she just leaves the pen on her table in front of the sofa, and waits…

Finally the new letters are formed illuminating her face when appearing.

I think there is a lot to deal with.

Perhaps it was too soon on my part to be overconfident. Clearly the school, and yourself, aren’t ready to learn about friendship.

Sunset can’t help but cross her arms and let out an annoyed as well hurt moan, remembering the times her former teacher said something similar to her.

I have a lot to do here in Equestria. But as soon as I go back home, I’ll cross the portal and we’ll talk.

We all are going to talk about the matter and try to fix this.

Another moan escapes from Sunset. The thought of being scolded by Twilight while being forced to talk to her former friends makes her frustrated.

A moment passes where Twilight stops writing, and Sunset seems too upset to do so. Once again it is the princess who resumes the written dialogue.

Sunset, what are you going to do now?

The red nd gold-haired girl calms down her frustration and instead looks dejected at the thought of the question. It takes her a bit to gather her thoughts to respond.

Finally she picks up the pen again and writes her answer.

Tomorrow, I will make a final post on Anon-a-Miss, confessing everything and my motives.

The school already hates me so it won’t make a difference.

After that… I don’t know.

The holidays are close, so I think I’ll just finish the week and then take a break to think.

I’ve already spent the holidays alone. So that doesn’t matter.

If you want you can come to Equestria.

Don’t worry, I promise not to bring up Anon-a-Miss while we’re here.

This served to give Sunset a smile. Soft, melancholic, but sincere.

I will think about it. Thanks Twilight.

I’ll write to you tomorrow. Good night.

Don’t mention it!

Let’s talk tomorrow. Good night.

With a satisfied look, Sunset allows herself to close the book and put it on the table.

Her smile soon falls, replaced by a sigh and a slightly tired frowning. Sunset gets up and walks to the window, noticing the soft fall of snow on the street.

“…Merry Christmas, Sunset.”

Author's Note

Hi there!

This is the result of a week-long marathon reading Anon-a-Miss stories, and asking myself, "Is there a story where Sunset was actually responsible for Anon-a-Miss?"
And so I decided to write this. Even after Rainbow Rocks Sunset is still inexperienced in friendship, so it's not unreasonable that she had an idea like this.

This was meant to be a oneshot, as I'm not sure how the story could go on, though I have a couple of ideas. Let me know if you would like it.