“Where did the other girl go?” Rarity, the girl who was assigned as their tour guide asked as the small group left the offices and started walking down the hall while ignoring the tense, yet curious stares of the surrounding students.

“She tends to do this, don’t worry.” Musa said, visibly amused as Tecna shook her head. Stella may have been a year older, but sometimes she acted so much more immature which was kind of funny. When it was time to get serious there was nobody else you wanted on your side than the fairy of the sun and moon.

“Stella tends to like exploring on her own. She just doesn’t really have the patience to follow any kind of tour for long.” Tecna explained as the pale girl looked so flabbergasted at what happened. “Don’t worry, she will be okay.”

“If you say so, darling.” Rarity sighed as she began pointing out various rooms of importance as the trekked down the main hall away from the office. The tense atmoshphere refused to let up as the tour continued. “Tell me, where did you say you girls was from again?”

“Italy.” Tecna said as she was the one who had gone over this world’s geography as she studied what she felt they would need to know. She found it weird that this world was not Earth or Gardenia, yet all three worlds shared so many similatities.

“So close to France, have you ever been to Paris?” Rarity asked excitedly, the other two shaking their heads making the pale girl pout.

“I was wondering something there, Rares. Why does there seem to be so much tension in the air?” Musa asked, getting a slight nod from Tecna. Now would be a good time to perhaps get a feel for what others thought in person rather than an antiquated social media hub. Tecna wanted to sigh as she had to yet remind herself that these people couldn’t help it, to them this was state of the art technology while to Tecna she learned to hack this kind of stuff when she was three.

“I guess I should explain a few things to you girls before you run afoul of the heinous actions of a certain individual.” Rarity sighed, hugging herself as a sad, contemplative look crossed her face.

“Sunset Shimmer?” Musa asked, arching a brow at the pale girls reaction.

“How did you know that, darling?” Rarity asked in shock.

“I may have looked through this MyStable thing when we learned we were transferring in this week. I found a lot of contradictory posts actually concerning Sunset.” Tecna said.

“Well, not to be unladylike, but that monster is nothing but a heinous liar and backstabber.” Rarity snorted, “When she fell from grace, we reached out a hand in friendship to help her. Everything seemed to be going great until Anon-A-Miss showed up.”

“So you believe this account to belong to Sunset?” Tecna asked.

“I get that you would be wary, but are you sure the girl isn’t being framed for this?” Musa asked, able to see the hurt and confusion mixed in with the anger of their tour guide.

“Darling, there is an old saying that is perfect for Sunset Shimmer. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Rarity said, her eyes hardening a little. “Of course I don’t want to believe it after everything we’ve been through together, but there is irrefutable proof.”

“May I ask what proof there is?” Tecna asked, realizing that this was the lynchpin in why everyone believed the account to belong to Sunset.

“Of course we stood by her side when it first started, refuting anyone who even suggested she was behind it. Then we had the slumber party as my house and Sunset took some rather humiliating pictures of us and posted them on the site. They came from her phone, there was no other way they could have gotten on there as they were posted first thing that Monday!” Rarity sniffled, the two had a weird feeling the girl was fighting back a wail or some other kind of theatrics.

“Wait, what kind of pictures are you talking about? Did she take pictures of you girls changing or something?” Musa asked, a little anger seeping into her voice at the disgusting thought of somebody doing that.

“No, darling, it was so much worse.” Rarity said, holding a fist in front of her face as dark tear tracks traced her cheeks from her now ruined mascara. “She took pictures of us playing around and trying on the most garish outfits from my closet of shame. As a designer, that could destroy my career if it got out I made those!”

This right here was the perfect example of why Tecna normally preferred logic to emotions. Of course thanks to her friends she has gotten use to showing emotions, but it was times like these that made her wonder what good they could actually be as this had to be one of the most ridiculous displays she has ever seen in her life.

“And you are sure nobody could have hacked her phone?” Tecna asked, crossing her arms.

“Darling, things just don’t work that way. Somebody would have had to gotten possession of Sunset’s phone to get the pictures and she claimed to have never let it leave her side.” Rarity said.

“Was there somebody else there that would have done it?” Musa asked, as Rarity shook her head in denial.

“It was only my friends there with Sunset. Well, other than my little sister, but she wouldn’t know how to hack it.” Rarity explained as Tecna pulled her so called tablet from her bag.

“Maybe Sunset leaves it unlocked or something.” Musa suggested.

“Well, yeah, she does leave it on. She say she never uses it for anything that she would have to lock it for. Just chatting with us and taking pictures.” Rarity said, “That doesn’t change anything though.”

“May I attempt to hack your phone and copy the pictures from it with my tablet?” Tecna asked, Musa giving her an amused look.

“Of course you can try darling, but you will-“ Rarity said, before being cut off by Tecna.

“Done.” Tecna said, flipping the tablet around to show Rarity her entire gallery of photos from the pale girl’s phone. It was child’s play for Tecna to grab them to prove a point. Then again for most people on this world it would be impossible, but it was nothing for the technology obsessed fairy.

“How!” Rarity asked in shock as she leaned forward to double check everything.

“It’s child’s play. Of course I wouldn’t go around doing this for no reason, but it is possible.” Tecna explained as she made a show of deleting them off the tablet for Rarity’s benefit.

“Still, they were posted so quickly.” Rarity said, doubt lacing her trembling voice. The bell ringing made them jolt as they would need to head to class.

“Just think about it.” Musa said as Rarity could only nod.

“I need to fix my makeup, will you two be okay alone now?” Rarity asked softly.

“Sure we will, right Tecna?” Musa chirped, getting a nod from the girl in answer.

The first period was mind numbingly boring for Tecna as she listened to a teacher drone on and on about math problems that she learned years ago. She couldn’t help checking her tablet every few minutes as she had a feeling that the people behind this account would sign on sooner or later with the frequency that posts were being made. It was after a change in scenery as she had to change classes before something triggered her traps alerting her to the account being accessed. Pulling up the video that was being broadcasted to every device in the building as it turned on the webcam and microphone on the device that was in use to show who was using it.

Tecna was shocked, even a little sick as she found who was behind all of this turmoil and tension in this school. It was three girls maybe half her age who sat at the computer in what looked like a library arguing quietly on what to post next. The mircrophone managed to pick it up though as Tecna started to turn her trap off as these were children and outing them like this could end badly for them, something Tecna didn’t want to happen.

“Girls, I don’t think we should do this anymore. Have you seen Sunset since I stole her phone and uploaded those pictures?” One of the girls asked.

“Don’t be such a cry baby, Sweetie Belle! We have that monster almost away from your sisters and Dash!” One of the others snapped.

“Now girls, don’t go fightin!” The third sighed, “We have a lot of options to pick from all of the secrets that was sent in. Just a few more and ah bet we can get Sunset kicked out of the school!”

“I never agreed to that Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle cried out before the feed was cut by Tecna. It was too late though as pretty much everyone in school had seen the video as emergency notifications pinged marking the stream as extremely important making Tecna groan in frustration. This was bad, very bad.

“I’m sorry, you what?” Sunset asked in complete shock, tears building up as she stared in horror up at Celestia.

“I’m sorry, Sunset, but even you have your phone not leaving your side combined with your past misdeeds have put me in a tough spot. I really don’t want to do this, but with the pressure from the parents I have no choice. From this point on, you are-“ Celestia was saying with a look or frustration and sadness before the emergency notification rung out on her phone. As she watched the short stream horror replaced her expression as anguish filled Sunset’s own.

“Am I still explelled?” Sunset asked, her voice taking on a defeated and hollow tone.

“No of course not!” Celestia managed to choke out. “Sunset, I am so sorry! I never wanted it to even get this far!”

“Can I go back to class?” Sunset asked.

“Maybe you should take the rest of the day off and rest. Let things settle down here.” Celestia suggested.

“Can I go back to class?” Sunset hissed out angrily taking Celestia aback, the older woman only nodding as Sunset got up and stumbled out of the office with books in her arms.

“Are you okay?” Stella asked joining Sunset who shook her head in a negative response.

“Not really, no.” Sunset finally replied. “I just learned that three brats were responsible for a lot of the hardships I’ve had to deal with lately. What am I supposed to do about that? No matter how much I want to punch them, I can’t! They’re freaking kids!”

“Maybe we should get out of here. We can go to your place and talk it out.” Stella suggested, only to shrink in on herself from the glare Sunset sent her way.

“What place?” Sunset snarled, “I have no home, no where to go! The only meal I’m probably going to freaking have today is my free lunch! And that old bat hasn’t even been giving me decent portion sizes since this all started!”

“You're homeless?” Stella asked in shock and horror. How could anyone be homeless? She’d only ever heard of that on the most desolate of worlds.

“So what?” Sunset asked defensively.

“What about your family?” Stella asked softly.

“Never had them and every time I thought I found one, they threw me away like trash.” Sunset said as she fought back tears.

“I’ll be your family.” Stella offered, truly meaning it. “Come back to Alfea and you will have a home and a family.”

“No offense, but why should I trust you?” Sunset asked, not intending on giving yet more people a chance to hurt her. “Besides, I’m not some damned charity case! I’m sick of being treated either like some charity case to make others feel better about themselves or a monster!”

“You wouldn’t be a charity case.” Stella sighed as the bell rang and Sunset turned away to stalk to class. Maybe she would go home after lunch, or at least somewhere she could find a decent place to hunker down for the night.

The bell rang cutting off anymore conversation as Sunset stalked off toward her next class leaving a very worried looking blonde fairy behind.

Author's Note

I'm not sure if I can get another chapter out before Christmas, if not hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy Hearthswarming!