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.