The morning sun shined through Fluttershy's window, illuminating the sleeping girl's face. Unfazed, Fluttershy continued her sleep, until she felt something soft and fuzzy pressing up against her stomach. Cracking open her eye, she saw Angel Bunny snuggled up against her. She looked at her clock and saw that it was seven in the morning.

Gently rolling over onto her back, she very gently picked up the little, white rabbit, placing him onto her chest. Stroking his soft, white fur, she said, “Is it time to get up already? I was dreaming of better times, times before Anon-a-Miss.”

Letting out soft sigh before sitting up, holding the small rabbit against her chest with one arm, Fluttershy slowly climbed out of bed. She was about to set him down to get dressed when he suddenly stood up on his haunches and climbed down her shirt. Trying not to hurt him, the surprised girl pressed both arms against her chest saying, “Angel, stay out of there. That isn’t--” Her words were cut short as his soft fur tickled her flesh, causing her to laugh. “Angel,” Fluttershy giggled lightly, “th-that tickles.” Angel didn’t listen, as he soon found a very comfortable position and snuggled deeply into Fluttershy's chest.

Frowning slightly, Fluttershy said to herself while letting out soft sigh, “Great. Now that he's in my shirt, how am I supposed to shower and get dressed?”

Still holding one arm under her chest, Fluttershy walked over to her dresser. Opening the top drawer, she took out a cream-colored top and a green skirt. Turning around while holding onto Angel Bunny, she said softly, “Okay, Angel, I really need you to come out from there so I can get dressed and showered for sch--” Fluttershy’s words fell short when her eyes caught sight of a picture on her nightstand.

Walking over to it with her shirt and skirt held in one hand and her other arm against her chest, Fluttershy looked at the photo. It was of her and Sunset with all of their friends at Sugar Cube Corner. Each of the girls looked happy. Sunset was sitting next to Rainbow Dash with a strawberry milkshake in front of her.

Fluttershy picked up the photo, dropping her shirt and skirt onto the floor, and sat back down onto her bed. She felt something wet trickling down her cheeks. Her tears, at first soft and slow, soon began to fall freely as she began to cry, remembering her words towards Sunset the day Sunset had dropped off Lucky. Setting the photo down, Fluttershy got up, turned around to face her bed, and knelt down on her knees. Angel hopped out from her shirt and up to her pillow while Fluttershy bowed her head and pressed her hands together.

“O, Heavenly Father,” Fluttershy began as her tears slowly came to a stop, “Thou who art full of compassion and eternal grace, please, I beg Thee to hear my words.” Fluttershy raised her head slightly. Her vision caught sight of her grandmother's cross hanging above her bed as she continued, “I humbly ask for You to forgive my sins, for I treated one of my friends shamefully.” Fluttershy bowed her head again, saying the last of her words in a near whisper, “I ask only that You show me a sign that Sunset Shimmer, who was once my best friend, is innocent of what I accused her of doing. And if she is not, then I ask that You show her the love and mercy that You have always shown me, as You guide her back into the warmth of Your embrace. Amen.” Crossing herself, Fluttershy stood up, picked up her shirt, and headed into her bathroom.

A half-hour later, completely showered and ready for her day to begin, she gently picked up Angel Bunny. Fluttershy was about to place the little, white rabbit into a carrying case to take him to the animal shelter, when he once again hopped down her shirt. Annoyed, Fluttershy grumbled out, “Angel Bunny, please. I don’t have time for these games. I have to leave.” Fluttershy again found herself giggling as Angel's soft, fluffy fur pressed against her bare skin under her shirt.

“Angel,” she giggled, “that really t-tickles.” As he settled down, Fluttershy sighed in relief and said, “I know why you're doing this. You want me to make up with Sunset, don't you, Angel?” Fluttershy walked over to her closet and took out her coat while holding the little rabbit against her chest.

Looking down as he poked his little, white head out of the top of her shirt, Fluttershy set her coat down and stroked his little head.

“Alright, you can stay there until I get you to the shelter for your check-up today, but after we get there, you need to come out, and this time, stay out.” With one arm against her chest, holding him in place, Fluttershy found it hard, but not too difficult, to slip her coat on. Once fully dressed, her keys in hand and her backpack slung over her left shoulder, Fluttershy and Angel Bunny headed out of her quaint home.

On the walk to the shelter, Fluttershy hummed to herself, trying to keep her mind off how she had treated Sunset only two days ago. Fluttershy held Angel Bunny in her shirt with one arm, making sure to keep him from wiggling around too much so his soft fur and whiskers didn't tickle her and cause her to slip on the ice.

Walking through the snow Fluttershy, looked down when she heard a soft crunch that didn’t sound like the snow or ice breaking under her footsteps. Backing up a bit, Fluttershy saw a cell phone with a partially cracked screen lying in the snow in her boot track. Kneeling down while holding Angel warmly but tightly in place, she picked up the phone and put it into her pocket, saying to herself as she continued on her way, “I’ll look at this once I get inside.” She shivered slightly and continued as she saw her breath, “It'll be much warmer and easier to concentrate.”

Getting to the shelter, Fluttershy noticed right away that her boss and friend Crystal Heart had not come in yet. Fluttershy quickly fished her keys out of her coat pocket and opened the front door to the shelter. Getting inside, Fluttershy headed into the back, where she sat down at an empty table. Leaning forward while she unzipped her coat, she said softly, “Alright, Angel Bunny, we're here now, so you need to come out so that I can get you ready for your check-up.”

Angel Bunny poked his little head out from under Fluttershy’s shirt, then almost immediately ducked back down into her shirt. Fluttershy let out a tight, slightly annoyed sigh as she realized she was going to have to struggle with her little friend to get him to cooperate.

Getting up, she headed over to the refrigerator and took out a small bag of carrots. She sat back down and took one of the carrots out of the bag. Biting into it, she held the half-eaten carrot over her shirt to entice the little rabbit to hop out. Once Angel Bunny saw the carrot, he was all too happy to come out.

Picking him up and placing him into a nearby holding cage with the carrots, Fluttershy said soothingly, “Now that that's over with, you be good for Crystal Heart while I--”

Fluttershy was interrupted by a chime that said, “Sunset Shimmer, incoming call. Sunset Shimmer, incoming call.”

Looking down to her coat pocket, Fluttershy’s eyes went wide when she realized whose phone she had found. Taking the phone out and looking at the cracked screen, she pressed a finger to it as she said, “This can’t be Sunset's phone. She never goes anywhere without it.”

Looking through the phone directory, Fluttershy noticed that Sunset's phone was set up to notify her when photos were uploaded to her computer. Going to the photo tab, she pressed the tab and saw to her shock that all the photos of Rarity's party where still on her phone. She thumbed through them and saw that each one had a little computer symbol on them. Taking out her own phone, Fluttershy said to herself as she accessed her downloadable content program, “I hope this works.” She pressed her thumb to one of the photos and downloaded it to her own phone. When the photo had finished downloading, she looked at the two phones in her hands, comparing the symbols on each phone.

“I don’t understand. If my phone has the photo of Rainbow scaring me, whose photo was downloaded to MyStable, then?”

Looking at both phones, Fluttershy decided to look at the photo on MyStable again and logged on using her phone. To her shock, the two photos looked similar, yet were clearly different. Where Sunset should have been standing next to Fluttershy with a happy smile on her face, as was shown on Sunset's phone, she was clearly not there in the MyStable photo. Fluttershy tried another photo, and another, and another. Soon, she picked through all eight photos. Like the first one, Sunset wasn’t in any of them. Knowing that MyStable didn't allow you to modify photos in its own photograph upload program, Fluttershy looked through Sunset's apps and found no way to modify photos on her phone. If Sunset wanted to modify the photos, she'd have to use her own computer. The computer that she didn't have at Rarity's during the sleepover. Meaning...

“She really was innocent,” Fluttershy began as she started to tear up again. “What have I done? I should've listened to her. Now, it might be too late.”

Running out of the shelter, Fluttershy ran the rest of the way to school to see if her former friend was there. Stopping sixteen blocks away from the school, a thought suddenly entered her mind. Looking at Sunset's phone, she thought, “Wait. Those photos were downloaded to someone's computer. If Sunset didn't have hers that night, then whose computer were they downloaded to?” Deciding to ask a friend, she used her own phone to call Pinkie. She didn’t need to wait long.

“Hiya, Flutters! How're ya doing?”

“Pinkie, listen. I really need you to pay attention to me. This is about Sunset.”

“I see,” Pinkie said in a cold voice. “Did she hurt you Fluttershy?”

“I'm fine, and it's more on the lines of us hurting her. I think--”

*CLICK*

Fluttershy blinked a few times when she heard the dial tone beeping out, indicating that Pinkie had just hung up on her. Fluttershy grumbled, “I can’t believe she did that. I am so going to have to talk with her about that when I get to school.” Thinking a bit more, she said, "Maybe I should talk to Rarity instead. I remember she texted me last night, telling me that she was forced to have Sunset over for dinner. And since the sleepover was at her house, and since she saw Sunset last, she might have some insight."

Looking at her watch, Fluttershy saw she had just enough time to make it to the next bus stop and to school before the first bell rang. She'd have to wait until school to talk to Rarity. Several minutes later, she found herself standing in front of her locker, placing her and Sunset's phones inside. As she headed past a group of three boys, she overheard one of them say, “So, you’re really gonna go through with it, Dumbbell? You’re really going to make that bitch pay for what she posted about our mother?”

“Yeah. After lunch, Sunset Shimmer gets put down like dog she is,” Dumbbell replied grimly. With a slightly wicked smirk on his face, he finished, “I’ll let her have one last meal, then I'll end her for good, and once I'm done, this school will praise me for getting rid of Anon-a-Miss.” Fluttershy was just making her way around the corner when someone grabbed her from behind, causing the timid girl to scream, “Please don't hurt me! I'll do whatever you want!”

“I know you heard me back there, girl,” Fluttershy heard Dumbbell snarl as he began to shove her towards a maintenance closet. “I think I'll put you in here until after lunch today. After that, it doesn’t matter what you say to Principal Celestia, because after lunch, Sunset will be gone for good.”

Opening the door, Dumbbell's brother Hoops Stallion grinned just as wickedly as Dumbbell was. Fluttershy tried to fight off, Dumbbell only to receive a backfist to her jaw, which sent the timid girl to the floor, unconscious.

“That’ll shut you up,” Score Stallion snarled out, picking her up and tossing her into the small room. Fluttershy landed on the cold, hard floor of the maintenance closet with painful thud. The three boys hid her behind some large, heavy boxes, closed the door, then walked away laughing, each one planning on what their next move was, unaware that a girl with two-tone blue hair, black trim sunglasses, and a T-shirt with a mirror image of an eighth note had seen everything.

Next Chapter: Reminiscence (Edited and Titled by Icecreammac) Estimated time remaining: 15 Hours, 10 Minutes