While the girls were basking in friendship and camaraderie, the two administrators continued to look over the evidence presented to them, murmuring in hushed voices and making notations on their own notepads. Luna had already started collecting the papers, and wiggled the stack of pages at her sister. “I am going to cross reference the timestamps with the calendar, and see which ones were likely posted using the school’s network—that, if nothing else, is something I can use as justification for suspension or detention—cyberbullying and making threats against a student is definitely a violation of the Use Agreement. I am also going to try and match profiles to students. If we can do that, that should give your assembly that much more punch.” She frowned. “This is not the whole school, Tia, but this site has over a hundred members. That is a measurable portion of our population. I feel like I am going to be calling a lot of parents.” The younger sister took the papers and headed for her office.

Once she was gone, Celestia cleared her throat. “Okay, ladies. I’m very proud of how you’re all handling this, but Rainbow Dash, Sunset, I need you both to stay behind for a little bit so I can get ask you some questions. The rest of you, I believe the lunch bell will be ringing soon, so why don’t you go get Raven to write you passes and you can go back to class.”

After the other girls had filed out, Celestia addressed the athlete first. “I applaud you bringing this evidence to us, Rainbow Dash—you have given us a great deal of material we can use to stop this at its source and actually mete out consequences to the guilty parties without the more clever among them having the opportunity to cover their tracks. That showed amazing forethought and planning on your part, though I am not happy that you skipped the first half of the school day to do so.”

Rainbow gave the Principal a defiant stare. “…I had to make it right, and it couldn’t wait. If that means punishment, I’m cool with that.”

“So you said. You said a few other things that concerned me as well, like the knowledge that someone else has been printing these pages out and ‘placing them for Sunset to find?’ How did you come by that knowledge?”

The athlete looked at Sunset, who was watching her intently. She was also curious how Dash had found out about it, and when. “….Scoots told me. She saw Sunset find the pages in her locker, and followed her to the bathroom. She…” Her eyes looked away as Sunset felt her face flush with shame, knowing what was coming next now. “…She said she heard Sunset crying in the bathroom, and she threw the pages away on the way out. Scoots fished them out of the trashcan, and brought them to me this weekend because she didn’t know what else to do. She said it was only one of a bunch of nasty things being left in the locker that she’d seen Sunset throw away.” Sunset put her face in her hands, her ears burning and her cheeks hot, and Rainbow Dash put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing firmly.

Principal Celestia made a noise in her throat. “…I see. I’ll talk to Scootaloo later today then, for her version of the story.” Then her voice sharpened. “…I also want to know what you meant by having threatened Sunset yourself.”

Dash hung her head. “I told her that I didn’t believe she was trying to change. That it was all another of her games, and that I was going to find out what the game was. I told her that when I did, I’d finish what the other rainbow started.”

The former unicorn looked up. “…you didn’t say anything everyone else wasn’t thinking,” she pointed out. “…I’m a monster who did terrible things to everyone. I…understood why you didn’t trust me, why you wanted to protect your friends.” Blue-green eyes sought Celestia’s. “…Don’t punish her for that, please…”

The older woman smiled gently, bringing to her mind the same smile on a mare’s face. “…No one is being punished, Sunset—but there are consequences for actions. Something I believe Rainbow Dash understands.”

“Totally! I made the right choice, though, and if that means I get in trouble, I get in trouble. I’m not going to back down.” She grinned at Sunset. “…There’s a reason we all love Principal Celestia—she doesn’t play favorites for anyone. I fucked up, cornering you in the hall and then skipping school this morning because I wanted to put stuff right for you and with you. Now I own up to that, and get consequences, because she can't make an exception just because I'm your friend—it wouldn't be fair, but it also means that that happens with everyone, and it means they won’t get away with bullying you.”

Bewildered, and feeling more lost in this world than she had since she arrived, Sunset looked between them. “…but Dash…you were doing something you guys are saying is good…Why are there ‘consequences’ for that?” Sometimes, it seemed the more she learned about humans, the more confused she became, the more differences she saw between this world and the one she’d been born in. “…why punish someone for doing something right?”

Celestia watched her for a moment, understanding flickering to life in her eyes. “Because that’s how a good teacher, parent, or guardian for young people in this world operates, Sunset. Rainbow Dash did the right thing, but the way she went about doing it was not the best. It’s my job to make sure she understands that in a tangible way, so that if a similar situation arises in the future, she will weigh how she wants to approach it, and perhaps make a better choice, or she may decide that the consequences of the choice are worth it.”

“Which they were. I needed to make things right with a friend.”

A bemused head shake, and the Principal addressed the soccer player. “…worth it or not, you have a week of detention, Rainbow Dash. One day for skipping your morning classes, and the others for harassing another student on the premises. Now get Raven to write you a pass, and go to lunch.” The athlete saluted cheekily and headed to the door. “Oh, and Rainbow Dash?” When the girl turned back towards the administrator, Celestia admonished her. “…Do try to curb your language next time in front of authority figures. I let it slide today because of the circumstances, but in the future it will mean more detention and a possible call to your parents.” Sheepishly, Rainbow nodded, before slipping out of the office.

Celestia waited for the sound of Rainbow and Raven speaking beyond the door to fade, leaving her alone and in silence with Sunset Shimmer for the first time since their somewhat emotional encounter during Sunset’s panic attack. The pale skinned woman took the time to study the teen, watching her face grow anxious again, blue-green eyes flicking between her and the door, as if she was weighing whether or not she could get away with bolting from the room. Keeping her voice even and soft, Celestia offered what she hoped was a kind smile. “You are not in any trouble, Sunset. I did want to talk to you though, to get to the heart of what has been going on, so please, sit down. Do you want something to drink? I can have Raven get you something from the cafeteria.”

The girl obediently moved to the chair in front of the desk, and Celestia caught the slight tremor in her legs as she sank into the cushion. “I’m fine, Principal Celestia,” she responded in a voice barely more than a whisper.

“Sunset, before I ask you any questions, I want to apologize to you.” A head jerked up to stare at her with wide, startled eyes as she spoke. “You should not have been subjected to the level of bullying that has apparently been inflicted upon you since the formal. I know my sister tried to impress this upon you on Friday, but in light of what your friends have brought forward, I want to make sure you understand: I don’t condone this kind of behavior, and had I even suspected it was going on, I would have worked to put a stop to it long before this.”

The older woman’s heart ached when genuine surprise flitted across the teenager’s face before she could mask it; its appearance suggested that Sunset still believed, on some level, that the torment she had endured was some kind of justified punishment. It certainly made Celestia wonder just what kind of country her counterpart ruled over, where an adolescent believed that weeks and months of psychological torture was an appropriate peer response to a fellow student who had wronged them. Controlling her own emotions and clamping down on the flare of anger at the other her—if she truly was the other Celestia’s ‘little sun’, why hadn’t this lesson already been taught?—and kept her voice firm but not unkind as she continued to address Sunset Shimmer. “I’m extremely serious, Sunset. This kind of behavior from your fellow students, regardless of the actions you yourself took in the past, is inexcusable. The only people responsible for assigning consequences to your actions are adult authority figures—in this case, that would be Luna and myself as your principals—and if you recall, we have already assigned that to you. You served two weeks of In-School Suspension under Luna’s eye, and you continue to serve your detention daily after school, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The redhead’s voice held together, but only barely. Celestia’s trained ear could hear the strain in it of a student struggling to keep herself together.

“Added to that, your grades have remained top of your class, or so I have been made to understand, and all of the staff are reporting to me that you haven’t engaged in any negative behavior towards other students or broken any rules since the formal. As far as we are concerned, you are working through the consequences of your choices with due diligence.” Celestia picked up her coffee cup, taking a sip and feeling relieved at finding the contents at least still warm. “It is not, nor has it ever been, the place of your fellow students to decide whether or not the assigned consequences are sufficient, or for them to take matters into their own hands, and I’m very upset that they have.”

“Especially given that everything I have observed with you suggests that you have benefited and learned from the consequences that were handed to you, and that the daily detention has provided you with some opportunities you might not have had otherwise, such as the opportunity to establish a rapport with Applejack. It’s also very obvious to me, at least, that the incident that occurred at the Fall Formal had an important and life changing impact on you, and while I am not aware of the details of what you experienced, nor am I certain whether this change is from you choosing to reinvent yourself or you simply letting us see the real person you have always been underneath, you are becoming someone I am proud to have as one of my Wondercolts.”

As she took another long sip of her coffee, eyes half closed, Celestia watched Sunset. The exile from another world was staring at her in what she gauged to be a mixture of shock and awe, eyes starting to water. The principal set her cup down, choosing to drive her original point home as firmly as possible. “One of the other things I see from that change is that you feel guilty for the wrongs you committed in your past, leaving with you this need to make up for or suffer for those things now. That’s very normal for anyone to feel at some point, Sunset Shimmer, if maybe not to such a degree as you are showing, but that doesn’t mean you have to become a sacrificial lamb for other people’s anger.” She leaned forward in her chair, locking eyes with the redheaded girl. “The graffiti on your locker, this website and the notes being left in your locker? Those things were wrong—I’d even go so far as to call them criminal—and I need you to realize that when things like that happen, it’s not okay, it’s not something you should just suffer through. You should be reporting it to Luna or I—we want to help stop it, but we cannot help if we don’t know it’s happening. You are one of my students, Sunset, and I’m not sure how exactly that works where you come from, but all of the students under my care here deserve the same fair treatment and chance to thrive…” She paused to let that sink in, before adding, “…whether they come from a land of magical creatures or not. Do you understand? Be honest with me.”

Sunset was silent for a while, but tears made quiet tracks down her cheeks. For a heartbeat, Celestia wondered if she had said the wrong thing, somehow inadvertently reiterated something the other Celestia might’ve said.

“...do you really mean that?” the girl managed eventually, wiping her eyes on a proffered tissue.

The hopeful note in that trembling voice hit Celestia with the force of a bat to her skull, and she had a very powerful epiphany in that moment, one that made her realize that she was standing at a very important and pivotal crossroads with the magical-unicorn-turned-teen-girl from another world. The tears weren’t from a reminder of the pseudo-mother figure of her past doing the same as Principal Celestia—rather, it was because the principal was doing something an immortal princess had not…something that the child before her desperately needed, and had likely needed for years. It was a daunting thing to suddenly realize that her next set of responses could make or break Sunset’s growth and healing as a person; the wrong answer would send the girl retreating back into her sullen, angry shell that lashed out at others, but the right could lay the foundation of trust. With a deep breath and trusting she was making the right choice, Celestia smiled gently. “Yes, Sunset, I do mean it.”

Blue green eyes watched her intently, the tiny spark of hope growing into a little flickering flame. “...and...if there was more....like something else people did...and I told you...you’d try to stop them?”

She’d chosen the right way—any doubts melted away with that question, and she put as much honesty and compassion into her next words as she could project. “I would do anything in my power to identify and hand out consequences for the actions that I felt were appropriate, depending on the severity. What else is happening, Sunset?”

Haltingly at first, but soon gaining a sort of momentum on its own, the information tripped and stumbled its way out of Sunset Shimmer’s mouth: the aggressive, rough handling in the halls that was escalating to leaving marks, the way Garble had shoved her into a locker the week before, the extensive nature of the notes in her locker, and of course, Gilda Griffen’s fixation with enacting physically violent retribution on her. When she got to the incident in the locker room with the bucket of blood and offal, Celestia was shaking with barely contained rage, every ounce of her control going to keeping her face from betraying her fury.

“…I’m not sure if it was Gilda—I didn’t get a good look, but it sounded like her, and the bucket was from her family’s business….I don’t even know…” Sunset shook, her face pale and drawn, edging towards green. “…I’m just hoping it was from a cow and not a pony…I didn’t know any cows in Equestria personally…not that I knew many other ponies, but…the smell…and…” she broke off, swallowing forcibly, trying to bring herself back under control. “I know they’re just animals here…and that you humans eat them…but they’re people where I’m from, Principal Celestia….just like you, or the girls, or…” She broke off, hugging herself and shuddering.

The principal offered more tissues to Sunset, giving her a chance to blow her nose again and regain a measure of her composure. It gave Celestia herself a minute to rein in her own emotions—it would be disastrous if Sunset perceived any of her temper as being directed at the girl instead of the girl’s tormentors. Once both of them had had a few minutes, Celestia took up the thread of conversation. “I’m going to address each of these individually, so that I can be clear with you, Sunset Shimmer. In regards to the notes and graffiti, the first and primary step is what Luna has already taken—you lack the identities for those responsible, and we hope by putting you in a locker that is in full view of several cameras and closer to this office, we will be able to catch the perpetrators in the act if they continue to try to harass you in this manner.” She picked up her coffee mug again to take another sip. “…In regards to the actions of Miss Griffen, the violence targeting you and the incident in the locker room could be seen as assault if you wished to press charges with the police, and since it happened on school grounds, if you choose to go that route, I will make sure that the full force of punishment for that is enforced.”

Sunset’s eyes widened and she shook her head rapidly. “…I…there’s no need to get the police involved, Principal Celestia,” she interrupted in a rush. “…I...don't have any proof anyway. The dumpster is probably empty by now and there were no other witnesses or cameras.”

Unsurprised, Celestia nodded. “In that case, I will say that Gilda is…already looking at more layers of trouble on top of her actions in the locker room. Her name was among the profiles I saw turned in by Rainbow Dash, and this is where I feel the need to explain the situation much more thoroughly to you than I normally do with students. It's…not standard policy to detail punishment of one student to another, though we explain it to parents who raise concerns in the areas of bullying. In this case, I am making an exception.” She let her lips turn down into a frown. “…That ‘social media’ page is a pile of garbage, but all of its posts are dated and timestamped, and with the identities of the profile users in hand, any posts we can prove that they made while in this building were made either with our computers or our network. At the beginning of the year, everyone signs a packet that details the school rules and code of conduct, agreeing to our ‘Acceptable Use’ policy. Starting penalties for cases like this are various forms of suspension at the bare minimum. In extreme cases, like actual violent threats or being those encouraging violence and bullying, we are talking about expulsion. Every single person who is a member of that page who we can identify and verify as to have posted while on school grounds will be facing at least suspension. If Gilda’s posts are in line with the rest of her behavior, expulsion is on the table.”

Sunset stared, like the Principal was speaking a foreign tongue. “All of that? For posting stuff about me on MyStable?” she asked in shock.

“All of that and an assembly today in your last period for me to address the root action. If people have a problem they can’t work out with another student amicably, then they need to come to me and Luna, not take matters into their hands. This goes for you and your friends, just as much as the other students, Sunset. If you get harassed again, you come talk to us, don’t hide it or try to handle it yourselves. I do not condone bullying, but if any of you take any action against others, I am required to mete out a response against that as well. Is that clear?”

The redhead from another world sat in shock for a long time before she nodded. “...I understand, Principal Celestia...”

The administrator smiled at her warmly. “Good. Go to lunch, Sunset, I’m sure your friends are waiting for you.”

Sunset had progressed through the rest of the day in a weird state of mind, having spent her lunch alone to try and recover from the conversation with Principal Celestia and the emotions and memories it had dragged to the surface. It made her extremely grateful for the warning the Principal had given her about the assembly—she had enough time and forethought to bring her emotional defenses back up in anticipation of anger and negative emotions directed her way. With how bad things had been, she didn’t feel like leaving herself vulnerable to more nastiness, even if the girls were there with her.

She’d barely entered the auditorium when Rainbow Dash appeared as a blur of color that latched onto her arm with a loud and defiant exclamation and pulled her to where the girls were sitting. “You’re with us, Sunset!” she declared, as if daring anyone in the school to argue with her, unceremoniously putting the former bully in the middle of the group of girls who closed ranks around her, leaning close for one of those group hugs that chased away the negativity pressing down on her from all around. The feeling of belonging fluttered in her chest again, not as intense as the warmth she felt with her Twilight, but no less welcome a sensation.

It kept the hostile stares and frowns sent their way at bay, though Rainbow wasn’t shy about making rude gestures in the direction of a few people who looked particularly thunderous at Sunset’s inclusion into the group of girls, and Rarity sniffed in distaste. “Immature children,” she murmured to Sunset. “Ignore them, darling. You’re our friend whether they like it or not.”

“I’m trying…” she responded, resisting the urge to pull out her phone and text Twilight to calm her nerves. She couldn’t, not with the girls present—one or more of them would be insanely curious as to who she was messaging, something she wasn’t ready to share. Even if these girls wouldn’t try to drive them apart, she didn’t trust the rest of the student body to not find out and get involved. Taking a deep breath, she focused on the memory of her favorite person, the way she felt and sounded and smelled, sinking into the feelings it stirred in her chest.

The chatter around her died, and she looked up to find the Principal and Vice Principal standing on the stage, both of them looking incredibly unhappy. Not far away, a number of the teachers were lined up, and they didn’t look any happier about the present situation. Students started looking to one another in worry and confusion, only to snap back to the front when the principal spoke in a tone that none of them had ever heard her use. Sunset’s eyes widened, and she couldn’t help but tense at the way the human version of Celestia sounded.

“Students of Canterlot High…I am extremely disappointed in you. It has come to our attention that for some time now, an unknown but sizable number of members of this student body have decided to take matters into their own hands, meting out actions of vandalism, harassment, bullying, and hatred under the charade of ‘Justice,’ or ‘punishment for past wrongs.’” Celestia’s voice was tight and filled with hidden anger.

“Let me disavow you all of that notion now. Tormenting another student is not, under any circumstance, justice. I don’t care what they may or may not have done in the past—such behavior is reprehensible and far beneath the standards I expect from members of this student body.” She scanned the crowd, making more than one student flinch under the fury visible in her eyes. “I had thought better of all of you, and I’m ashamed to have the entire lot of you as Canterlot Wondercolts—a sentiment shared not only by the rest of the faculty here, but one I am quite certain Twilight Sparkle would echo were she present.”

The entire student body recoiled at that, and Sunset sank deeper into her seat. She couldn’t vouch for Princess Twilight Sparkle’s opinion, but if there were any amounts of similarities between the pony and her girlfriend…

—If there are as many similarities between them as there are between the Celestia’s, it seems you’ll have to give up your crown for “Queen of Understatements” to Celestia.— Stupid Little Voice commented dryly.

She couldn’t argue that point; when she’d told the full story to her Twilight over the weekend, the bookworm had made use of her extensive vocabulary in her attempt to describe exactly how she felt about the situation and what was happening to Sunset. Several of the words Sunset was not ashamed to admit she had to look up later, and that was before the dark haired girl had started in on what she felt should be done to the perpetrators behind the worst of Sunset’s harassment—at that point, some of what she was saying had been completely lost on the former unicorn, having delved beyond the limits in the similarities between the human language and the one spoken in Equestria.

Focusing back on the present moment and pulling herself out of the memory of lavender skinned girl pacing her bedroom in her pajamas, she watched Celestia motion to Luna, who held up a stack of papers in one hand.

“What you see Vice-Principal Luna holding are official suspension notices for almost a hundred students, for violating the Acceptable Use policy of our networks and computers to engage in systematic and malicious behavior against other students in the school through the use of social media on a site that, for the past four years we had chosen to allow the use of on school computers. Up until recently, there was no reason to not allow it—most of you used it to promote and organize school events and extra curricular activities. That privilege is going away, along with any other social media sites not yet added to our list of blocked IPs. You can thank those among you who thought that the propagation of pure ugliness was an acceptable action to take, and keep that in mind when you wonder where so many members of your class are in the coming days or weeks.”

She exhaled, the anger in her tone tempered briefly. “I am going to reiterate this now, but this is the last time I will do so. If you have an issue with another student that cannot be resolved through peaceful conversation, then you are to bring it to a teacher, myself, or Vice-Principal Luna. I do not care what the circumstances are, the next student who engages in mob vengeance or some form of self-serving vigilantism will find themselves expelled from this institution right into the back of a waiting police car. And for those of you who have already escalated things to such a serious degree, that is where you will find yourselves very shortly. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”

Sunset found herself shivering in fear—she’d heard that voice before in that same echoing tone of barely restrained fury only four times in her life, and only once had that tone been directed at her. For everyone else in the room, it was the voice of an infuriated principal. For her…it was the barely contained rage of an angry Sun Goddess. There was not a single shred of doubt that Celestia’s statement was not a threat—it was a promise.

Few notes here that are relevant. Schools and “Acceptable Use Agreements”: This is an actual thing, at least in my state, and I actually made the consequences less stringent then the real deal. My mother is a librarian and former classroom teacher at an elementary school, so I asked her about public school policies on a situation like this. She showed me the stuff that has to be signed by parents and students at the beginning of the year, and here, at least, they just expel your happy ass.

This, for the most part, concludes the “closest i shall get to anon-a-miss” and yes, it will tie in to later events. Shoo be doo.

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!