Normally, a meeting between the three girls gathered in the basement of Scootaloo's house would have been backed by the sounds of meeting minutes, plans, and animate discussion. It wasn't often, for instance, for Sweetie Belle to remain silent in the presence of her friends, and Scootaloo herself could always be counted on to break the silence to suggest something "awesome", something terrifying- or usually, both.

Today, however, the small circle of friends were quiet. Each had come to their own realization of the magnitude and ill-advised nature of their actions a week past, and each was wrestling with what to begin the conversation with.

Apple Bloom broke the silence. "Ah assume that none of us want to continue Anon-A-Miss?" At a pair of hesitant nods, Apple Bloom looked down at her feet. "Ah guess I'll go first, then. Sunset's been hurtin', girls-" As Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo opened their mouths, guilt twisting into indignation, she cut them off. "-worse than we thought. Scoots, Ah know you heard about what Gilda and Dust are plannin'- right?" As Scootlaoo nodded, she continued "The reason they couldn't find her home is cause she don't got one- she'd been livin' nearly on the streets for the last five years."

Sweetie Belle's face contorted with horror. "What? But, shouldn't she be in foster... care..." She cut out her voice and glanced at Scootaloo.

Scoots shrugged. "Yeah. Being homeless sucks, but at least you have control of your life. When I was still in foster care..." she shook her head. "I don't think Sunset would have been able to put up with someone else controlling her life like that." Scootaloo's eyes widened. "Wait, does that mean she would've been alone for Christmas?"

"If we'd succeeded? Yep." Apple Bloom shook her head. "Applejack knew, too. Over winter break, Sunset's gonna stay with us. And if we'd had our way..."

Sweetie Belle looked troubled, but Scootaloo shivered. She'd spent a year on her own, running from a particularly bad foster care situation until she'd been picked up by Officer Sentinel Watch, Flash's father. He'd taken her to the local foster care center, but had made certain to keep tabs on her- and eventually, adopted her into the family. Scootaloo remembered the single, cold winter she'd spent on her own- she never wanted that to happen to anyone. She gulped and spoke up. "My reason's stupid, compared to yours."

Sweetie Belle glanced up. "Really, Scootaloo? I think we were stupid right from the beginning." She looked back at her feet, slouching forward in her chair. "I wanted Rarity to myself, like it was back when Sunset was in charge- she didn't have any friends outside the fashion club and the drama club, and she wasn't hanging with the drama club because she was avoiding Pinkie Pie. But I realized it earlier today- she's still friends with Applejack, and everyone else. It's not like she's gonna stop hanging out with them because Sunset wasn't her friend anymore."

Apple Bloom winced. "Yeah- I really just wanted her to stop draggin' Applejack away from home so much. I don't know whay Ah thought pullin' her away from Sunset was enough..."

"Wait, seriously? Those were your only reasons?" Both the other girls glanced up at Scootaloo, who had an incredulous expression on her face. "At least I actually thought through what I wanted."

"Scoots- what do you mean? Didn't you just wanna spend more time with Rainbow Dash?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Nah, that was just a bonus. I wanted revenge for what she did to my brother." Scootaloo looked downcast. "Except- Flash doesn't. He's not happy about what happened to her, and he's upset about the who school going crazy again. He figured out it's not Sunset, and told Rainbow Dash."

Sweetie looked startled. "Wait, Dash knows? And if Applejack and Rarity know too-"

Apple Bloom spoke up. "Worse than that- they're tradin' notes and talking to others. Last I heard, they were gonna start gettin' more people on Sunset's side, and find the real Anon-A-Miss." She gulped. "The girls went to talk to Fluttershy yesterday. She lit a fire under them, made em' promise to go and help her. We ain't gonna pin it on Sunset for much longer."

"The whole school turned on Sunset when she though she'd gone back to being a bully." Scootaloo's voice was soft. "What'll they do to us?"

"Not as much- ah think." Apple Bloom sounded uncertain. "They were really mad at Sunset cause they though she was going back to her old ways- we might be left alone." She paused, and each of the girls thought about it for a moment. That seemed... unlikely.

"Why don't we just delete the page, then hope it blows over?" Sweetie glanced between her friends. "Then we can-"

"No." Both girls looked at Scootaloo. "We messed up. I wanted revenge for something that was already forgiven. You girls wanted your sisters back. We had stupid reasons, and did something that could still hurt a lot of people. We can't just let it go."

"She's right." Apple Bloom stared at her clenched fists. "And that ain't the only reason we gotta confess. A lot of people sent in stuff that wasn't just gossip- that was downright wrong to tell. We didn't post a lotta stuff."

"Dad taught me better than to spread stuff about families," Scootaloo growled. "No one needed to know about Silver Spark's parents, or Derpy's mom. That wasn't right. We have to let the principal know who sent in stuff to us."

Sweetie started to protest, then paused. "...Dust and Gilda might've really hurt her, wouldn't they?" She looked around the guilty faces of her friends. "You're right. Ooh, Rarity's going to hate me for this..."

"Yeah, Flash is gonna be real disappointed..." Scootaloo sighed.

Apple Bloom saw her friends hesitate, then spoke up. "Applejack's gonna be mad at me, too. But Ah have an idea." Both the other girls looked up at her. "We see how things look at school tomorrow. If things've calmed down, we just delete the page. No problem. If things are still bad, we turn everything over to the principal- or we just post a list of everyone who sent stuff in to Anon-A-Miss- and add our own names. A last post that spreads the blame across everyone." She looked around at her friends. "Deal?"

Both the other girls nodded. This might actually work...

Celestia groaned as she walked through the door. Collapsing on the couch, she looked up at Luna, who was typing on the laptop at the kitchen table. Luna looked back at her, then resumed typing. In a bored tone, she said "So, sis. How was you time with the Dazzlings?"

"Draining." Celestia put her hands on her forehead. "I was expecting Ms. Blaze to be the most problematic of the three, but she seemed determined just to get the paperwork over with. Ms. Dusk reminds me of a self-centered Pinkie Pie- bubbly, but not helpful."

Luna paused, then looked at Celestia. "and Ms. Dazzle- the one whose name is actually Dazzle, anyway. What was wrong with her?"

Celestia muttered something, and Luna motioned at her to speak up. Celestia drew in a deep breath. "She kept hitting on me."

Luna blinked. "Say that again?"

"She was flitting with me the entire time we were going over their paperwork!" Celestia yelled. "I mean, it's inappropriate for someone to flirt with their principal! We got the paperwork done, but I was so flustered by he time we were finished. I had no decorum left at all... "

Luna's eyes were wide for a moment, then she stated chuckling. Within moments she was laughing out loud. "Oh dear, Tia- the first person to hit on you in months, and she's a former supervillain, and your student to boot!" She calmed herself, then grinned at Celestia. "Did you take her up on it?"

"LUNA!"

"I kid, I kid!" Luna's grin dropped away as she turned back to her computer. She glanced over the information in front of her. "Mixed news on my end, though. I've managed to get the admins of MyStable to put a block on deleting the Anon-A-Miss page and begin an investigation, but they can't take it out of circulation or hand any data over. While there's a clear case for cyberbullying, this isn't a police matter yet. As long as they're not involved, we can't order them to reveal the users behind the page directly. So we just have to put them under watch for now." She sighed. "Why couldn't this be easy?"

"When was dealing with stuff like this ever easy?" Celestia came up behind her sister, and peered at the user data in fron of her. "What's that?"

"Gilda and Lightning Dust's message traffic. I wondered if they might have been the culprits behind Anon-A-Miss, and were just using it as an excuse to hurt Sunset. They're not- but they have been yelling across the message boards, calling off their friends. Looks like your plan worked there, at least."

"Good." Celestia felt some of the tension leave her shoulders. Anon-A-Miss is bad, but if someone had been beaten because of their actions, there would have been extreme consequences. I'll need to make certain Sunset's watched while at school- no one will ambush her after my display to those two idiots, but they might do something less overt.

Still, at least Winter Break will give things time to cool off. But only if there's no Anon-A-Miss waiting to rile things up after the kids come back.

We need to catch whomever this is- that's the only way we can solve this.

Celestia pulled out her phone, and called a particular number. "Hello, Mrs. Smith? Yes, this is principal Celestia..."

Author's Notes:

Hey- is anyone on here a lawyer? Does anyone know if a high school principal could ask someone like Facebook to reveal their users without a court order? If so, I may need to change that last section.

One of the things that has been averted with the changes to canon is that the CMC haven't sparked any fights yet- and have been withholding the worst stuff that might allow Celestia to involve outside forces, like the police. So, the CMC actually have a better chance of getting away clean than a normal Anon-A-Miss fic.

Not that I'm going to let them.

In other news, the CMC have realized just how bad it could have been, and are moving to correct their mistakes- kinda. We also see the holes in the CMC's logic regarding pushing Sunset out of the Humane Six- after all, they'll still have each other, which might continue to cut into their sibling time...

I almost considered having Apple Bloom call Scootaloo out for having "Revenge" as her reason for Anon-A-Miss, but then realizing hers was just as trite. I think this turned out better.

As for Adagio, I suspect she was hitting on Celestia just to unnerve her. Fifty percent sure. Maybe less. If she was hitting on Luna, though...

Next- it's back to school for Sunset, and her encounter with the pink menace...