What A Long Strange Trip

by milesprower06

The Last Formal

"~Shake your tail, shake your tail! Shake your tail 'cause we're gonna have a party tonight!"

The dancing crowd down on the gymnasium floor gave cheers and applause as the Rainbooms' last song of their set came to a close. After they gave bows and waves, the band exited stage right, and began to return their instruments to their cases and bags. On the other far side, Trixie and the Illusions were getting ready to take the stage for their set. The crowning of the Fall Formal Princess was about halfway through the event, and it was scheduled to happen after Trixie's performance.

She and Wallflower weren't the only ones on the ballot, this year, there were four; Junior Diamond Tiara and fellow senior Trixie had also joined them on the ballot. Since putting her signature on the sheet, Sunset went on with the next two weeks as ordinarily as she could, not trying to stand out at all. But no matter how ordinary she tried to appear, word very quickly spread through the student body that Sunset Shimmer was back on the ballot for the first time in two years.

She wasn't sure what she was worried about more; losing, or getting more votes than her friends. But now that she was off the stage, the performance high was rapidly wearing off, and dread was beginning to set in. She nodded, smiled, and thanked her fellow students as they complimented the Rainbooms' performance as she made her way to the refreshments table, pouring herself a glass of punch, downing half of it in a couple gulps.

"You sounded great up there." Came a familiar voice behind her as she lowered her glass from her lips. She turned and saw Wallflower smiling at her. She wore a simple, light yellow dress. Sunset had chosen her dark green dress that she had last worn during their charity performance at Camp Everfree. It had orange flame accents, and just a hint of rocker appeal with the golden studs on the shoulders.

"Thanks. You look great, by the way." Sunset told her, taking another sip of punch.

"You think so? You look better." Wallflower replied, and Sunset smiled in response.

"Listen, Wallflower. If this goes one way, and not the other..."

"No, don't. Don't do that. Don't apologize in advance. Rule number one of friendly competition: give it your best, and whatever happens, happens. I've had a great time tonight so far, and it looks like you have too."

Sunset nodded at her.

"Alright, fair enough Wallflower. Want to go watch Trixie's set with us?"

"Sure. Might as well be close to the stage, I think the results are going to be announced when Trixie and the Illusions are done.

Together, the two girls walked through the dancing crowds up to the front, where the Rainbooms were currently enjoying the final group's second number. Their third and final song was their best known song, 'Tricks Up My Sleeve', which a fair bit of the crowd sang along to, just like they had to all of the Rainbooms' songs. As the last song continued, Sunset continued to wonder if she had signed up because she wanted to, because Pinkie reminded her of it, or because Wallflower wanted her to. She thought herself beyond these popularity contests. She had given a smile and a nod to Wallflower, but really, the only sense in which this was a competition was 'who does the school like the best?' Who was the most popular?

Sunset was so lost in her thoughts that the only thing to let her know that Trixie's set was over was the applauding of students as they came forward and took a bow, before Principal Celestia came forward and took the mic at center stage, with Vice Principal Luna holding the hinged box with the Fall Formal Crown in it.

"Let's have one more round of applause for all of our musical groups tonight!" Celestia began, encouraging another period of cheering. "And now, for the moment a lot of us have been waiting for, it's time to crown our Fall Formal Princess."

Principal Celestia reached into her pocket, taking out the sealed envelope that contained the winner.

"This year's Fall Formal Princess is..." The headmaster paused, lifting the flap, and taking out the single notecard inside.

"Sunset Shimmer!"

Cheers erupted from behind her as all of her bandmates rushed in and encased her in a group hug. As soon as they released her, Wallflower came in for a hug.

"Congratulations!" She told her over the cheering around them. The green-haired girl released her from the embrace then smiled at her when Sunset gave her a look of hesitancy.

"Hey, none of that. Now get up there and get that crown!" She said, taking her by the shoulders and nearly pushing her past the cheering students towards the stairs. Sunset ascended them, and walked towards Principal Celestia, who was removing the crown from the box Luna held. Swallowing the lump in her throat and fighting back tears, she came to the center of the stage, and slowly dropped to one knee when Celestia turned to her with the crown in her hands, and gently set it down on her head. Returning to both feet, she managed a smile as she turned and waved to the cheering student body.

---

It was too familiar. That was the problem.

After making a few more appearances with the crown on her head, Sunset had grabbed her jacket and slipped out of the Fall Formal before things had finished winding down, and now walked down the dimly lit sidewalk towards her apartment, guitar case in her left hand and the Fall Formal crown in her right.

This hadn't been a good idea.

She should have just looked at Wallflower's name on the list, and walked away without saying a damned thing, and that would have been that. There was no magic, no broken wall to fix this time, but she felt nearly as bad, just because of the unpleasant memories that winning had unearthed, and it had turned what she thought would be a wholesome view of how far she had come into a hollow victory that made her wonder why she had wanted it in the first place.

She turned the corner into her apartment complex, and walked down the lot to her building. Stepping into the lobby, she dug her key out of her jacket pocket as she climbed the stairs to the third floor. She came to the top, slid her key in the door, and pushed the door open, setting her guitar case down just inside the door, and set the crown down on the computer desk. She was still wired after the party, so while she wasn't ready for bed, she was ready to get out of this dress. Going over to her closet, she stripped down to her undergarments, hung up the dress, and slipped into her pajamas.

Now much more comfortable, she walked back over to her computer desk and slumped down in her chair. Letting her gaze slide to the left, she saw the plaque that she had mounted above her center PC monitor. She reached up and took it off of the wall, running her fingers across it, and discovering a layer of dust. She grabbed the nearest discarded t-shirt, and gave it a wipe down.

Presented to
Shimmercode
For passing 500,000 subscribers.

Now there was something she grew to be proud of after her redemption. When not dealing with magic, or practicing guitar, she had, at Rainbow's suggestion, taken her hobby of gaming and started livestreaming online for an ever-increasing audience. One of her most popular videos was when she brought Fluttershy over for some nice easy gaming, and got absolutely destroyed with a retro acorn-collecting game.

Deciding that she wanted to spend the rest of the night getting her mind off of the Formal, she switched on all of her monitors and quickly sent out a tweet.

Impromptu after-party stream starting in a minute! New game!

She dug into her backpack, and pulled out an older game that Rainbow had given her in case she needed something new to stream.

She quickly booted up her casting software, and turned on her webcam.

"Evening, Coders! Bit of a late start tonight, but I thought I'd unwind with an older game I've never played before that a good friend gave to me. It's called Sonic Adventure 2, let's see how it is."

Author's Note:

I know I'm a broken record apologizing for the large gaps between updates. I've been writing like crazy, but the problem is I've been jumping between three separate franchises like crazy these past several weeks.

Hope you enjoy this latest addition, and thanks for reading!

-Miles

Comments

[Level Dasher]

Of course you would bring out SA2.

I'm just imagining Sunset's camera showing a game-faced Fluttershy totally whooping her ass and all of her subbers laughing (in a good way).

[milesprower06]

10873899
You have to imagine it? Did you see the Game Stream EqG short?

[Level Dasher]

10874228
Oh right, I did, actually.

[Johnny B Mediocre]

"Evening, Coders! Bit of a late start tonight, but I thought I'd unwind with an older game I've never played before that a good friend gave to me. It's called Sonic Adventure 2, let's see how it is."

I'LL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS

[Blood Rarity]

[milesprower06]

10874319
If there wasn't another time jump, I'd totally have her raging at the Emerald Hunt levels.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

10874465 Oh yes, those levels are a pain!

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Cheers erupted from behind her as all of her bandmates rushed in and encased her in a group hug. As soon as they released her, Wallflower came in for a hug.

I'm honestly, not surprised at all.

[BoJack Horseman]

I'm not sure how I feel about the Equestria Girls characters being aware that Sonic exists lol

[EaglesFan1127]

She wasn't sure if she was worried about more; losing, or getting more votes than her friends.

That if should actually be a what.

[milesprower06]

11179894
Fixed, thanks!