One Heck of a Roadblock

Author's Notes:

I made a few slight differences in this fic ,making it feel a little more real world (as real world as it can) to blend with everything else. Also I kind of made Canterlot a junior and senior high ( 7th -12th) to explain the Crusaders being there. They look younger than 14 to me. A bit. That and the other school is a junior/senior high too. Also I have headcanoned that some names are nicknames, and they have a different name on file. Sunset made hers up to match some of the people in the world. ‘Sarah Summers’.

When you’ve lost someone’s trust it’s really damn hard to get it back. Sunset Shimmer learned this very well after the Fall Formal, the hard way. The entire school hated her after what she did and even her friends were still so awkward around her , she sometimes wondered if they were her friends.

They were nice but it was clear they hadn’t forgotten. Why would they?

It was easy to not care that people dislike her before this. Her heart had been opened, and in a way it made it more painful at times. But she didn’t want to go back to what she used to be, because she would only dig her hole deeper.

The Dazzlings showed up and whipped the school into a frenzy. Everyone was whipped up into a hyper competitive craze over that Battle of the Bands thing. Well except the Rainbooms , but they had their own problems that were slowly building up. Sunset saw them and wanted to say something but what did the girl who terrorized Canterlot High for three years and turned into a literal demon know about friendship?

As she watched the school slowly lose itself in the frenzy, she started to see her old self in it all. A part of her she tried to suppress thought “well now they know what it’s like.” If they could only see themselves right now. Soon the Dazzlings’ power even corrupted her friends. Twilight, the one who they all looked to for answers had been too busy trying to write the perfect spell.

When she faced Twilight at the Fall Formal, Sunset learned that Twilight was more powerful and wiser than she gave her credit for. However this time around Sunset learned that Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship was still human (well in a manner of speaking).

When the Rainbooms’ problems all blew up into one big fight, Sunset watched her attempts to keep her concerns to herself blow up in her face. She watched the fighting and that little demon voice in her head reminded her that it was her fault. Just as much this time as last time. The mist surrounded them, and as she watched their friendship fall apart, it was as if her insides were pulling themselves apart. Without the Rainbooms she would have no one.

Was this was Twilight felt when she watched her her best friends’ sniping and yelling at each other? If so, Sunset told herself, she had a big apology to make, again.

But if they didn’t pull it together all of Canterlot High , and maybe the world was in trouble. To her surprise what seemed like a friendship ending fight was dissolved with some calm words.

Sunset didn’t expect that she would do much during the final fight. Twilight and her friends were the ones with the real power, the last time she had been in a magic battle, bad things happened. But the sirens were powerful enough to knock the instruments out of their hands, and into hers.

“Sunset, we need you!”

The most nerve wracking words she ever heard, She gulped and picked up the microphone, , behind her Vinyl started up a new beat.

‘Don’t mess this up, Sunset’.

Who could say why, but when she cleared her fears away the words just seemed to come to her.

You're never gonna bring me down
You're never gonna break this part of me
My friends are here to bring me 'round
Not singing just for popularity

Behind her, Twilight got up to join. The sirens were furious, but now outnumbered. Sunset continued, and as she sang she felt a comforting warmth around her. By the time she realized what was happened, she would normally have been scared, but she felt the opposite. Everything was going to be okay.

The magic coursed through her, this time soothing like cool water in the summertime, instead of painful and terrifying. She had forgotten how amazing Equestrian magic felt.

The power boost was just what they needed to clinch the win. The people in the crowd were treated to one heck of a lightshow as the Dazzlings were hit with a magical sky alicorn.

There was probably no special effects known to man that could match that.

In that one night she had gotten back , well, most of the school’s forgiveness as well as her friends. Sunset liked to think that after all that, and seeing what it was like to be who she used to be, that they wouldn’t be so quick to judge on her.

Well, so much for hoping…

It all started with an attempt to reach out to her, when she expressed loneliness about the holidays. That was the worst part of it all.

Sunset told Applejack that she was never one to really celebrate the holidays much. She lived alone and she had gotten used to being alone and not even bothering with the holidays. Apparently Applejack decided that just wouldn’t do. She got the other girls to get together and arrange sleepovers at their houses and inviting her.

The first was at Pinkie Pie’s house, much like the sleepover they had when Twilight was in town. It started with a cute family story Applejack told her about a nickname she was given as a kid. It made Sunset feel warm inside that Applejack trusted her with something like that. If asked if she would have mocked it on the internet, even before this all happened, Sunset would have told you ‘Celestia no!’.

They had a great time and nothing much happened.

Then the next one happened at Rarity’s house. Sunset took videos and pictures with her phone, true. But for her own use. That would come around to bite her in the rear, in a huge way.

That night she remembered writing in her journal to Twilight about what a great time she had. She set her phone to the side and fell asleep. If it had been taken she would have never known. She still thought about that, what she could have done differently.

Apparently soon after that, the pictures wound up on the internet again, on MySpace. Sunset knew because the girls confronted her with it, some person called Anon-a-Miss.

Sunset never got into MySpace. She tinkered with it a bit when she first arrived but then dismissed it for other important things.

Seeing her pictures up on that site she had no memory of making, saying things she had no memory of saying, she was left with nothing to say. She drew a blank. No matter what she said those were her pictures, and she had a huge track record against her.

The girls all had their turn chewing her out. Sunset was left sobbing on the floor, all her friends lost.

She couldn’t blame them for being suspicious, she would be. But she wished they had thought to ask themselves ‘why’? Why would she do that after all she’d done to earn back their forgiveness.

What would she have to gain? She wouldn’t have the fear of the students, only their ire.

Was it really that hard to ask why?

It wasn’t long after that she was locked out of band practice. Word had spread around and now everyone was giving her looks. Anon-A-Miss kept spreading around secrets and everyone glared at her as if she was doing it. Sometimes Sunset found herself not even sure of what she knew.

She was alone again.

Almost a week felt like a month, and she dreaded coming to school. The next Friday in math class the principal's voice came over the intercom asking to see her in the principal’s office. Many of her classmates smirked at her and swore she heard a few whispering their hopes she’d be expelled.

She sighed and grit her teeth as she got up and went to the door. At this point, she wouldn’t mind being expelled either.

Maybe she was still remembering what the Principals were like under the Dazzlings spell, but she half- expected to be chewed out thoroughly. She took a deep breath before opening the door preparing herself for a good telling off. She’d probably end up in tears today somehow anyway.

She opened the door and sat down, resigned to her fate.

“Hello Sunset, we……” There was a pause’ “Sunset...are you all right?”

“I know what this is about. I can’t prove I’m not Anon-a-Miss. I know I’m not, at least I think I do, but I can’t really prove it. All I know is that I wouldn’t do this ...I wouldn’t. Not after all…..do you know what I had to get through to get back everyone’s trust?” And from there she broke down, spilling every vulnerable thought she’d had since this all started, maybe before. Before she knew it she was sobbing into her hands, and talking about how she should just give up hope. Hoping never did much for her anyway. Things just kept getting worse,

“Sunset….Sunset…. sweetheart calm down” She had never heard the Principal call anyone that. “We can’t let you just walk out if we think you’re going to harm yourself. There’s got to be something we can do about this”.

“Why? I-it’s not like” Sniff “It’s not like there’s anything that can be done. No one will ever- no one here will trust me again” Oh no, she was ugly-crying, wasn’t she? Was that a snort. Urgh. She felt almost disgusted with herself now.

Celestia couldn’t even argue with that.

“Look Sunset, I understand you’re having a hard time. I don’t think you did it. I can do what damage control I can.”

“I…”Sniff “I appreciate the offer, b-but there’s no way to make anyone believe anything.”

“I can make sure no one gives you a hard time.” Still she wouldn’t have any friends. Sunset tried to dry up her tears before more came.

“You know” Vice Principal Luna said, “If this school environment is going to be difficult , we can always transfer you.”

Sunset looked up abruptly. “You can?”

“I don’t know ...maybe this will all be solved if we give it time.” Celestia said.

“Come on” Sunset said. “You know how they used to look at me, you think they’ll forgive this?”

“...do you?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow. “You know how long a teenager can hold a grudge.” Sunset groaned and buried her face in her hands.

“That is true.” Celestia sighed. “Well still let’s give it some thought. See what happens in a few days and if anything happens we promise we’ll transfer you immediately.”

Sunset promised she would think on it, she thought about writing to Twilight Sparkle, but hesitated. She didn’t think she could take it if someone else was suspicious of her.

‘But Twilight wouldn’t do that, she’d listen to my side of the story’ Sunset told herself.

‘But what if she didn’t?’ The demon voice asked.

“She will” Sunset shook it off and moved on, getting through the rest of the day. She thought about what Celestia said. Maybe if she tried to talk to the girls. She walked by them in the cafeteria and tried giving a smile, but all she got were glares.

Rainbow leaned over to Applejack and muttered something. “She’s mocking us, I know it.”

Sunset sighed and walked away, not even bothering to look back and see the gesture that Rainbow was giving her.

Why even put herself through the stress?

She got through her days gritting her teeth and ignoring everyone. It got increasingly easier as her resentment built. Her conscience kept telling her she should talk to Twilight about this. But the doubt lingered in the back of her mind. If her friends could easily turn on her, who’s to say Twilight wouldn’t.

She told herself she’d try in the morning before she went to bed. At least until the dream she had. She was writing in the journal telling Twilight everything that had happened. She waited with baited breath for Twilight to provide an answer.

“Why should they trust you?”

What?

“I didn’t do it. What would I have to gain by it?”

“I don’t know, but you had no trouble before? How can they trust you? Besides, you said yourself, you had doubts.”

“But that’s….I mean...I didn’t mean it like that!”

Sunset’s heart pounded.

‘Well if you can’t explain it why should anyone believe you?’

“Twilight….” Tears blurred her vision.

‘I’m disappointed in you Sunset. I thought you could be better than this. If I’m going to have a student, it’s going to be someone who I can trust and who won’t fail me. Don’t contact me again Sunset. You failed...you failed Celestia and you failed me.”

Sunset sat upright in her bed, her chest heaving. She felt tears rolling down her face. She had dreams about being chastised by her own demon self, and Celestia. But hearing it from Twilight, now was just too much.

She stared at the journal on her desk, now with dread. She couldn’t.

Not right now.

She got up and slammed it shut and stuffed it in her bag. She decided then that tomorrow she was going to go to the principal’s and ask about transferring. What happened that morning didn’t make her decision any harder.

She was walking to her locker avoiding everyone around her. It was less painful if she went to her classes like a guided missile, disregarding everything in between. As she was turning around to go to class she felt something hit her in the back, knocking her to the ground.

“Hey Sun-slut!”

It was one of the football boys.

She grit her teeth and pulled herself up. She tried anyway, until she was knocked down again. Ugh, why was she so dizzy?

“What’s the matter, Demon girl? is it hard work snooping out everyone’s secrets?” She tried to push herself up to face her attacker. Urgh… she leaned against the lockers.

She could vaguely make him out as her vision cleared.

“Not going to say anything huh? You know you’re guilty.” Another shove.

“No...I’m...I’m not” She wished she had gotten more sleep last night. One thing stood out in her mind as she fell against the locker too dizzy to stand up. Was there no one who would stand up for her?

“Hey! What’s going on here” Oh thank Celestia….

That was Celestia

“It was an accident!”

“We were just messing around”

“Yeah right” Celestia sounded downright furious. “Vice Principal Luna will take care of you until I’m done making sure she’s okay”

“Why are you protecting her? Do you know what she did?”

“I think I know what she did better than you. All of you follow Luna.” And Celestia called out a name that made Sunset’s blood run cold. “Flash Sentry! Get over here!”

Flash?

Had Flash just watched her get ganged up on and not done anything?

She knew she was never kind to him, but did he hate her that much?

“You, go with them I saw you there. You’re not innocent in this.”

“But- I didn’t..”

“Go” There was no room for arguing there.

She would have been crying if she didn’t feel so sick.

“Sunset, are you alright?”

“Yeah...I-I think” She groaned.

“Can you see how many fingers I’m holding up?”

“....two….three….I guess” Celestia groaned and started helping her up. She was helped to the nurse’s office slowly getting her vision back, again. She was relieved when the door was shut behind them, and she could lie down and finally rest. She ended up dozing off to sleep again. The last thing she heard was “could be a concussion.”

It was nice to get a dreamless sleep sometimes, especially when she was already having nightmares. If she had to guess it was because her body was too exhausted to wind her up about anything.

She wasn’t sure when it was that she woke up. When she did she was still in Nurse Redheart's office.

“Good afternoon, Sunset.” Celestia was at her side. “Did you sleep well?”

“For once, yeah.” She said rubbing her head.

“For once? Have you not been sleeping well?” She looked concerned, as did Nurse Redheart.

“Not since this all started. The nightmares I used to have came back.” She said. “Back before everyone forgave me. I couldn’t get her voice out of my head.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone about this.” Sunset pursed her lips, thinking. How could she say this without worrying anyone more?

“Well...to be honest I kinda thought I deserved it.” She said, looking away from the expressions of shock and sympathy she was probably getting.

“Nobody deserves this, Sunset.”

“Yeah…..I guess…” Tell that to her subconscious.

“I wish I had known about this sooner.” That was a surprise. To be honest she had long since thought that Celestia and Luna hated her too. “I think, in light of recent events, moving you to a different school would be a good idea. This isn’t good for you or anyone else. I can get Luna to give you a ride home while I get the papers ready.”

“Sunset, you should stay home for a few days.”

“I think I’d like that”

“Get some rest. You need it, and you deserve it. No matter what you did, you shouldn’t have to put up with this treatment.”

Principal Celestia looked all over the school system for a fitting school She didn’t choose too close, because she was looking for somewhere that Sunset could truly get a new start. Schools around their city might know what happened. Eventually she found a school one city over that looked like a good possibility.

James Jasper Junior/Senior High.

She had gone to school with some of the Jasper family and knew that they were pretty decent. The school itself had a few rumors floating around it, but most of those had to do with the historical reputation of the town.

Witchaven, Illinois.

Rumored to this day to be home to all sorts of supernatural urban legends. However none of that had to do with Sunset, as none of it was magic from where she came from. She may not like being far away from the portal to her home, but she’d be happier at this school than Canterlot High at the moment.

The only question remaining was, how would she get to school?

Celestia pushed that thought away to worry about later. She looked into the staff at the school and made a call to Jacob Jasper. about a 'Sarah Summers'. Well that was the name she put into the file anyway.

Redirection

Sunset spent most of her days off catching up on sleep. She hadn’t realized how the stress of the whole situation had hit her until she was able to sleep nearly twenty four hours. It was a bit worrying but she had to admit she hadn’t felt so relaxed in ages.

The only thing niggling in the back of her mind was the journal. She wanted to use it. But at the same time she wondered what Twilight would tell her. There was no use convincing her otherwise the deal was already done. Honestly, Sunset didn’t want to be convinced otherwise either. She wanted to believe she made the right choice for her.

So she shoved the journal out of her thoughts.

Christmas was spent alone. She left one little gift for the people who were letting her stay. She was grateful to them for being so lenient on her pay. She just had to scrounge together some money at the first of the month. Before this she had lived at a homeless shelter. At the time, Sunset had considered it embarrassing, and she tried not to be seen.

Now, she didn’t think she’d mind it as much. It was a place to live. The people had been nice to her even if she didn’t seem to notice as she became more crazed by her pursuit of power.

A few days after Christmas, she got a call from Principal Celestia.

“Hello Sunset, I hope you had a nice holiday.”

“I did, thanks. I hope yours was nice.”

‘It was. I’ve got a school for you. It’s a bit of a ways away, I wanted to give you a fresh start. Is distance going to be a problem?”

“I don’t think so. It’s in the same state, right?”

“Yes. On the other side of the city though.”

“Oh…well. that’s no problem.” She would have to make arrangements for where she would live again.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, what’s the school called?”

“James Jasper Junior Senior High” Hm, she had read about James Jasper in a history book Supposedly a guy who created a town where ‘witches’ fled during the times they were under suspicion. “I noticed your file says your name is Sarah Summers” Sunset flinched. When she first got into the school, one of the first things she did was figure out how to give herself file information. Sarah Summers was the name that she put on a lot of her official papers, whether here or under her lease agreement.

“Yeah, that was an official name I’ve been using for, uh, official things.” That was redundant sounding.

“I see.” Celestia sounded very amused. “Well then. I imagine you don’t mind that I forwarded that file.”

“That’s fine.”

“Is this school alright with you?”

“It sounds great. Thanks again.” When they hung up, Sunset got out her phone and looked up James Jasper High. Just as Celestia said, it was in a town on the other side of the city called ‘Witchaven’. It didn’t look too bad, she was expecting a smaller town. It even had a private college or two nearby.

The Christmas party was awkward from the start, the girls hadn’t even been sure if they were going to go through with it. The whole thing was originally supposed to be for Sunset, that only made things worse. The last thing they had heard on it was that Sunset switched schools after being hit in the head and nearly fainting.

Rainbow Dash was the most intent on not talking about it, insistent that Sunset was guilty and was leaving to escape it. The others weren’t sure. Applejack wanted to know the truth , Fluttershy just didn’t want to talk about it. Pinkie wanted to keep everything fun, from the time the girls arrived she was doing everything she could think of to keep people entertained and hopefully not talking about ‘you know what’.

Rarity sat at a table doing her nails and sipping cocoa while making conversation with Mrs. Cake. Rainbow Dash was enjoying all the food and occasionally playing games with Pinkie and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

“Man, where are Fluttershy and Applejack?” She asked biting into a red velvet cupcake with a mountain of green icing.

“Christmas Eve service, darling.” Rarity said, painting Sweetie Belle’s nails in shades of red and green.

“Oh yeah, their church thing.” Rainbow blew a strand of hair out of her face. “It’s not going to take long is it?”

“Just an hour, dear”

“An hour? C’mon! How long does it take to read a little bit of words and then pray? I mean I know I can read slowly but it doesn’t take me an hour to read a paragraph.” Rainbow looked around at everyone staring at her. “What?”

Most of the people in the room just shook their heads. “Don’t say that in front of them”

They continued waiting until the door opened and a familiar pair came in, Applejack and Fluttershy, with Apple Bloom trailing behind.

“Sorry” Applejack said “Service ran a bit long.” As soon as Applebloom met Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo’s eyes she met up with the two of them and they took off, probably for some big scheme of theirs.

“Did we miss anything?”

“Not really.”

“The party was just getting started!” Pinkie pulled out a santa hat and jammed it on Fluttershy’s head.

“...thanks” The two of them set their presents under the small tree.

“Can we open them now?” Rainbow Dash was eyeing them excitedly scoping out which were hers.

“Maybe not…”

“Why not?” Applejack said quickly. “There’s presents under there for everyone “ Everyone looked a little surprised, after all Applejack had been the most insistent on waiting to open presents to begin with. Everyone got up and grabbed their presents. They took turns opening them until everyone had opened all their presents. Thanks and hugs were shared between everyone.

“....hey what are those?” Pinkie asked, pointing at the remaining gifts.

“Uh…..well those…”

“They’re for Sunset” Fluttershy admitted, “They’ve been laying around in my closet for so long, and I just felt so guilty. Then ….then we talked about..f-forgiveness in sunday school last sunday...and…”

Rainbow groaned and rolled her eyes. “Is that why you got her like, four things?”

Fluttershy looked surprised. “I only got her one thing, and that was before all this. Everyone else who got her gifts gave them to me. I was going to drop them off by the place she’s staying but…”

“Yeah we know, you felt guilty.”

“Raina! There ain’t anything wrong with her feelin’ guilty. To be honest….I kinda feel guilty too” That got Rainbow Dash’s attention. Her friends only ever called her by her full name when they were really mad at her.

“Why? I thought we all agreed Sunset was Anon-a-miss. She knows what she did and that’s why she left schools!”

“Oh yes.” Rarity said, “I’m sure it had nothing whatsoever to do with being hit in the head with a basketball!”

“It was an accident!” Rainbow Dash said.

“Really? Is that what he told ya?” Applejack asked. Rainbow Dash gave her a sharp glare but had nothing to say. “The fact is she didn’t feel safe at Canterlot High. And we were the first to give her up!”

“Yeah well….you even said it yourself AJ, the evidence was obvious.”

“It looked obvious” Applejack admitted.

“Maybe we should have a least let her tell her side of the story” Fluttershy said.

“She had the chance! When we confronted her!” Rainbow Dash said. “Look you guys, it’s obvious. Sunset betrayed us. We did all that helping her, and she repaid us by spreading our secrets around for a cheap laugh. We were generous to her, and she threw it back in our face” She looked over to Rarity for backup.

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why would she sacrifice everythin’ she’s been working for for a cheap laugh at the expense of the only close friends she has?”

Rainbow Dash faltered, “Because…...because…...because she’s gone back to her old ways”

“Why?”

“Because she just did. She did all that stuff before, and she decided friendship wasn’t worth it, I guess” She said, tossing her hands up in the air.

“After she had just won back the respect of the whole school, had friends, and became a student to Twilight?”

“.......” To this Rainbow Dash had nothing. She stood biting her lip , trying to think of a way out of it. “It’s the only thing that made sense okay?”

“It was the easy answer. Sunset was the most easy pick. But when you actually think beyond that, nothin’ about it makes sense. Not to mention, with the Battle of the Bands, everyone at this school proved that they had the potential to be just as nasty as Sunset was.”

“But they weren’t at the sleepover, were they?” Rainbow Dash said. The other girls all looked at each other. That was a good point.

“Well no one except our sisters and brothers, and we know Maud took Limey and Marble out for dinner and movies, so they weren’t even there.” Pinkie said.

“Big Mac was out with his friends.” Applejack said.

“My brother doesn’t live at home anymore’ Fluttershy shrugged, “and he’s been out with his friends a lot lately.” Fluttershy broke a piece off a cookie.

“That only leaves Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo…” Rainbow Dash said, “you think they are Anon-a-Miss?”

“I do think Sweetie Belle has better manners than that.” Rarity said.

“Well they did really want to get in on our sleepovers.” Pinkie pointed out, “And they seemed reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeallly upset they couldn’t.” Everyone stared at her with expressions of disbelief and bewilderment. “Just sayin’”

“...the first person to tell me it might be Sunset was Apple Bloom” Applejack said, in horrified realization. “and when we all didn’t get along, they were mad about havin’ to sneak out to meet because we wouldn’t talk to each other.” All of the girls looked from one to another in horror.

“Weren’t they here earlier?” Rainbow asked. “I know Scoot and Sweetie Belle were here before”

“They went off when Applebloom showed up”

“SUSAN MARIE BELLE!”

“BLOSSOM APPLEFIELD, Y’ALL BETTER GET YOUR HIND IN HERE RIGHT THIS MINUTE!”

“LUCY SCOTT, YOU BETTER GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE BEFORE I FIND YOU!”

It was a bit sad to leave her current landlords, Sunset had really grown to appreciate them since she had been here. There was a time when she had felt like , after the Fall Formal they were the only ones who cared. She explained the situation to them, once she gathered her things together. .

“I’ll really miss you. Thanks so much for all your help.”

“It was no problem , of all the people we rented out space to, you were the most dependable. We just hope wherever you’re going you’ll be happy.”

“I hope so.” She left them with a gift card from the money she had gotten from her jobs, that she hadn’t used to save for school supplies.. She took a bus across the city, leaving Canterlot and all around behind her. She still had Twilight’s book but due to many anxieties about explaining everything that happened she had put it off, and off and off. She should get around to it soon, lest Twilight think she was mad at her.

She watched out the window, as the city of Chicago passed by. She wanted to be excited about getting a new start, but in the back of her mind she still felt a little guilty. She could imagine the demon’s voice telling she was just giving up, like a coward.

‘No” she thought, There were other things she could have done if she were giving up. She was getting a new start somewhere else, leaving all her baggage behind.

Finally the bus stopped at a stop in Witchaven , and the noise it made snapped Sunset out of her thoughts. She got up, gathered her things and stepped down into downtown Witchaven. There were many blocks to the shelter, with a number of small businesses and stores along the way. Making herself a place at the shelter wasn’t hard She had brought the papers from the part time jobs she had. They seemed very willing to help a homeless teenager find a place to stay.

It was back on the bus again after that, with a folder full of report cards she had saved and a map to James Jasper High. Along the way, they passed a much larger private school along the way.

‘Royale Prep, Academy of the Fine Arts’, according to the pamphlet. Sunset distantly remembered Royale from the list of schools that participated in a four way competition that happened every few years , along with Crystal Prep and Canterlot.

They stopped at a fairly large high school, near a very elite neighborhood located between Royale Prep and James Jasper High.

The school’s campus was sprawling and fairly large. The main part of the school was probably two stories at most. One side of the school had rows of trailers, and a square shaped building nearby the trailers and the sports fields. The front building wasn’t nearly as tall as Canterlot High’s front hall. Instead of an impressive statue, there was a large rock painted with the school colors standing out at the front of the entrance to the school. .

Sunset made her way to the front office. She had a meeting with her new principal and teachers.

“Are you Sarah Summers?” A man with curly brown hair, and a very teacher like sweater vest stood in front of her. He held a hand out. “Jacob Jasper, I’m the Principal of JJ Junior Senior High.” Behind him was a woman with brown hair and blonde highlights. “This is -”

“Jennifer Jasper. Vice Principal “ The two looked like they could be related, and Sunset had to guess that running the school was a family business for the Jasper family. Understandable considering it was named after their ancestor.

“Yes. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise. I’ve been told by Celestia Solas that you’re a very good student.” There was something she never imagined a teacher would say about her, of all things. Not that she didn’t know she made good grades, but to her it felt like there were a lot of things that overshadowed that.

“I’m glad, I mean I try.” She handed him the folder she had., “I wasn’t sure if you needed this.”

“Well, the papers are already filled out, but this will certainly help in setting up your schedule. “ He took it and handed it to the vice principal. “We just about have it finished and now we can have it done by the time you finish the tour.”

“Tour?”

“Of the school? I’m sorry it’s something we like to do with transfer students so they’re not lost on their first day of school.” He led her into the office. “Your guide is on his way.”

Not long after, the office door opened and a dark haired man, looking around his early to mid twenties at most, came in. Sunset noted that he dressed very well. ‘Rarity would be impressed’ She pushed that thought away, as the pain of the last few days followed.

“Hi there, are you Sarah Summers” Sunset hoped she didn’t look like she was forcing a smile.

“Yeah.”

“Nice to meet you” He offered his hand and she took it, “I’m Mercury Stage, I teach 11th grade English, Creative Writing, Improv and Drama. With a name like mine, I suppose you can’t really not teach anything theatre related.” He chuckled, looking a bit sheepish. “Anyway, I’ll be showing you around. Since this fall, I’ve been the new teacher myself.”

“Thanks.” He led her out of the front office towards the cafeteria. “Did you have a nice Christmas?”

“Yeah. I caught up on sleep.” She noticed him looking concerned. Oh, right...parents.

“Well, I’m an only child and my parents are usually out of town. Or always.”

“...I see.” Sunset knew that tone, for a moment she thought he might be angry at her. ‘You haven’t done anything’ she reasoned to herself, ‘except fib a little.’ It’s a good thing for her parents that they were all the way in Equestria, because it seemed like her teacher already had some words for them. “So this is the cafeteria. We have rotating lunch periods, you’ll usually either get first lunch or second lunch. If you prefer not to eat in the cafeteria there’s a lot of teachers that will let you eat in their room. Just not the science classrooms.”

Sunset chuckled. “Yeah that doesn’t sound like somewhere I’d want to eat.”

“And if you follow me this way , there’s a hallway that separates the Junior High students from the Senior High. We’re Senior High so we’re going this way.” He led her to the right.

“So, what’s the school like?”

“You’re going to have to be more specific. I’d say we’re like any school..but then I don’t know that much about public schools. I went to private school until I graduated, my dad is the headmaster of Royale.”

“Oh wow….” Her first reaction was ‘that sucks’, but she had no way of knowing what kind of a school Royale was like. Mr. Stage gave a once over at her expression.

“Yeah, you’ve about got it” he said with a wry grin. “I’ve heard it before, sucks to be me.”

“So...how does it compare to private school?” Sunset asked , curious.

“It has it’s ups and downs. Don’t tell the Jaspers I said this but it’s a lot more lax and freewheeling than what I was used to,”

“Oh I’m sure nobody has to tell them that.” a voice from a doorway said. An older man, probably around his forties or older stood in a doorway. He had short graying black hair,glasses, and a goatee on his chin. Mr. Stage addressed him cooly.

“Hello Frederick.”

“Have a nice holiday, Mercury?” The man’s tone was pleasant enough but it was obvious there was some bad blood between these two.

“It was decent. Nice and quiet, you know, just how Jette prefers it.”

“Who’s this?” ‘Frederick’ was looking at Sunset with interest, and there was something about the way he looked over her that was giving her a serious case of the skeeves. Mr. Stage hesitated. “Well?”

“This is Sarah Summers, our new transfer from Canterlot High.” Mr. Stage said stiffly, “Sarah, this is Mr.-”

“Doctor!”

“Dr. Levine. Sorry about that Frederick , I tend to forget.” As nice as he made it sound, Sunset could tell it was a passive aggressive dig. So could Dr. Levine, it seemed.

“Mhm. I see. Well, I am the student counselor, if you have any trouble adjusting, dear, don’t be afraid to pop by my office and talk.”

“Sure” Sunset gave him what probably looked like a very pained smile.

“I’m sure Merc here has told you all about me. A lot of teachers tend to hold grudges. Funny how the teachers seem to act just like the students, isn’t it? Well I have things to do and a thesis to write. I’ll see you when school starts.” He smirked and gave Mr. Stage a wave before disappearing behind a shut door.

“C’mon, let’s go.” Mr. Stage said, trying very hard to sound friendly.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that not a lot of students visit him?”

“Yeah, but unfortunately he still manages to snag the younger and newer students. I would watch out for him, he was essentially forced on us by the school board. Money talks.”

“Noted.” Things warmed up quite a bit as they went by the other teachers who were much friendlier. Mr. Stage seemed to be on good terms with a lot of them, if not almost all of them. Not bad for a new guy.

“And this is where the 11th grade English room is. You’ll probably be seeing me here on Monday.”

“Can I ask a weird question?” Sunset asked.

“Sure, I’ve probably heard weirder.”

“Are there any students I should probably watch out for? I had some trouble at my last school” Mr. Stage nodded knowingly.

“Well, I like to think most of our crowd is pretty decent. But there have been a few who can be nastier than the rest.” He scratched his head,and looked through a sheet on his desk.

“Offhand I’d say Temp Foster. I don’t like to write off kids, but he’s caused a bunch of trouble and from what I see he doesn’t seem to feel sorry for any of it. There was some big game last year and he did, something and got everyone all worked up. “

The first thought that came to Sunset’s mind was ‘the Dazzlings’. They had already been beat, but what if there was someone with the same power that Twilight didn’t even know about. She might just need to look into that a bit.

“I’ll definitely steer clear of him then. “

“Any other questions” He asked.

“No that will about do it. Thanks for showing me around Mr. Stage. I look forward to seeing you when school starts.” For the first time in what seemed like a while she could say that with complete honesty.

“Same here. Don’t forget to stop by the office on your way out, they should have your schedule by now.” She made her way back to the office, and sure enough they did have her schedule printed out for her. She waited until she was on the bus to take it out and look over it.

Summers, Sara

Period Course Instructor Time
1 Trigonometry Edwards, Phoebe 8: 00 AM
2 English Stage, Mercury 9:10 AM
3 Chemistry Faulk, Jasper 10:15 AM
------------------------- First Lunch -------------------------
4 Journalism Dawnchase, Nova 12:10 PM
5 Sociology Devon, Iris 1:45 PM
6 US History Stafford, Neal 2: 50 PM

Sunset did a doubletake at the fourth name on that list. It looked like a pony name, or the type of nicknames she and her friends had. She was relieved to get Mr. Stage, she liked him so far. She’d just have to see how the other ones were. But at the very least they had no idea who she was and she could finally start fresh.

It had been an hour, Twilight looked back at the journal. Surely something must have happened by now. She looked back at it to check.

Still nothing.

The more time it had been since they last talked, the more she was gradually driven insane by anxiety. She knew something was up. This wasn’t normal. But she also knew that if something wasn’t up and she came barreling through on a suspicion, it would make her look insane, and worse- make Sunset feel like she wasn’t trusted by her own teacher.

She paced around the room trying to take up time, and read through her books even though she wasn’t paying attention. Her attempts to keep herself occupied weren’t working. Minutes felt like half-hours.

“Twilight….if you’re that worried why don’t you just go and find her?” Spike poked his head in the door.

“I don’t know, maybe it’ll turn out that she’s just really busy and I’ll end up looking over-worried and insane and ridiculous…”

“You really think that they’ll be upset at you for coming to visit them?” Spike raised an eyebrow. “They love seeing you.”

“Yeah but...I don’t want to give Sunset a reason to believe that I don’t trust her.” Twilight flipped a page in her book.

“Do you really think she’ll think that?” Spike asked.

“She might!” Twilight said. She would go and visit and to Sunset it would look like Twilight didn’t trust her, or thought she was up to something. Then Sunset would get mad, or worse, feel bad that even her teacher didn’t trust her.

“Look Twilight, I think that if you explain it, she’ll understand that you’re worried about her.” Spike said.

“But if she doesn’t get that impression-”

“Look Twilight...for your sake, just go visit her. You’ve faced much worse, and most of your problems right now are just in your imagination. Even if she gets the wrong impression, you can talk it out.”

Twilight sighed and looked back at her book. Spike was right, at least the reasonable part of her knew that. She couldn’t keep waiting for a message and going crazy when she didn’t get one. She got up and pushed all the panic in her mind to the side while she set up the device to open the mirror. She couldn’t afford to let it get out of control and let something like the infamous Friendship Letter Incident happen again. It was at least somewhat understandable when she was the student, but she was a teacher.

To be entirely honest, the position still felt strange to her, much like the title of Princess did. When she was a child she looked up to Princess Celestia as a second mother and a kind of idol. Based on some of her conversations with her student, she got the feeling that Sunset viewed her as a kind of savior, an angel who came to save her even when she felt she didn’t deserve it.

She didn’t want to let Sunset down, but the truth was, she was just a pony, or as they would say a person.

A pony- person , whatever, who was prone to anxiety and imperfection and underneath her title was just as ordinary as anyone else.

As she put the final part into place, she watched the mirror come alive.

“Are we ready to go through?” Spike asked.

“Just a minute.” She searched for a pen and scrawled a note for any of her friends who might find her.

‘Went through the mirror for a visit, will be back soon’

That should do it. She signed her name and left it in a place she was sure would be in plain view. Honestly she could have left it on a door. Perhaps she was just putting it off more.

Finally it was time to go through. She let Spike hop on her back and then, at the count of three raced through the portal.

Twilight braced herself for the transformation, but this time she hardly felt as much disorientation as last time. She pulled herself up, and shook her head. Winter had certainly hit Canterlot High. Piles of snow lay all over the place, no longer pure and white but tainted by dirt and bus exhaust. Students everywhere were dressed in hats and scarves.

She picked up Spike and walked in, noticing that while she still got friendly greetings, a few people seemed to avoid her gaze. She walked down the hallway looking around.

“Something feels off, Spike.” She whispered.

“Yeah, normally everyone is rushing to say hi to you.” He noted, scratching his ear.

“Well maybe we should find the girls and ask-”

“Twilight, what brings you here?” She looked up to find the Princess’s counterpart, Principal Celestia, poking outside her door.

“I just came to check up on things.” She said, “Maybe a little holiday visit. Did I miss anything?” A very strange look , almost looking like dread, crossed the principal’s face.

“Come on in my office, I can fill you in.” Maybe it was just the air conditioning or her imagination, but Twilight felt a chill go through her. She made her way into the office and shut the door behind her.

“What’s going on? I feel like everyone looks a little nervous to see me.” She asked. Celestia signed but crossed over to the seat behind her desk and closed the blinds

“This probably isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, Twilight, but we’ve had some problems lately. There was a cyber-bully, a student at this school who’s been spreading photos and cruel rumors. At first it was about your friends, but lately it’s exploded all over school.”

“What?” Twilight asked. “Who would do something like that?”

“Well, the school….seemed to think it was Sunset.” Twilight’s jaw dropped.

“No way!” she said, once she composed herself. “Sunset’s made a lot of bad choices, but she really wants to change. There’s no way she’d sacrifice everything she’s gained since the Battle of the Bands.”

“I know, and when she came into my office she said the exact same thing. The school has been less than forgiving of her..” The last time Twilight heard such disappointment from Celestia it had been aimed at her, and she flinched instinctively.

“What about the girls? I mean they stood up for her…...didn’t they” She already knew , as soon as she said it that she wouldn’t like the answer to that.

“I believe that they were the first to turn.”

“Where is she! Maybe I can set this right.” Twilight said.

“It’s too late. She’s gone now.” For a moment all of the worst possibilities went through Twilight’s mind. She shook her head, tears forming.

“No… no Twilight, she’s okay.” Celestia seemed to have caught herself. “She transferred to another school.”
Twilight felt, only a little relief come back to her. She was alive, okay….just miles away and not answering the journal. “I see…”

“I’m so sorry about this. I hated to see her go, but I didn’t want to keep her in an environment that was unsafe.” Unsafe. Sunset had been unsafe at her school? There was a sting of hurt. Why hadn’t she talked to Twilight about it? But then again, if her friends had just turned on her and the entire school was hostile towards her, Twilight could only imagine how betrayed she must have felt. “Thank you” She forced the word out. “Thank you for looking out for her.”

“It’s no problem. I try to look out for all my students.”

“I need to have a few words with the girls.” She said, pulling herself up. She felt like crying, feeling as if she had personally failed Sunset. She had trusted her friends’ counterparts to look out for and help her. Twilight held back her tears, and clutched Spike tightly to her chest. Beneath it all there was a burning hot rage simmering. She would have words all right.

The night before classes started, Sunset organized all of her school things and cleared out her binders. She had bought some packs of paper and new notebooks but for the most part recycled the ones she had left over from her first semester. The organizing was relaxing and gave her time to think.

As she sorted her things, her mind eventually drifted to the journal. Should she write in it?

It hadn’t gone off in some time so she just left it. It was something she really didn’t want to think about at the moment, falling into the chain of worry again.

Sunset told herself she’d write to Twilight about her first day and she explain everything then. She wanted to have her head clear for the first day of school. The worry sat inside her most of the night. Even when she tried to push it away it came back. She dreamed that night that she came back to visit Canterlot, and got a lecture from Twilight about why she just left.

Ugh. So much for being worry-free before school. She got a halfway decent night of sleep at least.

It didn’t take long to get out the door, her organizing last night meant that her bag was already prepared to go. The last thing she deliberated on was where to put the journal so no one saw it. The rules of the shelter she was at granted people their own small space for the most part, the only worry was if someone heard it vibrating and decided to pick it up.

She hid it in a bag and stuck it under the bed, then put up an ‘away’ sign on her door. That should keep people out.

She already knew the way to school from the shelter and what buses to take. It was a nicer ride than taking a school bus she had to admit. Most everyone just minded their own business, while on a school bus there were kids talking loudly, tossing things and bugging each other out of boredom. She could certainly get used to this.

As the bus drove up to the stop, she got a good look at the school during operating hours. Buses pulling in, the carpool was all filled out. As she walked into the school one student noticed her and turned to her friend.

“Who’s that?”

“I dunno, some new kid.” One of them shrugged. Sunset felt a wave of relief. She had a nasty feeling that the video of her demon self had gone around the internet but perhaps.

She gave a smile and a friendly wave. Two of them waved back.

“Hey, wait. Weren’t you in that video shot up at Canterlot High” Oh no, oh no, abort mission. She forced a smile, not sure what to say. “Nice makeup job! The acting was a little over the top, but it was fun”

Acting...yes. She could live with that.

“Thanks!” They saw the video but they thought it was all an act. She wasn’t sure what she made of Fluttershy and AJ’s beliefs, but she might have just called that a miracle.

She continued her way into the school following the crowd of students who looked around her age. She recognized the familiar pathways from the tour she got on in her meeting. She went out of her way to avoid Dr. Levine from noticing her , and avoided eye contact. She did not want to have to talk to him again and she wanted to make sure he knew he couldn’t pull her in because she was new.

As Sunset made her way down the halls she noticed a few people crowding around the bulletins around the school. She assumed it was some kind of team or play, and stopped a moment to take a look. Maybe she could find something to participate in. She approached a bulletin board that didn’t seem too crowded to get a glance at the paper. She immediately got a sinking feeling when she saw what was on it.

Ambrose Lasko-11th Grade- The mysterious and incorrigible bad boy of JJ High. He’s always up to something or in detention, and he loves to play hard to get. Well, we’re up to the challenge, tough guy.

Helen Phoenix- 12th Grade- Our Pharaoh, who finally freed us from more of Morty’s ineffective rule as dictator- er-President of the Student Council. Keep on rockin’ Helen!

Giada Saroyan- 10th grade- A new teen queen is on the rise! After transferring from Royale she proved her spunk by standing up to Kagami and making her own way to popularity on her own merits.

Vasya Volkova- 12th Grade- A girl tough enough to walk away from ex dictator Morty and stand her ground when the going got ugly is a girl to be feared.

Morty Riggs- 12th Grade- For the last three years he’s been pushing his way to the top, standing on the shoulders of his parents’ reputation. But last year we saw just what Morty was all about. Blustering bullies who cling to their daddy aren’t attractive, Mort.

Kagami Toyaka - 11th Grade- Little Miss Daddy’s Girl has gotten her way for a long time now, but people are starting to see her for what pathetic bitch she really is. Go easy on the makeup and try eating a salad once in awhile, you might lose some weight , Princess.

Ralph Levine- 10th Grade- Sleaze Jr. finally decided to leave his fancy school to come join us commoners. We really should take it easy on him though, his dad punished him already with a name like that.

Siriana Hodge - 9th Grade- Someone needs to tell this girl that being the self proclaimed leader of a Special Ed class isn’t anything to brag about. Siriana’s been loud, in your face and annoying since she got here. Go blab to your internet friends, they’re the only ones you’re going to have. Sunset groaned. Her hope and excitement for this school was evaporating on the spot. She had only just left one shark tank for another slightly less infested one. At least she wasn’t a target- not yet anyway.

Author's Notes:

Sorry that took awhile!

Here's chapter 2.

The main 5 and CMC will be big players in this, as they try to make things right and make up with Sunset The whole "hot list" is gonna be part of an overreaching plot connected to the bully hunter who's going to target Sunset.

Also I've started some minor setup for the sequel to this, which is going to cover a set of events paralleling Friendship Games, and it will involve both Twilight and Sunset's human counterparts, with Canterlot, Crystal Prep, JJ High, and Royale all competing against one another.

Hope y'all enjoy!

Sorry for the formatting derp!

Calculating the Next Step

“Tell, me, when did you start? How did this all start?” Applejack asked. They were in the room normally reserved for practice. Personal punishments had already been handed out by each of the girls’ parents. Apple Bloom got her phone taken and a lot of her gifts taken away until her punishment period was over, and the other girls lost their phones as well. Rarity made Sweetie Belle give her all the pictures as evidence.

“It was when you started havin’ all those sleepovers, just for her and kickin’ us out” Apple Bloom said. “I’m your flesh an’ blood, and she bullied you and us! How can you choose her over me!”

“Is that what this is all about?” Applejack asked, “You were mad at Sunset for taking our attention?”

“We did it because she split you guys up, terrorized everyone including us, and you just decided to let her get away with it!” Apple Bloom said. “It wasn’t fair!”

“Wasn’t fair? Do you think she had it easy? Aside from us, everyone in school was hatin’ her!” Applejack said.

“And we weren’t always tactful about it either.” Rarity said.

“So what?” Sweetie Belle said, voice cracking. “You shouldn't’ have to be nice to her, after what she did!”

“Yeah? What’s so special about Sunset, that everyone has to just forgive her? Is it just because Twilight told you to? Do you have any idea how much misery she caused everyone?”

“Blossom, I can’t believe you right now” Applejack shook her head in disappointment, “You don’t forgive people because you think they deserve it, you forgive them because you’re a bigger person.” In the back of her mind she felt like a filthy hypocrite for saying it. If she truly believed that, she would have tried to at least listen to Sunset.

“So they get away with it just because you gotta prove your ego?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Nothin’ good is accomplished with petty revenge,”

“But this isn’t petty, she bullied everyone!” Sweetie Belle said.

“And in case you haven’t noticed, everyone’s gotten their payback” Applejack said, crossing her arms, “Sunset left, because she was havin’ such a hard time, over what you did.” The girls looked stunned.

“She left?”

“Yep, rumor has it she changed schools. Though considerin’ you’ve been runnin’ the rumor mill here, I’d’a thought you would have known” The girls looked at each other with varying expressions of shock and horror.

“..most of that came from other people” Apple Bloom admitted. “We….didn’t want anyone to connect Anon-A-Miss, to us, but we didn’t want to make up rumors about people we didn’t know-”

“Oh yeah, because making up rumors about people you know is sooo much better-” Rainbow Dash said. The girls flinched realizing just how bad that sounded.

“Well, yeah...I guess.”

“We sort of invited other people to submit stuff, and we posted it” Apple Bloom said.

“Only….after a while we didn’t want to anymore.” Sweetie Belle said, “Because people were getting mean. And I don’t mean regular mean, but super mean. Like rumors about how someone’s mother died of embarrassment from having them, or telling someone to...to k- to hurt themselves.”

“and picking on Derpy for things she can’t help!” Scootaloo added.

“We were mad at Sunset, but we never wanted it to go this far. “Apple Bloom said. “We kept trying to find ways to stop it, but….” Applejack felt her anger fading as she looked down at the girls, who seemed a little shaken by the memories.

“You remember what Granny Smith, told ya? When you say somethin-’

“You can’t take it back” Apple Bloom said quietly, her voice quivering. Applejack nodded. At least Apple Bloom understood it now.

They might have been able to get this all wrapped up, until they had realized someone had come in behind them.

“...did I hear correctly?” A familiar voice said behind them. Applejack turned around and her stomach lurched when she saw it.

Twilight stood there, clutching her bag with pale knuckles and looking more furious than they had ever seen her. “After you drove Sunset out of the school for Anon-a-Miss, it’s was your own sisters who did it?” She asked quietly. “And, they just get an I forgive you?”

“Now w-wait just a minute-” Applejack started.

“DON’T YOU WAIT JUST A MINUTE ME, APPLEJACK!” Twilight’s anger was a terrible thing to behold. Even worse, Applejack noticed her eyes were red and puffy. She had been crying. “I TOLD YOU TO LOOK OUT FOR SUNSET! WHAT DO YOU THINK I MEANT WHEN I ASKED YOU TO TEACH HER?”

The girls backed up huddled together.

“Twilight, we-”

“Did you ask Sunset about it? Before you accused her? Did you give her a chance to explain herself? Or at least see that you were sure of the evidence? “

“Well, we thought-:

“YOU THOUGHT? THAT’S IT?” Twilight stepped closer and Applejack moved backward. “While you were thinking did you consider why she might have done this? Or did that little thought occur after you kicked her to the side?”

“....did she tell you about this already?” Applejack didn’t want to think about what Sunset might have said or thought of them afterward.

“No actually. She hasn’t said a word to me, I haven't heard anything from her since your sleepover.” Twilight’s voice shook, and Applejack could tell that this affected her the most. “I don’t why, but I can be pretty sure that right now, she is convinced all of her friends have left her?”

“Wait….and you didn’t think to even write a ‘hey Sunset, how are you doing? Are you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked, “how is that our faul-”

“Shut up, Rainbow Dash!” They have seen Twilight scold Sunset before, but they had never seen her this angry. And it was at them. “The point is Sunset was so broken by your abandonment that couldn’t even write to me”

“We thought she shared our secrets!” Rainbow Dash said, “We thought she’d betrayed us after we threw a sleepover for her” This time her protest was only half hearted.

“Betrayed, huh? I can’t possibly imagine what that feels like” Several things around Twilight had a purple aura around them and were floating a few inches above the ground. Last time she was here it had taken music, or the crown for any magic to work. “I notice you’re not nearly as upset to find that your sisters did this? Sunset got a “goodbye” based on your halfbaked superstition, but all your own flesh and blood gets is “oh well you learned your lesson, so it’s okay. WHY IS THAT?”

“Twilight, we’re sorry” Fluttershy said

“Yes, we realized we made a big mistake, and we’re trying to find out the truth” Rarity said. Twilight took a deep breath and composed herself.

“I’m sorry too. I’m sorry that I trusted you so much to take care of Sunset.”

“Please don’t be mad at them” A small voice came from behind them “It’s our fault-”

“Oh … I know. Believe me I know” Twilight said, taking a deep breath. “and I was just getting to that.” She stepped forward. “Where I came from, your counterparts did the very same thing to the whole town. But they started because they wanted to see if they had a future in journalism, and were pressured into it by the leader of their school paper. They didn’t do it out of a spiteful desire to punish someone and lay the blame on them. They didn’t do it because they wanted to see someone hurt. You say that seeing people being too mean upset you? Look in the mirror. What you did was every bit as bad as what Sunset did. She broke up friendships, and so did you. You wanted to punish Sunset for what she did? Who’s going to punish you? Because you did the EXACT SAME THING.”

Applejack fully understood why Twilight was angry, but the girls were in tears at this point and they had already realized what they had done way before this.

“Twilight, they get it. Look at them. “ She said. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were shaking,backed against the wall and uttering quiet sobs. The objects around the room fell, freed from her magic.

“We’re sorry!” Sweetie Belle gave a sniff. “You’re right….” Twilight took a deep breath and stepped back.

“According to them, most of the gossip was submitted by students themselves.” Applejack said. “I don’t think this stunt would have gotten half as far if it weren’t for that.”

“....wait a minute” Rainbow Dash said, coming to a realization. “So the students who were all mad at Sunset, were turning in gossip to Anon-a-Miss themselves?”

“.....that’s pretty ironic.” Pinkie Pie said quietly, trying not to show how shaken by Twilight’s anger she really was. Her hair was looking limp.

“It’s not irony” Twilight said coolly, “It’s hypocrisy and I think that once the girls are taken care of , this entire school needs to have a talk about bullying. It’s been a problem since I’ve gotten here. First Sunset bullied and everyone just accepted it as fact, then after the Fall Formal, everyone got along with each other, but made Sunset a scapegoat, during the Battle of the Bands, everyone bullied each other again, over a silly little contest.”

“That was the Dazzlings” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“I thought so too…. but now I’ve just learned that your student body has been submitting gossip about each other, and then again, scapegoating Sunset for it. The Dazzlings aren’t here anymore. What’s your excuse now?” Nobody had anything to say.

“Oh nice” Sunset looked up when she heard a harsh sarcastic voice nearby. A boy about her age with wavy brown hair was looking down at the flyer. “They already hate me before I even got here. Thanks a lot, Dad.”

“I’m sorry.” Sunset said. He shrugged and crumbled the paper up.

“It’s no big deal. If I were them I wouldn’t trust me either.” he said. “You new here too?”

“I transferred.” Sunset said, “I had some trouble at my old school. I’m Sarah Summers.”

He took her hand and shook it. “Ralph Levine. Sorry if Dad’s given you any trouble.”

“Not really, it’s fine. You came from Royale right?”

“Yeah. I, uh, had trouble at my old school too, and it was convenient to come here. Probably not going to be any better.” He spoke with tired resignation, and Sunset couldn’t help wondering how long he’s been putting up with his father’s behavior and the consequences of it.

“Well,if you ever want to talk, call me.” She offered. “I’ve been there.” Ralph looked a little shocked, and Sunset’s heart broke for him. Had this kid never had a friend because of his father?

The Crusaders made the choice to go to the principal's office, with the older girls nearby. Applejack feared that if people suspected anything they might start turning their ire on the girls. Even Twilight had to admit, as angry as she was , that it seemed liked a smart idea. While they took care of that she opted to go out herself, and maybe cool down.

“...remind me never to make you mad” Spike said, walking alongside her around the grounds of the school.

“I don’t want to get that way ever again.” Twilight said. “As wrong as it was, Applejack is right. They’re little girls, and half of the blame belongs to the school for taking part in it.”

“Not that different from the Ponyville Confidential.” Spike pointed out, “Everyone was fine with the gossip, until it turned on them.”

“But they didn’t write it, the Crusaders did. And from the sounds of it, even the Crusaders weren’t nearly as horrible as some of what the students said.” Twilight sat on a bench, looking down at the book. “I thought this school had changed after the Fall Formal, I thought…….” She traced the patterns on the book absentmindedly. “I thought I had made a difference.:

There it was, the honest truth. And it sounded stupider the more she thought about it. How much of it had been hope, and how much of it had been her own ego wanting to imagine that she could just come in and change things?

“Twilight” Spike hopped in her lap., “Don’t get all down on yourself. “You did a good thing”

“Did I?” She sighed, “or did I just sacrifice Sunset for the illusion of peace?” She thought about her words to Sunset after defeat and in the light of Sunset’s struggle to make amends, Twilight started to realize that her words might have been crueler than she meant for.

“You will never rule in Equestria. Any power you may have had in this world is gone. Tonight, you've shown everyone who you really are. You've shown them what is in your heart.”

The school had never really forgiven Sunset for that,it seems. Twilight buried her face in her hands.

“Twilight, don’t beat yourself up for this” Spike told her, licking her face. “You didn’t tell them to do this.”

“....Twilight?” Twilight looked up when she heard another voice. Flash Sentry was standing in front of her with a rake. “Are you okay?”

“Oh” She wiped her eyes. “Yeah, I’m alright.”

“You heard what happened, huh?” He said. “I know you must be disappointed. You and your friends really thought you’d changed her.” Flash believed Sunset was guilty? Twilight’s stomach clenched. Was he one of the ones who drove her out?

“Actually” She said, trying to sound as cold as possible, “It’s not Sunset I’m disappointed in.”

“Whaaddya mean?” He asked, looking as if he had been punched in the face.

‘Hmm not a bad idea’ Something in the back of her mind mused. She pushed it away. No , she wasn’t going to lose control.

“I mean Sunset is innocent. She didn’t do this”

“You’ve gotta be kidding. Everyone knows it’s her.”

“Oh I think everyone knows a lot more than that.” Twilight looked him in the eyes. “We found the actual culprits. Someone else who was still mad at Sunset and wanted to see her punished. “

“Well? Who are they? Are you protecting them too? Or are you just lying because you don’t want to believe Sunset’s guilty?”

“I’m not saying who they are because this school has a bad habit of taking it upon themselves to punish people with bullying. And you know what else they told me? They told me that after the first few posts, they started taking submissions. From other students. Did you know that, Flash? “

He started at her for a moment. “What?”

“Most of the student body is guilty, Flash. And they blamed and drove out one of the few people who was innocent in all this!”

“....drove….out? What happened to her?”

“Oh now you care about her.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “You can find out when everyone else does. Maybe while you’re waiting it’ll give you some time to think about what the consequences could be for what you’ve done.” She got up,Spike in one arm and slinging the bag over her shoulder and walked off.

“Do you think he submitted any?” Spike asked.

“I don’t know, he seemed honestly surprised. I will tell you this I don’t think I want to date him anymore” She said. Crush, gone.

Before Ralph could say anything else they heard a noise from a crowd of students nearby. They were all crowded around one of the lists, it seemed. One girl seemed the most devastated, letting out a weird strangled cry as she stared at the list. She had her hair up in a bun with and ornamental stick through the top, and Sunset knew enough from Rarity to be able to tell that her clothes were fairly pricy, as well as that purse she had. Pretty expensive for a sixteen year old girl.

Sunset guessed that this must be the ‘Daddy’s girl’ on the list. She had a few friends surrounding her, reassuring her. Nearby another girl about the same age was staring down at the list with an unreadable expression. She had frizzy hair, pulled into a messy ponytail, with an overlarge hoodie and jeans with oil on them and looked like she could probably lift weights. She looked up from the list at the other girl who was having a meltdown and grimaced.

“Aw criminy. Just my luck.”

Meanwhile next to a large mountain of a boy who was holding back laughter, a scrawny and short teen was also staring at the list and looking less than happy about it.

“You’re kidding me right? You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me. They cannot be serious!” He read over a part of the list “The mysterious and incorrigible bad boy of JJ High. Who writes this? Do I look like Edward fucking Cullen to you people? Do I?” He looked around at a group of girls who were staring at him. The larger boy rested an arm on his smaller friend’s head.

“You’re not too far, just gotta cut your hair and lose all the blood in your face. ”

“Shut up, Neeks.”

A younger girl with an oversized anime t-shirt looked at it and laughed, crumbling the list up. “He’s right though. Who can take this shit seriously? S’just a list.”

“It’s the voice of the people, Lasko.” Another girl with her own friend posse was standing back and admiring the crowd. Sunset knew that look, and that smirk. This girl ,reminded her startlingly of herself at one point.

“Yeah well, the voice of the people needs to work on their writing skills.” Lasko shot back. “Maybe pull your nose out of Twilight for a moment or two.” For a moment Sunset thought of her friend, but then she remembered that it was a book title. Some weird vampire thing.

“Feh, If you’re hot, I’m pretty happy to be not.” Anime girl said, bouncing the crumpled paper ball of Ms. Popular. She looked annoyed for a moment or two but then smiled and patted Anime girl on the head.

“Denial is the first step.”

“Eh in my experience popularity is fleeting.” Sunset spoke up. “One moment everyone likes you and not too long after you’re eating lunch alone.” Ms. Popular walked up to her and stared into her eyes like she was sizing up an opponent. Sunset was reminded vividly of herself giving Twilight the same look.

“And what do you know of popularity, Demona? Were you friendly with the theatre nerds who helped you with that little video last fall? Protip, sweetie, that doesn’t count as popular. You have to know the right people.” Oh, if only she knew.

“Had a brush with it, once or twice” Sunset said casually. “Oh and, if we’re talking about what counts as popular, getting your friends to put you on a list and put it around the school doesn’t count either.” What was she doing? Sunset didn’t know why she didn’t just walk away. But this girl , this girl who was just like the old Sunset, she-demon Sunset, made her want to stand up and say something.

“....oooooooooooooooooooooooh” Anime girl called out, “You better get some burn heal for that, Giada!”

One of Giada’s friends rolled her eyes.

“Nobody plays Pokemon past twelve. Grow up, Siri”

“Well you’re all missing out and I’ll be over here in the fun corner!” Siri must be Siriana, the last girl on the list. She walked away backwards, giving Giada a very rude gesture with both hands. Most everyone who had been watching was staring. “Yes, I know exactly what this means.” As she turned around Sunset heard her mutter, “Why does everyone always look surprised when it’s me? Kids here do it all the time.”

Giada turned to stare at Sunset until the bell rung and she turned around and walked off. Sunset swore she heard a few people muttering. But for once, not in suspicion and distrust. She swore she heard someone say to their friend “Is she new? She’s got guts.”

“You know, if it were me, I’d hang on to that nickname.” Lasko said as he passed. “Demona sounds pretty badass.”

By this time they had been yelled at by so many people, they were surprised when the Principals didn’t yell at them. They looked really disappointed though.

“We’re really sorry”

“We wouldn’t blame ya if you wanted to expel us” Apple Bloom added.

“I’m not going to expel you girls. However you will have to face consequences for starting all of this. Because of what you did, you will turn your phones in to the teachers every day and get them at the end of the day, until the end of the year. You won’t be allowed to use the computer without supervision until the end of the year. “

The girls sighed.

“However if you behave for the rest of the year, your punishment will be lifted next year. You seem to understand why what you did was wrong. “

“Anythin’ else?”

“Yes. I request your presence at a school assembly. I think we need to have a talk with everyone in light of recent events.”

“...b-but...if they find out it was us...they’ll be as mad at us as they were at Sunset!”

“The school will never forgive us!”

“Well your actions aren’t the only ones we’ll be talking about.”

“Do you girls have a record of everyone who submitted to you?” Luna asked.

“Oh yeah. “ Apple Bloom said. “...if we have permission to use the computer we can get ahold of it.”

“I will watch over you as you do it.” Luna said. “And after the evidence is gathered, I expect to see the page taken down. “

“You got it. “

“I hope you’ve learned a lesson in all this.” Celestia said.

“Yeah. Being a bully to someone who you think deserved it doesn’t make you any less of a bully”

“That’s right. Bullying isn’t a punishment to wield against your fellow students for stepping out of line. You’re not alone, this is something that it seems our entire student body needs to learn.” She stood up and moved aside to reveal the computer. “Now, Luna will watch over you while you get what you need from the website.” After this was done she would have to get ready for an unpleasant talk with the rest of the students, and she had a feeling they might not understand the lesson as well as the Crusaders seemed to.

Across the city at Royale Prep, another fiery haired girl was trudging through her first day back. Samantha Sarrow was not looking forward to the start of a new year, especially after the last had been such a pain. Not because of any trouble from the students, most of them knew to stay out of her way.

But she felt as if she had no energy for anything after pulling through the holiday season. It had been the first Christmas since her sister Summer had run away to escape her parents’ punishment after her brush with the law. It was slowly sinking in that Summer was gone. Even worse, nobody but Sam and her parents knew what Summer used to be like. As far as most of her classmates knew, Summer was just a girl from a good family that went bad.

Sam probably knew more about Summer than her parents even knew, and it made it harder to face them. She had kept Summer’s secrets when she snuck out. Partly because Summer made it clear what would happen if she didn’t, and partly because Sam hadn’t wanted to betray her big sister, and former best friend.

Well look how that turned out. Summer got found out in her stunts anyway, and left in the middle of the night to meet up again with the crowd who pulled her into it. Because obviously they mattered more than her own family, even after Sam had kept her secrets. She just left. Summer’s new friends had fed her poison, and enabled all the worst parts of her until that was all that was left of her. In the last year they spent with her, all Sam knew of Summer was the constant anger, the putdowns, and the reminders to toughen up.

Well that’s what she did. Though Sam kept herself out of trouble with the law, and got better grades because she actually gave a damn about school. That had been the one thing Sam could do that Summer couldn’t. She got straight As. That was all she could do to spite Summer for leaving them.

Sam brushed past people in the halls, moving like a guided missile to her class. A few people moved out of the way to avoid her. She made it to her next class with time to spare. The seat next to her remained empty until the next bell rang. It wasn’t uncommon for Tolliver to be a little late. Probably caught up in the library reading something for too long.

Sure enough, he came in just as the teacher was starting the lesson. He had something pressed up to his nose.

“Sorry! Sorry! “ he called out sounding like he had a bad cold. “I had to stop by the nurse.” He plopped in the seat next to Sam, holding a bloodstained handkerchief to his face.

“What happened to you” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

“....got punched.”

“Really? I didn’t take you for a fighting type. More like a chickenshit coward type.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose” Tolliver said indignantly. Interesting how he didn’t object to the chickenshit coward bit. “.....I….I uh...said something to a girl, and I think it offended her.”

Sam groaned.

“What did you say?”

“Well...I was kind of zoning out and she thought I was looking at her legs. I told her she had nice leggings. ….and she punched me.”

Sam slapped her palm to her face.

“They really were nice leggings, though, I dunno why she was so offended!”

“Tolliver, you’re an idiot.” she said plainly. “Stick to books, don’t bother with girls.” The lesson went on, and she ended up doing a lot of the work while he tried to deal with his nose. Things were going well until her name was called over the intercom, and they were only part of the way through.

“Goddammit, not again” She sighed and got up. All last year some of the school staff had been annoying to her about grief counseling. She thought she had made it clear she wasn’t interested. “You. Don’t mess with anything, don’t touch anything.”

“I know this stuff though!” Tolliver insisted.

“Yeah well, just don’t touch it., or you might get another knock at that nose of yours.” She shook her head and slung the bookbag over her shoulder. She wondered how much trouble she’d get in if she told a school staff member to stuff it.

Author's Notes:

Hey hope y'all enjoyed chapter three!

I hope Twilight's verbal thrashing was satisfying. There will be some more to come at the assembly, not only from Twilight but from the principals too! The events of Ponyville Confidential were sorta covered by the Anon-a-Miss thing, and in the story something sorta resembling One Bad Apple will happen too. I felt like the moral about 'bullying back' that the episode sorta got across (I am aware it wasn't entirely perfect and some room for improvement could be made. A lot of people have issues with that ep.) really fit in here as well. So , hey, Babs Seed plot, why not? There will be a lot of people in the student body who are displeased with the Crusaders.

Sam Sarrow is Sunset's human counterpart for those wondering. She's started to become a slightly bigger part of this than I planned, building up for the events of the sequel, where you'll see how Sam's past links to Sunset's. Sam is similar to how Sunset was early on around the time she was terrorizing Canterlot High. For personal reasons, very angry at the world, and pretty disillusioned.

Making A New Turn

Author's Notes:

Heeey, sorry for the wait. Life distractions and all. This one ran a little long , juxtaposing Sunset's introduction to JJ High with the assembly at Canterlot High.

The next chapter is probably going to focus on the Crusaders and Mane 5 dealing with the fallout of everything, and a few chapters of Sunset (and her human counterpart) after.

Hope you all enjoyed! And thanks again to everyone for the great reception you've given this fic.

The next morning the entire school was called to an assembly to discuss “recent events”. The Crusaders were huddled up in a group together looking over all the records they had printed thinking about what they were going to say. All of them knew this wasn’t going to be pleasant, and they feared the blowback they’d get from the rest of the school, especially as they were indicting the student body.

Their older sisters stood by, just as nervous and awkward. Nobody spoke, and everyone knew that Twilight was silently simmering in the corner as she wrote on a notepad. Rainbow Dash was pacing, Rarity was absentmindedly brushing her hair,and Pinkie checked out from behind to watch as more students piled in.

Nobody said anything to Twilight, they all knew they were on thin ice as it was. Applejack was reading some of the submissions that her sister and friends had printed out, and she was grinding her teeth more with every one she read.

“I hope you give ‘em what for, Twilight.” She said, shuffling the papers back into place, “I can’t believe them! None of them have got any right to be mad at Sunset! I don’t even think Sunset went this low at her worst. ” Twilight gave her such a cool look that she quickly looked away.

“...does that have names?” Rainbow Dash asked looking up at her. Before Applejack could answer she snatched the papers out of her hand and started rifling through them. As her eyes landed on one her face went pale, and her hands trembled. Her lip twitched as if holding something back, and tears leaked from her eyes. “MOTHER FU-”

“Raina! Language” Luna said.

“To hell with that!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed throwing the papers down. Her voice was breaking and it seemed like she was making a real effort not to fall apart. “That bitch! That fucking bitch, I can’t believe her!”

“Who?” Applejack asked. She grabbed the papers and started shuffling through them until they find the right one.

‘ Rainbow Dash might be quick on her feet, but that’s probably because she’s slow everywhere else. She and Derpy know each other from the special needs class she took for reading lessons. By 6th grade you should have reading down already. Too many Rainbow Crashes to the head, maybe?

Submitted by FasterThanLightning - REJECTED

Rainbow collapsed against the wall, sobbing into her knees. Even Twilight looked a little stunned.

“Rainbow….that one wasn’t posted.” Applejack said gently, “It didn’t get posted on MySpace.”

“It doesn’t- that’s not the point!” Rainbow Dash heaved a sob, “It’s that ….I thought she was my friend, I trusted her enough to tell her…” Even Applejack had nothing to say to that and could only pat her friend’s shoulder in sympathy.

“...I’m sorry, Raina…” Scootaloo said, ‘I tried to warn you about her after I saw it. There was no way I would ever put that up on MySpace.”

“What about the secrets you did put up? You don’t think they did the same thing to someone else?” Applejack said sharply. “Or was it okay just because you didn’t know ‘em?” All three girls sunk down in guilt.

“Girls” Luna was still watching, now looking concerned, “We’re about to start. Are you going to be okay, Raina. Do you need to step outside?”

“No.” Rainbow Dash wiped her eyes and pulled herself back up. ‘I want to look her in the eyes.” They all stood up as Luna made her way to the auditorium stage.

“I’m sure you’re all familiar with the Myspace user Anon-a-Miss, and the rumors that have been going around the school. The culprits have come forward and what I found out was very disappointing. I have to say I am ashamed of all of you. Sunset Shimmer left the school because of the harassment she endured for supposedly being responsible. She was innocent-” Murmurs spread through the crowd and Celestia raised her voice a little higher. “and the culprits behind it told us that they were taking your submissions. I don’t think they are the only ones to be punished here.”

Sunset’s first period started off pretty good, she already had a good feeling about this teacher so far. Good grasp of the subject, engaging and helpful to people who struggled. Her last Trig teacher had been very frustrating, often acting as if he expected everyone to know it. She made her way onto the next class when she heard something going on down one hallway.

“Give it back! Please!” The voice sounded young, like one of the junior high students. He had a stutter, or some kind of lisp.

“Nah, I think I’ll hold on to this” Definitely an older student. Sunset followed the voices down the hall until she walked onto a disturbing scene. Two senior high boys were ganging up on a small skinny junior high boy with braces. One of the older boys was holding up a Zubat shaped backpack with keychains hanging off. Probably belonging to the younger boy, and judging by the oversized bargain bin clothes he was wearing, it seemed like it must be one of the few nice things he had.

The younger boy was not handling it well, crying and waving his arms to get it. Sunset couldn’t blame him for being so upset but she also knew by experience that this was the kind of thing that fueled a bully.

“Even better” The other boy said, taking out a small thin object. “Let’s see how Zubat likes a Fire attack!”
Wait….was that a lighter?

Sunset lept into action. She walked right over and yanked the backpack away before the lighter could get a flame. “Hey-”

“Are you seriously picking on a kid?” She turned to hand the backpack to the younger boy.. “Lighting someone’s things on fire, huh? I think that goes beyond asshole right into sadist.”

“It was just a joke!”

“Maybe if he didn’t throw a little tantrum about it!” The shorter of the two aimed a lazy kick at the boy’s direction which Sunset blocked. She had played one-on-one with Rainbow Dash enough to develop goalie reflexes.

“Oh yeah right, it’s the twelve year old’s fault you picked on him. Thanks for letting me know that you lack the self control and personal responsibility of a proper adult.”

Both boys sputtered at her angrily, but she stood her ground, keeping between them and the kid.

“You can’t hide behind people forever, ‘tard” With that the two of them left muttering darkly. Sunset was sure she heard “who does that bitch think she is?” . She shook her head and turned to the boy who was hugging and crying into his Zubat backpack.

“Are you okay?” She asked gently.

“Mhm” He sniffled. “Th-thanks.” She offered him a hand.

“Does he pick on you a lot?”

“E-ever since Vassy broke up with ‘em” He said, “He used to just look at me funny before.”

“I see.” So, he was taking out his anger on the kid because of his sister? Pathetic. “Here Let’s go back to your classroom.”

“O-okay”

“What’s your name?”

“Toby.” As she walked back with him she remembered her first real meeting with Twilight, after the girl caught her bullying Fluttershy. She hadn’t been that different, taking out her anger on the shy girl because she turned in the crown Sunset had stolen. She may have changed, but the shame didn’t really go away when she thought about what she used to be like..

The Crusaders stood on the stage with copies of the submission logs in their hands. A whole bunch of students stared at them openmouthed in shock. They looked at one another all seeming to agree that they should start while the student body was still picking their collective jaws off the floor.

“We started Anon-A-Miss because we were mad at Sunset for what she did to our sisters. We thought she didn’t get enough punishment…” Sweetie Belle said.

“So we tried to make it look like she had spread mean secrets about everyone so they’d be mad at her again.” Scootaloo added.

“An’ we were wrong.” Apple Bloom said, “We know that now. It ain’t our place to decide that and when we spread rumors to get her in trouble, we realized we weren’t that different from what we were made at her for.”

“But after we made secrets about our sisters and their friends, we started taking submissions from people.” Scootaloo looked around. “We took submissions from you guys. You guys all spread secrets about each other, and you still blamed Sunset for it! That’s so messed up!”

“And you guys are mean!” Sweetie Belle said. “We stopped posting things because everyone was getting so horrible-”

“And because we started to realize we took it too far.” Apple Bloom added. Scootaloo looked to her submission log and started reading.

“Roseluck doesn’t have much luck with the guys does she? Probably cause everyone kno-” Apple Bloom’s eyes widened. “Nope, not reading that one. That’s gross and none of your business!” Roseluck huffed and glared at a girl who was trying to look innocent while sinking in her seat. “Roseluck is really pretty and you’re probably just jealous!”

“I think Vinyl can speak she just pretends not to because she needs to soak up all that sweet attention.” Sccotaloo looked up. “Yeah, because that totally makes sense that someone would be able to fake that for years!” Vinyl signed something very angrily.

Octavia didn’t even bother to translate. “I think the meaning there is very clear.” A student hid his face behind their notebook as everyone glared at him.

“‘Best friends’ , Yeah right, Lyra and Bon Bon are totally into each other.” Sweetie Belle scoffed. “That’s ridiculous, two girls can be close without-” However she didn’t get to finish because Lyra interrupted her.

“YOU HEARD IT HERE! WE’RE TOTALLY LEZZERS!” Lyra stuck her tongue out in the direction of a girl avoiding their gaze and then kissed her ‘best friend’ on the lips.

“...oh” All three girls went silent and looked at each other.

“Well anyway, those were the tame ones. There were a bunch of really mean ones. Like why would you ever tell someone to kill themselves? “ Sweetie Belle said and her voice cracked a little.

“Or make up stuff about their parents not loving them!” Scootaloo added.

“Lemme ask y’all, would ever say any of this stuff to someone’s face” Many students looked down or away. A few were already hanging their heads in shame.

“Psh! I would. You people need to grow a thicker skin” Lightning Dust scoffed. That was all the invitation Rainbow Dash needed. She marched up on stage and took one of the logs.

“Then put your money where your mouth is” she said. “‘ Rainbow Dash might be quick on her feet, but that’s probably because she’s slow everywhere else. She and Derpy know each other from the special needs class she took for reading lessons. By 6th grade you should have reading down already. Too many Rainbow Crashes to the head, maybe?”

The auditorium was, for once so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Everyone was staring at Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash.

“That was you, huh? Thanks for showing me how much I can trust you. You can collect your things in the locker room. We’ll be needing that space for a new teammate we can trust.”

“Buh- what? You can’t do that! Are you seriously saying you’re going to kick me off the team for a few words that hurt your widdle feewings?” Lightning Dust mocked.

“If I can’t trust you with a personal secret when you say you’re my friend, how I can I trust you with anything else?”

“She makes a good point” Spitfire mused.

“Yeah, how do I know you haven’t talked about us?” Fleetfoot and Cloudracer asked Rainbow Dash flipped through the papers and handed them to the girls.

“What?”

“Unbelievable!”

Spitfire took it and read through it when she got to one part she turned and glared at Lightning Dust.

“You’re out”

“But...but this isn’t fair! I got on the team because I’m more skilled than most of you. Isn’t that what you said, Spitfire?” A few of the girls on the team stared at her. Spitfire took a deep breath.

“And you’re off the team because you can’t keep your mouth shut about your team members!”

Lightning Dust turned to Celestia and Luna for backup, but soon realized that this was a very bad idea.

“I see no problem with this” Principal Celestia said. “Luna?”

“Seems fine to me.”

“You better believe I’m telling Great Uncle Rider about this!” Lightning Dust stormed off.

“Did you really say that?” Fleetfoot asked, looking hurt.

“It was a stupid thing to say. I’m sorry.” She said.

“Here’s a tip for the future, Captain Spitfire, If you wouldn’t want other people to find out you said something,” Celestia said, “perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to say in the first place. I think that’s a lesson all of you can learn today.” She turned to the rest of the students.

“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle said.

“And for you guys who are mad at Sunset, think about this. At least Sunset learned her lesson the first time.” Scootaloo said.

Sunset made it all the way to third period without any further event. She filed into the science lab a little bit late, and looked around for a seat. Not much was left, a seat next to an unpleasant looking boy , a girl who was more invested in reading a magazine under her table than anything going on in class, and Lasko who had his backpack on the seat next to him. She walked over.

“Hey, can I sit here?”

Lasko looked her over and removed the backpack. “Well you aren’t giving me googly eyes, so you may pass.”

She took a seat next to him. “Hot list?”

“You got it.” He grumbled. “That and some of these guys are page peekers.”

“I promise I’m not a page peeker.” She said, “I was pretty good in science.”

“Then we’ll get along just fine.”

The teacher called roll, occasionally making friendly jabs at some of the students. He stopped for dramatic effect at Lasko’s name “Our new celebrity.” Looks like he saw the list too.

“Right back at ya, Professor Snape.”

He looked over to them again as he called Sunset’s name. “Summers, Sarah?”

“Present!”

“Welcome to Jasper High, Miss Summers. Do try to watch out for magical mayhem and and troublesome spirits while you’re here.”

“..sure” Must be something about the town’s reputation. He started the lecture and Sunset took notes. She noticed Lasko doodling in the margins as he listened. Well if it worked for him, who was she to judge? During the lecture he asked a few questions. A few students answered but as they got more complex fewer hands were raised.

“Come on you guys. You know this stuff. Don’t make me have to ask Nicholas Flamel over there” Lasko grinned drawing a picture of a skull and crossbones.

Sunset raised her hand and gave the answer. “Good. You’re off to a great start Miss Summers.”

They moved on to the lab, and of course those sitting together were paired together. For someone who doodled a bunch of weird, slightly morbid sketches instead of taking notes, Lasko did pretty good.

“So how do you like it so far?”

“What?”

“Here. This school.”

“Oh, it’s ...interesting.”

“Pff you say that now.”
“

“Has a few- uh…..”

“Assholes?”

“Well I wouldn’t put it that way, but yeah. In between classes I ran into some jerks who were tormenting a junior high student.”

“...oh?”

“Even the worst bullies I used to know never threatened to light someone’s stuff on fire. What are they putting in the water on this side of the city?”

“Wait what?” Lasko looked up. “Who was this?’

“This pudgy guy, curly brown hair, kinda nice clothes now that I remember, about our grade. And some follower of his. Picking on this little 7th grader. Toby. Had braces and a Pokemon backpack.”

“Dammit, Morty. I’ll kick his ass.” Privately Sunset noted that Lasko was probably half Morty’s width and not much taller. ‘Sure, you will’ She thought skeptically.

“I already told him off.” Sunset said. “Apparently Morty was dating his sister, and she broke up with him.”

“Yup that’s right.” Lasko said. “Sorry bastard was pissed about the list and Vasya and just decided to take out on Toby. He’s been sucking on sour grapes for a while now.”

“She a friend of yours?”

“Yeah. Neek’s sister” He reached over to grab something “So, what was your school like?”

“Oh...well it was...okay. People seemed to be really friendly and close with each other, they all just hated me. To be honest I wasn’t a great person in the past.”

“Eh, you shoulda seen me before 8th grade. I was a nasty lil shit. People change. “ Time for a topic change.

“So what’s with the whole Nicholas Flamel thing?” She asked.

“It’s a joke between me and Faulk. I used to get detention a lot with him and he made me clean lab equipment. We bonded.”

“Do you usually bond with teachers in detention?” Sunset chuckled to herself. She got herself in detention a few times and usually spent the whole time stewing over her failure (or the sheer audacity of the teacher to give her a detention). She usually aimed to get in , do her time and get out.

“Yeah actually. Good way to get to know ‘em.” They finished off their work right before the bell rang. As she gathered her stuff, Sunset almost sighed. Another lunch alone, probably not as bad considering no one knew her. “Hey, you goin’ to lunch?”

“Yeah.”

“You wanna sit with Neeks, and Vassy and me? If you want.”

“Sure, if that’s okay with you.”

“Duh, why do you think I asked?”

For the rest of the assembly was spent watching some documentary about the effects of bullying and teenagers who committed suicide because of it. Everyone in the auditorium was very silent, and many of them were becoming increasingly uncomfortable. A few students had to leave, one being Fluttershy who walked out silently sobbing.

The Crusaders watched and flinched at the parts about cyberbullying and rumor spreading. They watched in horror as a teenager’s parents described them becoming depressed and eventually suicidal because of online rumor spreading.

Apple Bloom watched , as the funeral of the teenager, a girl Sunset’s age played out. The parents could hardly talk about it without bursting into tears. She saw the haunted faces of the classmates responsible as they were interviewed about it.

What if that had been Sunset’s reaction?

What would she say if someone came to her and said that Sunset had ended her life because of what Apple Bloom and her friends had done?

Apple Bloom found her imagination going deep into that dark rabbit hole, thinking of all that could have happened.

Applejack had mentioned at home something about Sunset being alone for the holidays. That meant that Sunset had been all alone in dealing with it all. No parents to turn to and reassure her she was okay. No siblings to talk to about it or give her a hug.

“Ah think ah’m gonna be sick” With that Apple Bloom ran out the auditorium, holding back vomit. The last words from the video rang in her mind. “Do you think your anger was worth a human life?”

It wasn’t, wasn’t even close. But it could have cost one.

Once Sunset saw “Neeks” and Vasya Volkova together she could certainly see a strong resemblance between them. Both were tall and had a strong looking build, Sunset imagined that their Equestrian counterparts would be Earth Ponies, without a doubt.

“Thanks, by the way” Vasya told her as they walked to lunch. “For defendin’ my lil brother.”

“No problem.” Sunset said. There was no way she was going to those jerks terrorize a younger kid. Even when she had been a bully she focused most of her attention and nastiness on the older kids, while mostly ignoring and passing over anyone under 9th grade. There had been one time that she had given Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s sister a hard time, but afterwards any satisfaction she got melted into disappointment and self loathing.

“Next time I see Riggs I owe him a punch in the face,”

“Careful, he ain’t worth suspension, Niko.” Vasya reminded him, “Besides, if anyone’s gonna hit ‘em it should be me.”

“Point.” Niko admitted looking disappointed.

“So!” Lasko stepped between the siblings and threw his arms around their shoulders. “I think our new friend here needs a little intro to the student body. Huh?”

“Might be helpful if Kagami was here, I think she knows a little about almost everyone.” Vasya said. “I know some of ‘em.”

“She alright?” Lasko asked,looking a little concerned. “She was taking the whole List thing pretty hard.”

“I think so. Last I saw she was talkin’ to a bunch of people. Looked allright, I think ‘er friends are helping pick her up.”

“Good. She’ll bounce back.” He looked pretty confident about that. As they walked into the cafeteria, it was already filling up with students. The skylit ceiling let in the sunlight, lighting up nearly every corner. The student body had it’s own separations, although more integrated than Canterlot High had once been.

“Allright, pay attention. Senior high side.” Lasko pointed to the crowd where Kagami was socializing with. Nice, pricy clothes, some heavy makeup , and some huge purses were common with this crowd. Next to Kagami was a girl with a hairdo that looked like something out of “I Dream of Jeannie” and clothes that gave off a mystic vibe. Slightly younger, about ninth grade, stood a brown haired girl with a gothic look, but with more straps and a victorian vibe, she was also one of Kagami’s satellites. The fashion styles varied widely. Most of them were girls though there were a small handful of boys. “Fashion crowd. Those are ‘Gami’s peeps.”

“Then we got the overachievers.” Vasya added, pointing to a group of kids who mostly looked clean cut and studious. She waved at a dark skinned girl with her hair in a bun, who didn’t look out of place at a press conference. She waved back. “That’s Helly, the Student Council President. Also affectionately known as Pharaoh. I’m sure Assko here can tell you all about that one,seeing as he was responsible.” She gave Lasko a nudge.

“Yeah yeah that’s a story that’ll need some context” he said, still looking quite pleased with himself. “And technically Morty himself had a hand in it with his forged bathroom stall gossip mudslinging scheme.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Okay that’s one I have to hear.”

“In time, in time.”

“There’s the sports players. Ya got two groups of those. Most are decent folks” Two nearly identical boys who looked related to Helen waved and one gave Niko a high five. “But then there’s that small circle of yer typical jock assholes.” A small group crowded around a boy with short blonde hair wearing a jersey and camos. “Nolan Ipisky, there’s the kid of the police chief. Never lets ya forget it either. He’d prolly be in juvy if his Dad didn’t cover his ass all the time.”

“Hey, that’s an insult to the guys in juvy. Some of ‘em are nice guys once they get therapy or somethin’” Lasko interjected.

“Yeah yeah, har har.” Niko rolled his eyes.

“Then there’s the green folks and the activists.” Some of them looked like a group that Fluttershy would be at home in, and some of them wore shirts that proudly proclaimed bold opinions. One particularly aggressive girl was handing out flyers and lecturing the people that passed. The girl with her was nervously smiling at people and wishing them a good day.

“Most of ‘em probably have a tumblr.” Lasko said.

“Fandom Nerds.” A group of kids huddled together with clothing, keychains, and bookbags that proudly showed off which fan community they were in. One student was dressed in a very close imitation of a Hogwarts uniform with Slytherin colors. “And their close sibling, anime nerds”. Well, it looked like Siriana wasn’t alone, and Giada’s friends had been wrong about people not playing Pokemon.

“Artists and musicians” Some were eccentric looking with dyed hair, and others looked as if they paid more attention to their sketchbooks than their appearance. A few of them looked like super honor students and the kind of kids who won competitions to please ambitious parents. “Drama kids” A more odd and colorful looking group you could probably not find anywhere else. Some of them looked just as fond of makeup as the fashion crowd,though with more creative application.

“Computer Nerds.” Some of them had laptops out while eating their food and others were tinkering with calculators.

“Woodshop nerds.”

“Hey. Those are my people.” Niko gave Lasko a sidelong glance.

“I know. Nerd.” Niko reached over and grinded his knuckles into Lasko’s scalp.

“Boys, quit it” Vasya punched her brother’s arm.

“Alright? Anybody else I should know about” Sunset asked.

“Oh yeah. Journalist club.” A bunch of kids with some sort of badge hanging around their necks seemed to be hanging out together, including one of Giada’s friends and one tough and angry looking girl in the corner who eyed Sunset for an uncomfortably long time. “And church kids” He pointed to another group of kids ,quite a few of them having similar looking features.

“In case you didn’t notice , yeah a lot of them are part of one family. The spawn of Rexford of the Schoolboard Morals Committee and ole Abe, pastor at the church just outside of town” Lasko said, “ Turns out none of the churches want to be known as Witchaven Church. Who knew?” One of them was a strawberry blonde wavy haired girl wearing a denim jacket and leggings under a skirt and handing out tracts while giving dirty looks to girls with short skirts.

“Hey Sheila!”

“Lasko, don’t mess with her.”

“Come on I’m just saying hi” Tract girl gave him a very dirty look. Then she looked over Sunset.

“You’re new aren’t you” She asked. “Then I think you should know that these three are a bad influence. The boys are in detention all the time, and Ambrose is up to his eyeballs in occultism and witchcraft. They’re not the people I’d want to start off associating with.” It was like she said that all in one breath. “Oh and that skirt is 5 inches from being a miniskirt which is against dress code regulations.”

“See look what ya did.” Vaysa gave Lasko a smack in the back of the head. She turned to Sheila. “The skirt’s fine, ya priss.”

“Well then if you’re so sure, let’s hope it doesn’t get windy today.” With a smug smirk she turned on her heel and returned to the table. Many others were groaning and looking embarrassed. One boy approached Sunset, completely avoiding Lasko and his friends.

“We’re very sorry about her.”

“Oh well, thanks?” She had gone with Fluttershy and Applejack to church exactly once, and most of the people seemed nice and welcoming. The boy turned around and returned to his table giving Sheila a disappointed look as she went off to lecture someone else. As polite as he had been , she noticed that he didn’t acknowledge anyone but her, probably because she was the “innocent” new girl.

“Come on, we got lunch to eat.” The lunch line had shortened considerably by now; leaving enough time to get through it and eat before class.

Twilight stepped on the stage after the movie had finished. Many of the students looked almost frightened at her. She took a deep breath before reading over her speech. She wondered if she was being harsh. But it was hard not to feel like they deserved it, thinking about what happened to Sunset.

“I hope all of you understand now how serious an issue this is. This has been an issue every time I’ve come here. When I first showed up here,everyone was nice enough, but apathetic to the bullying that was going on. I walked in on Sunset bullying Fluttershy and no one else spoke up but me. But after the Fall Formal, you had no problem letting her know your anger. When I showed up again during the Battle of the Bands, everybody was at each other’s throats.” She looked around and many people looked ashamed or embarrassed. “Yes the Dazzlings had something to do with it, but clearly they didn’t create the hostile atmosphere, they only brought it to light.” She shuffled through her notes. “And now you’ve been spreading rumors while letting Sunset take the blame.”

The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
“I hope, for your sake that something dangerous doesn’t decide to target the school while I’m away.” Students looked at each other, panicked and wide eyed. There were whispers throughout the crowd. Well it seems like that got through to them. Good.

She turned and walked off the stage. Shortly after the assembly was called to an end. Everyone got out early but no one was in the mood to celebrate.

“So…..you weren’t serious about that were you? You can get Sunset to come back right?” Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight clutched the pen and notebook tightly.

“And why would I do that?” She asked. “ Do you realize how cruel that would be? Asking her to return to the school where everyone bullied her to cover up for their own behavior? After she’s finally somewhere she can be happy?” Spike groaned and put a paw to his face.

"So the school will be safe! We’ll apologize to her-”

“We’ll throw an apology party!” Pinkie interjected.

“We need her!” Twilight turned around and stared the girls down.

“Shame you didn’t realize that before.” With that she went off to find a quiet place she could calm down.

Sunset walked into her room to discover the sound of violent vibrating under the bed. A feeling of worry went through her brain when she realized what it was. How long had it been going off? Had people noticed? She quickly made her way to the bedside and pulled it out.

The journal, sure enough was going off. Sunset felt a bit of relief that Twilight was contacting her first, at least until she thought about what was in there.

Before her anxieties could take over, Sunset took the plunge and opened the journal.

Dear Sunset

I apologize for not writing to you, I hope I didn’t cause you any more distress. I stopped by Canterlot High and found out what happened.

Sunset felt a bit queasy and light at that. She told herself she had nothing to fear.

I am so SO so so sorry about everything that happened. I wish I had known before all this, but I can understand why you might have hesitated. I had no doubt you had nothing to do with Anon-a-Miss.

Well, that made one of them.

I got the answer if you want to hear it.

Sunset took a pen and wrote back

You do?

There was a very long pause before Twilight’s response appeared.

It was Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s little sisters who started it with a MySpace page,.

For several minutes Sunset had no idea how to react to that. Their sisters? She had never experienced any obvious hostility around the three girls, except for the Dazzlings incident. Just awkwardness. She would have never had any idea that they had any ill will towards her.

Then conflicting feelings of anger and guilt came in. Anger wondering how easily the girls had been forgiven, but guilt for hoping that their sisters would treat them as harshly as they did her.

Oh and the memory of the whole ‘splitting their older sisters’ apart” thing.

But Sunset remembered some of the messages from Anon-a-Miss she had seen. Were those three little girls really capable of being that cruel just to make her look bad?

It wasn’t just them though. After spreading the rumors about their sisters, they started taking and posting submissions from the student body. That was when it blew out of control.

Sunset laid down the journal feeling the nausea rise up again.

She thought about all the dirty looks that she had gotten and the snide comments. All of them coming from people who were providing the ammo. Knowing that she would take the fall.

Thank you. She wrote back.

I’m sorry again. I’m also sorry for what I said that night at the Fall Formal. I fear that I may have unintentionally caused you more trouble. It was unnecessary to make you feel as if you would never be forgiven.

Sunset did remember those words. Personally she felt that at the time they were kind of understandable considering what she had very nearly done to Twilight and her friends.

I hope you have better luck at starting over at your new school. It shouldn’t be too hard for you to start with a new reputation here.

Sunset hesitantly picked up the pen. So….you’re not mad that I left?

Of course not! You need to take care of yourself. I wanted you to learn friendship, and that’s something that exists everywhere, not just Canterlot High. It’s unfair of me to expect you to stay somewhere that you’re miserable and not given the chance you need.

Sunset’s hands shook as she wrote the reply. Thank you, so much for looking out for me.

Believe me, it’s no trouble at all. You’ve come a long way Sunset, and I’m very proud of you.

Even with the pain of nearly all of Canterlot High’s student body apparently stabbing her in the back, Sunset felt a little bit of happiness at that. Twilight didn’t think she was a failure. Twilight was proud of her. That night she remembered those words, to defend against the she-demon Sunset still in the back of her mind.

A New Door Opens

Author's Notes:

Hey New chapter! Sorry I left this hanging for so long. I moved out and my job situation has been pretty rough. I decided to stretch out the Babs Seed miniplot to multiple chapters. .

The Crusaders had made a lot of mistakes but none of them ever imagined that they could make one they couldn’t fix, until now. They apologized and they reminded everyone that they only posted the student body’s submissions. But it seemed that only made them more hated than ever. Junior and senior high students threw nasty looks at them and occasionally stuck their legs out in their path and walked away snickering when they fell.

Many just ignored them, even when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were bullying them people turned away and went about things, . They would just deal with it alone, and do the best to deal with it. Alone. They didn’t dare tell their sisters. They would just be reminded about how Susnet felt, probably. So they just kept it to themselves. After all the people giving them a hard time usually had the decency to not do it in front of their sisters.

Diamond and Silver were soon joined by a new friend , Babs Seed who was much more physical and ruthless than the other two. The three girls tried their best to avoid the three bullies but it seemed like they were everywhere.

Sunset found herself settling into the new school and becoming fast friends with Lasko, Niko and Vasya. She soon got a chance to meet Kagami, who reminded her strongly of Rarity at times. Though with a more genuine British accent than the affected classy one Rarity often tried to put on.

Sunset found her very interesting though, this was a girl who was popular not because she made people fear her but because she managed to genuinely connect with many different groups of people. She carried herself with confidence that Sunset recognize, even with her gothic spooky sense of style that TV shows and movies often portrayed as something that made one an outcast. There were aspects of Kagami that reminded Sunset of herself, perhaps herself if she hadn’t become such a bully.

It made her wonder. Could she have become popular and maintained that popularity by her own merits, without turning to pushing people around and controlling with fear?

“Wow this house is huge” Sunset looked around at the Toyaka manor, with floors of marble and dark wood and stone walls. A chandelier hung high on the ceiling and behind the imposing spiral staircase walls were lit with lamps along them.

“A bit but it feels smaller when there’s family everywhere” Kagami said with a chuckle.

“Who all do you live with?” Sunset noticed a few kids hanging around.

“Well mostly my father and his brother . Uncle Dmitri and his wife and their boys. Junior, Tosh and Donovan.” Kagami said counting on her fingers. “Uncle Logan isn’t around often but he has Daigo, Sammy and Leo. They go to schools on the other side of town and Diago goes to well… uh.. A very different school.” She coughed a bit uncomfortably. “He’s… well always been a little troubled. He goes to a military academy run by Tolliver and Foster-”

“Wait … Foster? As in…” Sunset recognized that name for sure.

“Yes” Kagami sighed. “One in the same. Templeton’s father is a Sergeant Major”

“Dang….” Sunset said remembering what she knew of him.

“Of course he’s retired now. “Kagami said, “one of his specialties is slipping out of situations that would get most people in deep trouble, which his son seems to have inherited”

“Wow..” Sunset shook her head. “So..he’s bad news too huh?”

“Not someone I liked to spend much time with.” Kagami said. “The Sargent and his friends are rather unpleasant about women.”

“Ohhhh.” Sunset winced. She imagined that must be uncomfortable.

“Anyhow. “Kagami continued. I believe Leo and Sammy go to Crystal Prep down in that part of town. You said you knew that area?”

“Yeah.. for a time” Sunset said “Never did see Crystal Prep but I heard it was very fancy.”

“Oh indeed. They have quite a reputation.” Kagami nodded. “Much like Royale Academy Prep over here. That’s where Shiro goes, while his sister Izumi attends our school. They’re Uncle Benjamin's’. Then there’s Aunt Risa and her children are all grown except for Kazue who in Junior High, she leads the Anime club.”

“Wow ...they all live here?” This house was pretty big but it was hard to imagine the whole family living here.

“Oh no just my father and Uncle Dmitri” Kagami said, “and Logan occasionally comes by for a time to get out of some trouble he’s in, or while he’s looking for a new job. I suppose every family has a responsible sibling and one who’s not so much.”

Yikes, that brought back some memories Sunset would rather forget. She pushed them to the back of her minds. “Yeah seems like. Uh do you have any brothers and sisters?”

“Just brothers” Kagami said with a forlorn sigh. “My older brother Varrik is out at work, he’s graduated already.. For some meaning of graduated. Then my little brothers, Akira is out God knows where, and Dexter keeps to himself. They’re in ninth grade”

“Okay..” Sunset nodded. “Well I guess it must be nice to have family surrounding you.”

“It can be but , it also requires you to take on a lot of roles, babysitter for one” she said.

“You babysit a lot then?” Well that would probably explain some about Kagami, Sunset imagined it must take lots of patience. She didn’t think her old self could manage a child well.

“Oh yes. Kagami said. “It’s easy once you get used to it. And when Vassy and I got to know each other it got easier. I do love all my friends but… Vasya knows what it's like, to be the only girl surrounded by brothers.”

“Oh.. yeah” Vasya never mentioned having any sisters.

“Mhm, and the nice thing about babysitting.” Kagami said. “Is you eventually learn how to handle everyone.” There was a mischievous glint in the girl’s eyes. She walked by two larger boys harassing a thin younger boy, who looked almost freakishly like the junior high girl who Kagami had taken under her wing, Izzy or something..

“Leave him alone, you two. Go do some homework or something.” The boys looked up and one of them made a rude gesture.

“Back off we’re just playing around” the older of the two, who looked like he had a football physique, spat.

“Donny, I know you don’t want to mess with me. Remember what I found in your closet last week.” The boy looked frightened for a moment then glared at her.

“You fucking bitch”

“Right.. Now run along.” the other boy followed.

“See what I mean? I’m the queen of this household” Kagami smirked. She knelt down to the younger child. “Are you hurt, sweetie?”

“N-no” He shook his head pushing up his glasses.”I’ll be fine… sorry to get in your way.”

“Oh it’s never any trouble, Shiro” she helped him up “You can come to me any time those two bother you.” He nodded and took off holding some books close.

“That’s Shiro, he’s Izumi’s twin brother” Kagami said.

“..no kidding. Those two kinda look like clones of each other.” Sunset said.

“You haven’t seen their parents” Kagami chuckled shaking her head. “It would explain a lot.” She led the way to her room, which like her clothes style was very elegantly gothic. Kagami gestured to a chair near the desk and set a candle going as Sunset sat down. She went over to the counter, and started up something. “How do you like your coffee?”

“....you have a coffee machine in here?” Sunset said looking surprised.

“Oh they’re fairly cheap” Kagami said waving a hand.

“Uh….. oh well.. A couple things of creamer… I guess. I like mine pretty dark.”

Kagami nodded and reached into a small fridge and poured some for both of them..

“Thanks again ..” Sunset said sheepishly as she took the coffee. “And.. thanks again for inviting me, this place is a amazing.”

“Oh it’s no trouble. I’ve been quite curious since I heard you transferred here. I hoped to make a good impression after your first sight of me… was.. Well” Kagami looked a bit embarrassed. “That business with the lists.” She sighed.”I’m not usually that.. well shallow.”

“Oh.. I don’t think that’s shallow at all” Sunset said. “Most people want to be liked and,having rumors spread about you around the school is never fun. I know that”

“Oh.. is that why you transferred?. Pardon me asking.”

“Yeah. no problem just… it’s a long story and I’d have to start at the beginning….”

They must have spent hours talking and exchanging stories. When Lasko had said Kagami knew a lot about everyone and everything going on at the school he wasn’t kidding, she even knew some about the teachers. Not rumors but from actually talking to them.

“He’s really that bad huh?” Sunset sipped her drink as Kagami told her all about Dr. Levine.

“Dear let’s just say that his wife goes by her maiden name at school because she doesn’t want to be hated for his...behavior.” Kagami said.

“His kid seemed to be the same way, feeling like he was hated because of his dad. Who’s his wife?” Sunset asked. “I felt really bad for him I mean, at least I got a bad reputation from my own behavior”

“Ms. Beadley, the creative writing teacher. She’s very sweet”

“She’s Ralph’s mom?” Sunset asked in disbelief. She looked way too young for that to be even possible unless...ew she didn’t want to think about that.

“..oh no his stepmother. Levin’s second wife. ” Kagami sipped her tea. “My apologies. I don’t know much about his first wife but I know he remarried.”

“...oh… “ Sunset said. “She looks like she’s just out of college.”

“Oh she is… it’s my understanding they married the moment she graduated from high school..” Sunset’s eyes widened and she shuddered, remembering the way Levine looked her over when they met.

“Oh God that’s so creepy” She said. “I don’t blame her for not wanting people to know. Does he just… flirt like that? Right in front of her?”

“Occasionally yes” Kagami said. “Like I said, nasty piece of work.”

“Oh man.” Sunset shook her head. “And she has two daughters…. I feel bad for those poor girls growing up with that as a father. “ She remembered the pictures Ms. Beadley had of her daughters Chase and Cammy. “So what’s the story about him hating Lasko so much?”

“Oh well.. I think it has to do with the trouble Lasko caused when he was Temp’s.. Well student I suppose. Levine of course, looked right past Temp and only saw Lasko making trouble.” Sunset sighed.

“Let me guess.. Because Temp’s rich, upstanding, son of a military guy-”

“And white” Kagami pointed out. “Hate to be that way, but that’s a factor.”

“Yeah.. and Lasko’s poor… and well not”

“Exactly”

Sunset shook her head and sipped. “Man.. this guy gets worse the more I hear about him. Why is he even employed?”

“He’s friends with the schoolboard. None of the staff like him either really.”

“Of course.” Sunset said with a sigh. “I’ll be sure to watch out for him. And not be alone in the same room. Cause ew.” She looked around thinking. “...what exactly was Lasko a student of?”

“Magic” Kagami said. Sunset felt as if the world had stopped for a moment.

“Magic?”She was certain there was no magic here.

“Mmhm . You want me to show you?” Kagami asked. “It runs in families. Though sometimes it can skip several generations.”

“I.. never realized there...was such a thing” Sunset caught herself quickly

“Oh Sarah, magic is everywhere you just need to look for it.” Kagami set aside her drink and got up to pull some things out of her nightstand. A thick spellbook, and a folded fan made of some kind of special wood. “The fan here functions as a sort of wand. “ she picked it up and turned through the book until she found a spell. With a flick of her fan she had her cup levitate over to her. “That’s beginner magic really.”

Sunset couldn’t speak for a moment. There was magic here. She could continue her studies.

Sam flipped through her book furiously looking for an answer to the question Temp had posed. She had only a day or so to figure it out before the spell wore off. She both hated and loved it. She hated Temp for pressing her nose to the grindstone but loved the thrill, the pressure.
“Tick tock, Samantha” He taunted.
“I’m LOOKING you jerk” She snapped. It was hard not to hate him just a little bit though.
“Ah-ah, I wouldn’t talk back if I were you” he said still sounding amused. “You know what I can do, if not to you , to your little friend.”
“Tolliver isn’t my friend, just my stupid lab partner. “ Sam said, looking feverently through the book.
“Then why do you care what happens to him?”
“Because I’m not an asshole?” Sam found something and held up the book. “Look here it is. The counterformula.”
“Well then show me” He gestured to the cauldron set up still enchanted.. “Before time runs out.