Fluttershy limped, into the music room looking for the girl that her rescuer had told her about. The girl in question was setting up a cello in a nearby corner of the room. Limping over to her, Fluttershy said timidly, “A-Are you friends with a girl with sunglasses and t-two-tone blue hair?”

The grey girl replied elegantly, “Yes, I am. My name is Octavia Melody Filarmonica Treble Clef.”

Fluttershy was slightly surprised at Octavia’s rather long full name, momentarily forgetting the reason she even sought her out. Watching Octavia as she started to bow her cello, Fluttershy quickly remembered her reason for being there. As Octavia was just about to start playing, Fluttershy blurted, “She told me to tell you, ‘It's time to settle things.’ I don’t--”

Octava let her bow drop to the floor with a sharp clatter, the tip of the bow snapping off. Octavia looked at her bow, then sniffled. Fluttershy, startled, gulped and took a step towards the girl in front of her, noticing tears coming down Octavia's cheeks as she heard the raven-haired girl say, “Vinyl, you idiot. It’s not fair what that monster did, but I know you're going to go too far.”

Octava suddenly stood up from her chair and walked past Fluttershy, stopping just short of the doorway threshold. She reached into her vest pocket and took out a scrap of paper. She handed it to Fluttershy, saying, “Take this.”

Fluttershy looked at the scrap of paper in her hands, which only held a bunch of numbers, and said, confused, “What is this?”

Turning to leave, Octavia said coldly, “It’s Vinyl's locker number and padlock code.”

Before she could get out the door, Fluttershy called out, “Wait! I need to ask you something.”

Turning back around, Fluttershy saw only anger brewing on the cellist's calm face as Octavia practically barked, “What?”

Looking down, Fluttershy all but whispered, “Why are you doing this? Why are you and Vinyl helping Sunset after everything she's done?”

Turning around again and stepping through the doorway, Octavia said, “She saved my life two years ago. I owe her, and so does Vinyl. Let's leave it at that.”

Before Fluttershy could say another word, Octavia was out the door and gone. Fluttershy, not wanting to let anyone get into a fight, especially if she could prevent it, headed for the principal's office. In her rush, Fluttershy didn't pay much attention to where she was going, and as she turned a corner, she limped right into Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie beamed at Fluttershy, but her smile quickly faded into concerned anger when she saw that her friend was hurt.

“Fluttershy, what happened?" Her eyes widened. "Did Sunset do this to you?”

Before Fluttershy could answer, Pinkie turned to leave, moving towards Sunset's locker. Worried that Pinkie was about to do something foolish, Fluttershy limped after her. No matter how much Fluttershy tried to speak up about Sunset's innocence in this particular matter, Pinkie either ignored her or couldn't hear her. Knowing it was no use, Fluttershy clammed up and followed Pinkie Pie.

---

Sunset stood up at her desk just as the bell rang out, signaling the end of her second-period class. Heading over to the printer, she collected her letter to Flash and folded it up. Her work finished, she headed downstairs toward her locker. Once there, Sunset put the letter in her locker and retrieved her journal not noticing Pinkie standing near her locker staring angrily towards her direction.

As Sunset started to walk toward the front door with her journal in hand, Pinkie stormed over to her and yelled, “Sunset, you big meany, how could you hurt Fluttershy like that?”

Sunset turned around to face Pinkie, confused. Her confusion turned to distress when she saw that Fluttershy was limping toward them.

"Fluttershy, what happened!?"

"Like you don't know, you jerk!" Pinkie snapped.

“Pinkie, I didn’t hurt her!”

“Yeah, sure you didn’t,” Pinkie retorted. “You're just a big, mean bully, Sunset!” With tears threatening to fall from her eyes, Pinkie continued, “Why'd you hurt Fluttershy? She didn’t do anything to you other than call you out as the cyberbully that you are!”

“I swear, I didn’t hurt her, Pinkie!” Sunset looked down, tears also threatened to fall from her own eyes. Voice hardening, she continued, “But that doesn’t mean I'm gonna put up with this Anon-a-Miss shit anymore. Now get out of my way.”

“Sunset, the Stallion brothers are planning on hurting you,” Fluttershy began, trying hard to quell the alrighty volatile situation. “Please, if you are truly our friend, let us help. Then, we can--”

“But we're not friends! You all made that perfectly clear!" Sunset yelled. Calming down, she said coldly, "My parents are right to want to pull me out of school.”

“Wait, what?” Pinkie asked, shocked, “What do you mean your parents are right to pull you out of school?“

Sunset tried to walk by Pinkie, but the pink girl grabbed her by the arm, halting her. Sighing irritatedly, Sunset continued, “They offered to pull me out before they dropped me off today.” Sunset looked down, her anger beginning to boil over as she saw Pinkie's hand still around her arm. “Let go of me, Pinkie. I don’t--”

“Y-You're not going to do it,” Fluttershy began with thick tears falling down her cheeks, “are you, Sunset? You're not going to m-move away, are you?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I am! And why shouldn't I? After all the shit and the abuse everyone put me through, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't leave. Even you all, who were supposed to be my friends, abandoned me as soon as things looked dodgy. You didn't even let me try to explain myself! I'm leaving this damn school, and to fucking Tartarus with you and everyone else!” After her tirade, Sunset stomped away without looking back, causing Fluttershy to raise a hand to her mouth and let out soft, shocked gasp. As she walked away, Sunset said, “I’m going to Principal Celestia’s office to get the paperwork I need to leave this school behind for good.”

“How dare you talk to Fluttershy like th--”

Pinkie’s words were suddenly, and very painfully, interrupted when Sunset’s fist collided with her jaw. Sunset looked down at Pinkie, who held her jaw and stared back up in fear Sunset. As she said to her, “You know, Pinkie, it occurs to me that if your friendship with Fluttershy and--”

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Sunset!” Looking up, Sunset saw Rainbow, Rarity and Applejack staring wide-eyed at her with a mix of shock and fury as Rainbow continued, “Answer me!”

Sunset didn’t reply. Instead, she continued with her speech to Fluttershy and Pinkie.

“As I was saying, it occurs to me that if your friendship with Fluttershy and the others truly meant anything to any of you five, then two years ago,” Sunset looked up right at Rainbow, who, not liking were Sunset was going with this, gulped as Sunset continued, “none of you would've allowed me to break you all up and walk all over you like the cowardly, weak, spineless worms that you are. All it took was a few texts, and you refused to even look at each other for two years. If that's how you feel about friendship, then I'm actually ashamed to have called myself your friend or your family.” Sunset turned her gaze to Applejack. “Isn't that what you said, Applejack? That I was your 'family'? Well, I guess we all know now what family really means to a hypocrite like you.”

Sunset stepped forward to walk past her former friends, only to stop when Applejack stepped in front of her. Before Applejack could say anything, her eyes went wide as she suddenly felt pain in her sternum, and her breath left her. Looking down, she saw Sunset's knee planted firmly under her chest.

Applejack collapsed into a heap, and Rainbow knelt down next to her, checking to see if she was okay. Sunset was just getting past Rainbow, when Rainbow jumped up, grabbing Sunset by her left shoulder. Before Rainbow could get in the first blow, Sunset ended the conflict by spinning on her heel and throwing her right fist out, slamming it into Rainbow's face. The blow immediately sent the blue-skinned athlete colliding into the lockers next to her. Rainbow's head collided with the lockers behind her and instantly knocked her out cold.

As Rarity held a hand over her mouth, a look of terror on her face, Sunset said as she massaged her knuckles, “Unless you want the same, move.”

Rarity stepped aside, allowing Sunset to push past her as she headed for the front doors, tears streaming down her cheeks. Rarity began to help her three friends up off the floor, Applejack holding her stomach and saying, “Ah feel like Ah've been kicked by ol' Thunder Hooves back at th' ranch.”

“You guys, alright?” Rainbow asked, rubbing the back of her head, “Who coulda guessed Sunset could hit so hard, huh?”

“Ow...” Pinkie rubbed her jaw as she climbed back to her feet. “I think my tooth is loose. That really hurt.”

Before anyone else could say anything, everyone heard over the loudspeakers, “Rarity Belle, report to the principal's office at once. Rarity Belle, report to the principal's office immediately.”

Rarity glanced at her friends before walking away to the office, head hung low, saying, “I’ll see you girls in a few hours. There is something that I need to take care of.”

---

Sunset sat alone outside of the school. Most of the students around looked at her with a mix of curiosity and caution. Ignoring them, she took out her journal, opened it to a new page, and began to write.

Twilight, I need to talk to you.

Sure thing Sunset. What’s up?

Something really bad happened at school today. I may have made a horrible mistake, and I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t want to use up all the pages in the journal trying to explain, but

Sunset stopped when she suddenly felt two soft hands gripping her shoulders. Throwing her head back, Sunset looked right into Twilight's eyes. Twilight looked not with anger or sadness back at her but with compassion, loyalty, kindness, laughter, and honesty, everything Sunset had wanted to see in the eyes of her former friends. Before she could say anything, though, Twilight said, “Uh, not to be rude, but could you move so I can come out?" Twilight smirked good-naturedly to Sunset as she continued, "It's kinda hard to come all the way out of the portal with you sitting with your back against it.”

Sunset quickly got up and moved out of the way. Twilight took notice right away of the tears falling down Sunset's cheeks.

“Sunset, what's wrong?”

“I-I...” Wordlessly, Sunset began to cry, not noticing her father coming up the sidewalk. He stopped when he saw Twilight standing in front of his daughter, the girl unsure of what to do next.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Mr. Cake began kindly, “I am Carrot Cake. I think we need to talk.” Gesturing towards Sunset, who sat sobbing, he continued, “It would be best for her safety if we did this back at your realm. Please, may we have your permission to enter the portal?”

“Yes, but I want to know what's going on.”

“I’ll explain that once I'm sure my daughter is safe,” Mr. Cake stated sternly to Twilight, causing the Princess of Friendship to tilt her head in confusion. He continued while guiding Sunset towards the portal, “It's okay, Sunset. Remember, it was just a nightmare. Twilight won’t hurt you.”

“Why would I--”

Twilight was unable to finish her words, as Mr. Cake guided Sunset through the portal and into her main library, where the mirror was kept. Once there, Mr. Cake, struggling to move on his four wobbly hooves, looked at Sunset's true, pony form. He didn't know what to say; it was one thing to know his daughter was actually a unicorn, but it was another thing entirely to see it.

He didn't spend too much time pondering it, though. Moving to action, he gently led the still-sobbing unicorn over to a nearby couch. Sunset climbed onto the couch, then used her magic to help her father sit next to her while she cried in his lap.

Twilight entered a few moments later, saw how upset Sunset was, and simply asked, “What happened, and how can I help?”

Next Chapter: Vindictive (Edited and Titled by Icecreammac) Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours, 32 Minutes