What A Long Strange Trip

by milesprower06

Sign-ups

For once, Sunset was the first to get seated at her regular table in the CHS cafeteria. For today's lunch, she had selected a romaine salad with pecans and strawberries with a sweet tea. She lightly poked at it while waiting for the others to get through the lines.

"Hey there, Sunset. How was your Sunday?" Applejack asked, coming up to the table and sat down across from her, with Twilight coming up right behind her, sitting to the right of her.

"Good. Pretty much just stayed at home and practiced some more." She answered. She had remembered how her guitar practice had helped her through the first few weeks after the Fall Formal, and outside of practice with the Rainbooms, it was now how she was managing to keep her mind off of the end of the year, which was still nearly nine months away. School had only entered its third week.

Thirty more to go.

"Hey girls. Saturday's practice was awesome, and it's made me wonder if he want to step up rehearsals to get ready for the Fall Formal." Rainbow said, sitting on the left side of AJ.

"Honestly, Rainbow, we play and practice year-round. I don't think we need to step anything up because of a school event." Twilight countered.

"Yeah, unless you're insinuating that our practice on Saturday left something to be desired." Applejack added, nudging her with an elbow as she started into her veggie burger.

"No no, girls. Everything was fine. I just thought we'd get things down to a tee." The lead guitarist defended herself.

"We've had things down to a tee for months, Rainbow," Pinkie said, coming up and sitting on Sunset's left side. "I mean, Sunset and I played on stage with another group completely on a whim. I think we've got things down."

"If you girls want to practice more, I don't have any objections. More time to make sure my new fall outfits match up and everything." Rarity said, coming to the table with Fluttershy.

"Well, you might have to make one more dress, if Sunset decides to sign up!" Pinkie said, pulling a pen and clipboard from her hair.

"Sign up for what?" Sunset asked, as Pinkie slid the clipboard over to her tray. She picked it up, and looked at the piece of paper currently clipped to it.

PRINCESS OF THE FALL FORMAL
SIGN-UP SHEET
______________ _____________
______________ _____________
______________ _____________
______________ _____________

Unpleasant memories came flashing back, where she made absolutely sure that someone putting their signature on any of those lines would realize what a colossal error they had made. Since that fateful night where she was shown the error of her ways, she had stayed far away from any sort of popularity contest if it didn't have to do with the Rainbooms. She had attended nearly all of the follow up events as part of the band.

"You want me to sign up for Princess of the Fall Formal?" Sunset asked, staring down at the blank spots for signatures. No one else had done so yet.

"I figured it could be, you know, some kind of last hurrah. But this time it'd be for all the right reasons. To show the school how far you've come. Ooh, we could do another song here in the cafeteria! ~We can work together helping Sunset win the crown!" Pinkie sing-songed.

Sunset lightly giggled as she looked down at the blank sign-up sheet, before sliding it along the table back to Pinkie.

"Let me think about it."

"Fair enough, it'll be on the bulletin board next to the main gymnasium entrance if you decide to sign up." Pinkie replied, returning the clipboard to her hair before starting into her lunch.

---

Sunset had spent the rest of the school day thinking about Pinkie's idea. Her second Fall Formal at Canterlot High had been the spark; the beginning of her road to redemption. Her third had placed her up on stage as part of the Rainbooms' lineup. But her first...

Memories of how she used to be still lingered. The rumors and lies she spread, how flat out nasty she was to girls that dared to challenge her dominance of what essentially amounted to simple popularity contests. The smug satisfaction she got from winning those crowns during her first year here now seemed so meaningless. Ever since she had thrown those picture frames into the trash, she had never considered signing up for another Fall Formal, Winter Waltz, or Spring Fling again save for being a part of the music.

So what exactly did she have to prove to anyone, to herself, by entering into one of these things one last time?

But maybe Pinkie had a point. Maybe it would be nice to have one last hurrah, so she could let the school vote for her and put that crown on her head for all the right reasons.

Cafeteria musical performance withstanding, of course.

So after one last stop at her locker, she slung her backpack over her shoulder, and headed towards the northeast section of Canterlot High, which housed the gymnasium, pools, locker rooms, as well as the other arenas and practice courts for the school's various athletic teams. She walked up to the cork bulletin board that hung between the main double doors to the gym and the trophy case, with the marquee 'EVENT SIGNUPS' mounted above it. Currently, there were two sheets of paper pinned to the board, one for entrants for Fall Formal Princess, and the other for musical acts for the dance itself. That one was considerably full. A couple more bands, and groups would likely have to start trimming their setlists in order to make time for everyone.

Sunset dropped her backpack to the tile floor, and knelt down to dig through one of the front pockets. Coming out with a ballpoint pen, she clicked the cam with her thumb to expose the tip, got up to bring it to the Fall Formal Princess signup sheet...

...and paused at the last moment, looking at the single signature that was there already.

Wallflower Blush

Comments

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Glad to see a new chapter and the ending, I didn't see coming

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Wallflower Blush, eh?

[Level Dasher]

Well, wasn't expecting that.

[milesprower06]

10722922

10722925

10722958

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

10722962
Fair enough

[Pram the Oracle]

Did NOT see that coming. This is getting good.

Well gooder

[EaglesFan1127]

"Hey girls. Saturday's practice was awesome, and it's made me wonder if he want to step up rehearsals to get ready for the Fall Formal." Rainbow said, sitting on the left side of AJ.

I believe that should be, "we."