//------------------------------// // In These Pages You'll Last Forever // Story: Shaking Off Bad Memories // by EileenSaysHi //------------------------------// Sunset's phone buzzed as she fumbled with the keys to the yearbook room, the door in even more desperate need of repair a year later. It was Rarity. You sure you don't want me there, darling?, it read. "Oh, geez, she actually wrote 'darling'!" Sunset laughed to herself as she typed out her reply. I'll be fine, Rares. See you later. She stuffed the phone away as she finally managed to get the right key in the lock and open the shoddy door. She switched on the lights and was greeted with the familiar sights of the room, with the chalkboard on the left and the computers on the right. Scootaloo, Vice President of the Yearbook Committee (Rarity having exited the club at the start of the year due to other obligations) and the holder of the other set of keys, had come by earlier with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom to drop off the boxes of newly delivered yearbooks; one was prominently placed on the counter in the center of the room, while the rest were to the side under the computers. They'd also set up three rows of chairs, packed closely in the small area behind said counter. Today's meeting would be Scootaloo's show, with her being introduced as the incoming president by Sunset before taking charge of moving the yearbooks to where they'd be dispensed the next morning. The seniors on the committee, except for those who had joined for the first time this year, were not obligated to help with that process, per yearbook tradition, so that'd be the point where she could split off and talk to... her. Sunset swallowed. Why is thinking her name still so uncomfortable? It had been an effort to say it when she'd been talking with Rarity the past weekend, and it had been even more of an effort calling out to her in the hall that morning. It was in this room, a little over a year ago, where Sunset had had her first recognizable interaction with a girl who, unbeknownst to her, had become crazed with jealousy over Sunset's social rehabilitation and popularity and sought to extinguish it. But it wasn't the first time they'd met; they'd had English together in freshman year, where the other girl had fallen beneath the notice of the ascendant queen of Canterlot High, and she had a vague recollection of sharing chemistry with her in sophomore year, where she would have melted into one of the numerous voices jeering Sunset for months in the wake of the Fall Formal. But, from there, she'd disappeared into the shadows, with the help of a magical object of terrible purpose from Sunset's own homeworld. She joined yearbook in junior year, the same year Sunset became president of the committee, but she'd made use of the object so many times to cover up embarrassment that there were only vague fragments of her in Sunset's mind prior to... To... Wallflower Blush, Sunset thought. Her name is Wallflower Blush. She's a real live human being. And if I can't bring myself to remember that, then this really can't go well. So stop acting like this. She'd already chastised herself that day for visibly gawking at Wallflower in gov class like she was a particularly odd animal at the zoo, having gotten lost in thought about how this part of the day was going to go. She sighed. But still, another voice insider her whispered, does she really even deserve— Sunset jolted suddenly as she felt a finger tap her on the shoulder. "Wha—oh, hey Scootaloo," Sunset exclaimed as she whipped around to find the source of the touch. "Hey, Madam President—you're kinda blocking the door a bit." "No, I'm... whoops. My bad." Sunset realized she hadn't really moved since turning the lights on and was still in the doorway. She peered outside down the hall and saw a bit of a line behind her, including the other CMCs, Micro Chips, Sandalwood and a few of the younger committee members. No sign of Wallflower. "Hey, everyone!" Sunset called down the hall to the rest of the line. "Chairs have already been set up, so go ahead inside and find a seat! It’s a bit of a tight fit with everyone here at once, but there should be enough for all of you!" She walked into the room and the others filed inside. Scootaloo followed behind Sunset, joined by Apple Bloom. "Do you have a sec?" Scootaloo asked. "We wanted to talk about a few ideas that we could implement for the club next year based on how things went this time." "Uh... now doesn't really seem like the right time, Scoot..." Sunset replied. "Not too long, I just don't want to forget because you'll be pretty busy with, like, graduation stuff soon." "Um, okay." She called out to the rest of the room again. "We'll get things started in about five minutes, so feel free to mingle!" She turned back to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom as she noticed an unmistakeable head of green hair enter through the doorway and head for the seats out of the corner of her eye. "Alright, what's up?" "Well, I had some ideas about how we can rethink our social media strategy." Sunset sighed. "Scootaloo, we talked about this before. I know you're big into SnapGab and HayTube and want yearbook to dump MyStable, and I agree not many people here use it—I don't—but it helps us reach some of the parents! And they're the ones paying for yearbooks!" "Not many is an understatement," Apple Bloom, who had run the yearbook's social channels for the past year, scoffed. "And even with all the promotions I ran across all our feeds, that was the only platform where we lost followers." "Exactly," Scootaloo cut in. "We just think we can make better use of our time not dealing with some junky old platform that people remember more for that silly cyberbullying PSA comic than for anything they actually like about using it." "I still don't get why Mistress Mare-velous's evil sister thought tricking the Power Ponies into thinking Hum-Drum was leaking all their secrets on the internet was such a brilliant plan," Apple Bloom mused. Sunset's eyes wandered around the room as she lost whatever speck of interest she'd had in this line of discussion. Eventually they landed on Wallflower, who was sitting alone in the back row, her backpack occupying the seat next to her, as the rest of the club filled in the front two rows. She exhaled again. "Look," she said to the two younger girls before her, "this really isn't that important. And besides, it'll be your call next year anyway. You won't need my approval for that decision. We're about to run over the five minutes I gave. Can we get started?" "Oh..." Scootaloo said. "Sure, of course, Sunset. I mean, Madam President." Sunset smiled and rolled her eyes. "Take a seat, Madam Vice President." Apple Bloom ran off to the second row of chairs while Scootaloo sat in one beside Sunset facing the crowd. "Alright, everyone," Sunset announced, standing up. "Welcome to this year's last formal meeting of the Yearbook Committee! Yes, after two long years, my reign of terror over this club is coming to a close!" A round of cheers from the audience ensued, including a stray "We love you, Sunset!" "Thank you, thank you, I know you all can't wait to see me run out of town. But before we get to the torches and pitchforks, I figured we should at least enjoy the fruits of our labor! It's time to pass out the yearbooks!" Scootaloo stood up, grabbed a pair of scissors and cut through the tape on the box of yearbooks sitting on the counter. Sunset grabbed one sitting on top, grateful this year’s batch didn’t smell suspiciously of benzene. "Behold, artistry!" Scootaloo announced to another round of applause as Sunset held up her copy. "Okay everyone, Apple Bloom will now start passing you your personal copies!" Sunset declared. "But before you get excited opening them up, we have a few announcements to make!" As Apple Bloom got back up and grabbed the box to start dispensing the contents, Sunset kept speaking. "Firstly, can everyone who's graduating this week please stand up!" At that, Micro Chips, Sandalwood, Photo Finish, Lavender Lace and Cherry Crash stood up, followed hesitantly by Wallflower. "I want to congratulate all of you for your hard work. Some of you joined this year, some of you have been here from the beginning, but each and every one of you left a mark and all of your contributions are visible here. Wondercolts forever!" "Wondercolts forever!" several of the seniors cheered back, to applause from the younger students. As everyone sat back down to accept their yearbooks from Apple Bloom, Sunset went on. "But, of course, I'm a senior as well, which means it's time for us here at the Yearbook Committee to usher in the next generation of leadership! And today I'm proud to announce the one, the only Vice President Scootaloo will be taking over my duties as your new club president!" As Scootaloo stood up once again to address the room, Silver Spoon called out from the crowd. "Hey, she can't be president of two clubs! She's already president of the Rainbow Dash Fan Club!" "First off," Scootaloo replied, "that's not an actual rule; second off, that's not an officially recognized school club; third, it's the Rainbooms Fan Club." "Then why do you never talk about anyone but—" "Moving on," Scootaloo interjected, shouting her down. "Thank you for that amazing introduction, Sunset. We all wish you the best! Don't we?" she asked the crowd, to a responding cheer as Sunset blushed slightly. "It's been an honor to serve as VP, and I'm so thrilled to be taking over as president. We've had a great year this year, and together we've chronicled it all here," she said, holding up her copy. "Pet shows, snowball fights, diorama-rama, fire drill follies—plus a minor robot rampage..." Everyone turned and glared at Micro Chips. "Oh, will all of you let that go?" he huffed. "I reprogrammed JVJ-24601 top to bottom! I even had Twilight Sparkle review all of my coding. He's not gonna go berserk and try to 'get the humanoids' again!" "Sure thing, Micro Chips, and we'll keep all the poor souls joining you at your internship next year in our thoughts," Scootaloo snarked. "And furthermore, I did not appreciate having my superlative change from 'Most Likely to Invent Cold Fusion' to 'Most Likely to Instigate a Cybernetic Apocalypse'…" "Anyway, by now I believe Apple Bloom has given everyone their copies. But before we get to play, we have to work, so everyone—except for seniors who've been at this club for more than one year—we need you to start helping us move these boxes of yearbooks! We'll be emailing out the schedule of who's managing which yearbook stands this evening—don't forget! And for those of you who are now done for the day, we'll all see you at the yearbook afterparty tomorrow evening!" And with that, everyone except Sunset, Micro Chips, Photo Finish, Cherry Crash and Wallflower were up and scurrying about, helping move boxes out of the room. Photo Finish decided to catalog the goings-on with her camera for posterity, while Micro Chips and Cherry were each looking through their new copies. Wallflower, meanwhile, slouched in her chair, looking up at the ceiling, apparently trying not to think about something. Or look at a certain someone. Sunset swallowed. Her hands tensed. She knew now was when she had to do it, as the last of the worker bees filed out of the room with the boxes. She'd asked for this. It was time to follow through. To reconcile. To end the nightmares. To build a happier future, possibly for both of them. And, after a prolonged moment's hesitation, as a voice in her head whispered for her to simply leave and be done with her, Sunset finally found her resolve, walking over to the back row of chairs. Wallflower was sitting in the middle of the row; Sunset climbed about five chairs over, leaving a gap of just a few between them. Startled, Wallflower whipped her head around to face Sunset, seemingly caught off-guard. "Hi, Wallflower."