It had been four days since the day in which so many of Rarity's outfits had gotten dirty. They had cleaned up nicely, and Fluttershy had finally persuaded Angel to stop his mischief.
A fashion show was being held at Canterlot High in place of the last class today. Naturally, Rarity was competing, and so today she was wearing the dress she was entering in the show, which was one fit for a princess. It was a fancy-looking white dress, though not more puffy than her regular dress. It was sleeveless with the slightly puffy kind of shoulders, and went down to her feet. On her feet she wore purple high heels. Quite often today some of the other students would compliment her dress and tell her she'd win the fashion show, as did all her friends, even Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
Rarity sat impatiently through her classes, grateful that Trixie, who was also entering the fashion show, wasn't pulling a cake prank on her again. At lunch she made sure the chair she picked didn't have a pie on it. Although it wasn't really necessary, because Rainbow Dash had already sat on the pie Pinkie had set and was laughing about it with her when Rarity had arrived at their table, but Rarity wanted to make sure after what had happened Monday.
After what felt like days, last class finally came. Everyone went down to the auditorium, and Rarity and the other fashion show contestants stood behind the stage.
Trixie was wearing a darker blue shirt, a purple miniskirt with blue and aqua striped tights underneath, and a purple cape with a magician hat.
"You're probably wondering why I didn't sabotage your dress," she said to Rarity. "Well, I didn't need to. You will never have the amazing show-stopping ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie!"
"I beg to differ, but I at least appreciate that you're playing fair," said Rarity.
"Plus, Trixie didn't want to get detention again."
One by one, the six girls in the fashion show were called onstage, each standing still, posing, and turning around. Trixie was fourth, and Rarity was fifth.
Finally, all of them stood onstage at once. Rarity had to admit to herself, some of them had very nice outfits, which made her nervous.
The judges, Celestia and Luna among them, talked for a bit. Then, Celestia spoke into the microphone.
"We have decided that the winner of today's fashion show is..."
Rarity held her breath.
"Rarity!"
The audience applauded, with Rarity's friends cheering the loudest, especially Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy saying "Yay."
Rarity was overjoyed at winning the fashion show. "Oh thank you, thank you so much!"
...
When the bell rang, Rarity walked out the front doors of Canterlot High with her friends.
"I knew you were gonna win!" said Rainbow Dash.
"How could you possibly not?" Applejack blushed a little.
"Yes, your dress is so lovely," said Fluttershy.
Rarity gave her friends a big hug. Then they each walked their separate ways to go home. Except two of them. Rarity was enjoying the sunny weather as much as winning the fashion show and headed toward the park to go for a walk.
"Do you mind if I go with you?" said Applejack.
"That would be wonderful, darling."
...
After going for a relaxing walk at the park, Rarity and Applejack sat on the bench for five minutes, talking about how lovely the day was.
Then, Applejack stood up and said "Ah better get goin'. Ah got work to do around the farm."
Rarity stood up. "Good luck, Applejack." She gave her a hug and they walked their separate ways, each to her house.
Of course, one way the human world was different from Equestria was that the weather could be unpredictable, for there were no pegasi controlling it. Despite this, the weather could suddenly change drastically. One minute it was sunny, and the next, it was full of dark clouds.
Rarity barely had time to say "Oh no..." before it started raining hard. She was soaked through in seconds, her hair assuming its Wet Mane style.
The park she was at was a fair distance from her house. Rarity ran through the rain, splashing through the puddles as she ran, and often being splashed as cars drove by her.
Oh, I bet Applejack is enjoying this right now, thought Rarity. And Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are probably splashing about in the puddles. She giggled a little thinking about it, often amused at her friends' antics. She didn't like the rain much for what it did to her hair, but at least it had held off until after the fashion show.
Too lost in thought, she didn't notice as she entered a dirt field, which the rain had turned into very slick mud. Rarity slipped and fell butt-first into the mud.
That was... unpleasant. This is one time rain is useful, because at least it will wash all this filthy muck off-
At that moment, the rain stopped, but the clouds lingered, though they were lighter than they had been when it was raining. The sun wasn't drying anything anytime soon.
Rarity groaned and sat in the mud for about ten seconds. Then, she pulled herself together and got to her feet. She had just taken one step when her high heels caused her to slip and fall face-first in the mud again.
She got up on all fours and wiped mud out of her face. Her beautiful dress was now covered with mud, as was her hair. Why was it that none of her outfits could ever escape getting messy like this?
"CANNONBALL!"
Rarity was suddenly splashed by a wave of mud. What little of her that was still clean no longer was. She was completely covered in mud.
"My goodness! What on Earth..." Rarity looked over to see who had splashed her, although she was sure she recognized the voice.
"Oops... my bad!" Pinkie Pie sat nearby, her pink dress also covered in mud but looking like she was enjoying it a lot more than Rarity.
"Pinkie Pie! Well... I'll let it slide this time because I was already dirty. Just... watch where you're... cannonballing." She didn't bother asking why Pinkie would cannonball into the mud. She was Pinkie Pie, and she liked doing weird things, plus neither she nor Applejack nor Rainbow Dash minded getting dirty, as they constantly reminded her.
Rarity stood up, trying her hardest not to slip again. She took a step forward, cringing as her shoe squished into the mud, but keeping her balance. Slowly she took another step, and another, and another. She wanted to get out of this mud field as soon as possible, so she was making her way toward the nearest edge.
She had just reached the edge, when, a little too rushed to get out, she was less careful with her next step. She slipped on the slick mud and fell on her butt again.
Pinkie, who was rolling around in the mud like a pig, giggled. She couldn't help it. It was so funny to watch Rarity get dirty. Not that she could really get any dirtier.
Rarity got back on all fours and crawled out of the mud, not wanting to risk another unpleasant fall.
Despite her muddy state, she was relieved that she was out of that dirty area, and she couldn't wait to get home and shower.
She ran as fast as she could towards her house, her muddy high heels making slight squishing sounds and leaving footprints.
To her dismay, she ran into a detour, so she took the next closest path. Unfortunately, it was a dirt road, which, after the rain, was now a mud road. Rarity knew this was the fastest way home, and her dress was already saturated with mud, so really there was nothing to be lost by taking this path.
Rarity ran down the road, her shoes making squelching sounds as they splashed through the mud. A bit of extra mud splashed onto her dress but she didn't care at this point.
Then a pickup truck drove by her from behind, splashing more mud on her.
"I beg your pardon!" said Rarity, wiping the extra mud off her face. "How uncouth!"
The driver either didn't hear her, or didn't care.
"Whatever," said Rarity. "It's not like I can get any dirtier."
She resumed running, but when she reached a section of road that went slightly downhill, she slipped on a particularly slick section of mud, and slid in a sitting position down the muddy road.
"Aaaaaaah!"
The bottom of this ramp turned, and the corner happened to be right next to a swamp. As soon as Rarity reached the bottom of the ramp she went flying forward and fell face-first into the swamp water.
Rarity got into a kneeling position. She was wrong - she could get dirtier than before. Now she was covered in not only mud, but foul-smelling green swamp water.
As she got to her feet and turned around, two racecars suddenly sped by on the dirt road, splattering her with mud and surprising her into falling on her back.
"Ugh, this is absolutely disgusting..." Rarity sat up, repulsed by the state she was in. Why were two cars even racing on a muddy road in the first place? Of course she could imagine Rainbow Dash doing it on foot. Rainbow loved to race and didn't mind getting dirty. She even seemed to like it a bit. Rarity couldn't imagine why. Dirt and mud repulsed her so.
She got back to her feet, stepped out of the swamp a lot easier than she had gotten out of the mud field, and continued to run along the mud road. Swamp water dripped off every inch of her dress and her hair and onto the mud below her.
She finally reached another corner, beyond which was a field across which was her house. She ran faster, in more of a rush to get home now that she was dirtier than ever and smelled bad. She nearly slipped on the mud again, but kept her balance this time, too tired of slipping and falling down.
She had just left the mud road and was running across the field, when suddenly, it started to rain hard again.
Rarity closed her eyes and raised her head to the sky. She had never been so happy to be caught in a rainstorm in her entire life. In less than ten seconds, all the mud and swamp water was washed off her. Her dress did still have some brown and green spots on it, but she knew the washing machine could get these stains out.
Breathing a sigh of satisfaction at being cleaner than she was a minute ago, not caring how wet she was, she walked at a slower pace back to her house. She was still going to shower and restyle her hair first thing when she got home.
...
The next morning, Rarity ran across the field to Canterlot High. It was Saturday, but the girls had planned to meet up at the statue in front of the school to have a day of fun, as they would usually do on the weekend.
Rarity was wearing her usual purple skirt and light blue T-shirt. She had put her dirty dress in the washing machine and it was now as good as new, without a single stain or hint of the swamp smell. Her hair was in its usual lovely style.
She spotted the statue where the other girls were waiting, except Twilight and Sunset, as they hadn't arrived yet. As she ran towards them, she did not notice the mud puddle ahead of her, or the stray cat that walked in front of her.
Rarity tripped over the cat and fell face-first in the mud.