The next day at school, everyone was gathered in the gym to help prepare for the upcoming Music Showcase. In the student’s case, they were all sitting on the floor decorating banners and posters to help decorate the school and help advertise the event. They were all having a pretty good time painting to their heart’s content and letting their creativity help their school.
Somewhere in the middle of the gym, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were painting a poster of their own and having just as good a time as anyone else was; all three of them smiling big as they worked.
It didn’t get awkward until Sunset Shimmer came by and picked up a paint brush.
“Want some help?” She asked them with a slightly nervous smile.
The three girls all looked uneasily at each other at the presence of Sunset. They’d been making sure to be careful around her since the Fall Formal, but her putting them on the spot like this just made them feel all the more uncomfortable.
“Uh, no thanks. We’re good.” Apple Bloom replied, trying her best not to look unnerved but ultimately not doing a good job at it. The other two girls said nothing, but only nodded as to agree with their friend.
Sunset frowned a little. This had been the third time she’d offered to help someone today with this and every time she was told no. Granted that this was the lease mean-spirited sounding of the three rejections, but still. It didn’t really make it hurt much less.
“SUNSET SHIMMER! OVER HERE!~” Sunset heard the unmistakable voice of Pinkie Pie call to her from across the gym. When she looked at the smiling, frantically waving girl, she saw that she was with the rest of her friends, working on their own poster.
Sunset smiled to herself. At least there were a few that were willing to put up with her. She started to walk toward them, but as she did so, she could hear everyone whispering amongst themselves and all giving her that same, judgmental look she’d been getting ever since the last Fall Formal. And here she thought reforming one of the biggest nuisances the school had would help her be seen in a better light.
She guessed to everyone else it just looked like two baddies plotting the school’s downfall or something and five other innocent souls having been manipulated into joining the dark side.
“Ugh, I had no idea the whole school would be here.” Sunset sighed when she joined her friends.
The five girls all looked at her with deep sympathy, including Fluttershy who put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Sunset had been trying so hard to get others to like her since she’d changed her ways, but the poor girl had so much trouble getting any positive looks from people whatsoever.
Pinkie and Rarity quickly tried to change the subject by showing off their group’s poster for the Music Showcase, which was mostly blue and had a variety of instruments painted in various places on it with music notes intertwining with the whole thing.
“Quite the eye-catching advertisement, if I do say so myself” Rarity said proudly while putting a hand to her chest.
“And it smells like cake!” Pinkie added happily.
“It does?” Just after Fluttershy asked that question, Pinkie shoved the entire poster in Fluttershy’s face, leaving frosting in several places Fluttershy’s nose and face.
“I used frosting instead of paste!” Pinkie said, giggling a little at the sight of Fluttershy’s face right now.
Seemingly out of nowhere after Pinkie said the word “frosting”, Screwball quickly popped up in the middle of the group of girls and wasted no time in looking at Fluttershy’s face. Everyone was expecting Screwball to make some kind of joke at Fluttershy’s expense, given her current situation…
She did not.
Screwball instead, very slowly, licked the frosting off of her, making her flinch a little in disgust and confusion.
“Oh g-goodness.” Fluttershy said, looking a little flustered at what Screwball just did.
“Screwball that’s just…creepy.” Rainbow Dash said, slightly wincing at this.
“And…unsanitary I’m sure…” Rarity added.
Screwball put her tongue back in her mouth and let out a slight groan. “My favorite food is straight frosting okay? I know I have a problem, don’t rub it in.” she said, turning her attention to the poster, starting to drool a little at the smell of frosting. Fortunately, Pinkie could tell exactly what she was thinking and put the poster behind her back and away from Screwball.
“You have good taste Screwball, but this is the one time I have to keep you from eating frosting, alright?”
Screwball pouted a little and crossed her arms. “Dammit.” She swore.
Sunset rolled her eyes and patted Screwball’s head. “I’ll get you a cupcake later Screwy.”
“I’d honest to God be satisfied with just a tub of frosting...or five.” Screwball responded looking up at Sunset. “So, what’re you guys doing?”
“Just decorating some posters and stuff for the Music Showcase....! Oh you know what, maybe you should enter it Screwball. It sounds perfect for you since you like attention so much!” Sunset said with a little bit of a smile.
Screwball did not smile and agree like Sunset was expecting her to. She instead, gritted her teeth a little and looked in another direction. “Yeaaaaah I would but….I can’t.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. This was pretty unusual for Screwball to not want to be part of a big attention grabber and maybe improve her relations with the students she’d pranked much too harshly in the past. “What? Why not? You’ve got a good singing voice; what’s stopping you? You don’t have stage fright or something do you?”
“Oh believe us darling, Screwball has the exact opposite of stage fright. She can’t enter the music showcase because she was banned from singing at CHS.” Rarity said, giving Screwball a scrutinizing look at Screwball’s really uncomfortable demeanor over the subject.
If Sunset wasn’t perplexed before, she definitely was now. “Banned? From singing? Why?”
Applejack responded with a deep exhale of annoyance. “Because o’ that stupid stunt she pulled at the talent show last year. She sang at that thing and well…”
The auditorium was completely dark aside from the stage lights that illuminated the stage enough for the audience to see. It was the semi-final rounds of Canterlot High’s annual talent show, and it was down to only three contestants left. The crowd waited in anticipation for the next act to begin. Vice Principal Luna walked up to the microphone and spoke.
“We’re ready to begin the last act for the semi-final rounds. Whoever scores the highest from the judges in this round will move onto the finals. Now without further ado, let’s complete the semi-finals with Miss Screwball, and her original song titled…?” Vice Principal Luna looked down at the card she was holding and read the name of Screwball’s song again to make sure she was reading this right. “…her original song titled “Assumptions”. She said with a little bit of a confused expression as she walked off stage.
In her place Screwball bounced out from behind the stage curtain, smiling big. She looked over at Lyra and Bonbon, who were assisting her with piano music and gestured for them to start. Both nodded and looked back at their sheet music and began to play a very fast-paced and nonstop tune.
Screwball then cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and started to sing in just as fast in pace as the piano.
Llamas live on farmland,
All day long they love to spit,
I’d like em so much more though,
If they didn’t smell like
Scmhitzer was a genius,
His mind made him super rich,
His wife was Mrs. Baily,
And she’s a stupid
Pitching’s done in baseball,
My favorite team’s the Hawks,
Not really for how good they are,
But because they got big
Cockfights are illegal
And done by people with no class,
And anyone that likes,
Can just kiss my
Assumptions are really funny,
But embarrassing to relive ,
If you think my song is dirty,
I have no fucks to give!
Screwball finished the song by extending her arms out wide and taking several deep breaths, seeing as she had just finished that entire song in only one. The auditorium was almost completely silent to the point where you could hear a pin drop. The the crowd stared wide-eyed at Screwball in complete shock at everything that just came out of this little girl’s mouth. Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were on the side of the stage out of sight of the audience, but they were in the same position the crowd was, seeing as Celestia had dropped her clipboard in shock after hearing this.
The silence was broken after a few very awkward seconds by the sound of Discord in the audience howling with laughter. “PFFFHAHAHA OH THAT’S MY GIRL ALRIGHT! HAHAHAAHA!”
“She seriously went through the effort of making it to the semi-finals just for that one joke.” Rainbow Dash said with a facepalm. “And it’s the reason we have to get our lyrics approved before performing now.”
Sunset’s mouth hung wide open after hearing this. She looked down at Screwball who still had that same, uncomfortable look about her.
“…I thought it was funny. Apparently Celestia didn’t though because I wasn’t allowed to sing after that at any school event…looking back on it, maybe it wasn’t one of my better ideas.” Screwball said, looking down in shame.
“Awww”. Fluttershy kneeled down to Screwball’s level and patted her head. “I’m sorry you feel your creative freedom was taken from you Screwball…but if it makes you feel any better, we can let you help us practice.” She said softly, smiling at her.
Screwball looked up at Fluttershy, Sunset, and the rest of the girls with sad, cute-looking puppy dog eyes. “…C-Can I work the p-pyrotechnics?” she asked, stuttering a little.
The entire group’s eyes widened at the thought of Screwball having access to anything remotely explosive. It’d most likely end up being a living nightmare.
“…O-Oh dear…” Fluttershy mumbled.