//------------------------------// // 74. Big trouble in the big town // Story: My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship // by Danieru //------------------------------// Star Twinkle was on his way to the train station with a suitcase in his mouth. The next week would be pretty busy since he was about to travel to the famous metropolis of Equestria, Manehattan. The reason for that was because Rarity would enter a competition which was taken place in a so-called Fashion Week. Star Twinkle himself didn't know much about this city, other then it is filled with really high buildings and streets filled with ponies and all sorts of shopping districts. He figured that it was a much more lively place then Ponyville. Rarity was the one who was most excited about this trip which gave Star Twinkle a fairly good idea about this city but he had to admit that he was still kinda curious about it. The rest of Star Twinkle's friends were already waiting at the train station, every one of them carrying a bag with them. Rarity was the first to greet Star Twinkle due to her being in a really good mood because of the upcoming trip. "Star Twinkle, darling, you're finally here!" She said happily. As soon as he saw how Rarity was only taking one bag with her, he had to admit that he didn't expect that. "That's some unusual light luggage, Rarity. I expected you to bring a whole bunch of stuff with you," "What are you talking about?" Rarity replied confused. "The rest of my stuff is over there," she said before she pointed towards Spike. The poor dragon had to take care of around twenty more bags all on his own. He waved towards the stallion casually as soon as he noticed him and quickly went back to pile one bag after another on his back. "Well, should have figured that..." Star Twinkle thought not being surprised by this. Rarity then walked up to the stallion while putting a hoof on his shoulder. "Let me again thank you for being my assistant while I attend the fashion week," "Yeah, no problem..." Star Twinkle replied. "But I still don't know how I ended up as your assistant in all of this, in the first place..." "Well, you did help me out my boutique more than the others so I just figured that you would be perfect for it," Rarity explained. While this was certainly true, it was only because Star Twinkle was the only male of her close pony friends. This gave Rarity a lot more opportunities to take measurements for her male clients who didn't want any dresses. "I guess..." Star Twinkle replied after he thought about it a little. "Besides, Setting up all the stuff backstage could be quite stressful and I need somepony to take care of that while I make sure that my dresses are perfect," Rarity then casually added with a smile on her face. "Gee...thank you..." Star Twinkle replied grumpily while narrowing his eyes in annoyance. It was times like this where he figured that his friends had a completely different view of him. Either that or they just liked to tease him. Thankfully, he didn't have to help her the whole week since this Fashion Week only went on for a few days. There would be still enough time for him and his friends to relax. He just had to bite his teeth together and help her get through this. It was important for him to actually put effort into all of this since it was a big chance for Rarity so there was no way that he could just abandon her at the last minute, especially since she was looking forward to it so much. "I can't tell you how happy I am that I can spend a whole week with my friends in the fabulous city of Manehattan!" Rarity expressed joyfully. "Of course we'd all come along to support you during Fashion Week, Rarity!" Twilight said happily. "Not that you'll need it. We're sure you'll win," Fluttershy added. Everyone believed the same. Rarity would easily win the competitor that was held during this week. Rarity made sure to give her very best to create some stunning designs to impress everypony in Manehattan. This would give her and her Boutique a huge boost in popularity. But despite it being this important, Rarity could help but to get excited about the whole trip. "I can't begin to tell you how excited I am that you'll all be there with me!" She repeated, letting out an excited squee. "However... Perhaps I can show you..." she then said before she pulled out a bunch of tickets in front of everyone. "What's that?" Twilight asked. "Ooh, ooh, ooh, I know! A paper fan!" Pinkie Pie guessed. "No, it's—" Rarity tried to explain but she was interrupted by Pinkie Pie who tried to keep guessing. "A magic trick! You know, where I pick a card and remember what it is and then you put it back in the deck so you can't look at it and—" Rarity just straight out ignored Pinkie Pie and explained what was up with those tickets. "These are tickets to the hottest musical on Bridleway!" She simply explained. This vague explanation was enough for Twilight to put together what musical it was. "You couldn't mean Hinny of the Hills... because that show's been sold out for months! Or could you?!" But, it was exactly that musical. Star Twinkle never heard of it before but according to everyone, it is supposed to be the most famous musical in all of Equestria. This alone made the girls jump up and down in excitement. They even got so excited that they didn't realize that the train was about to leave without them if they would continue like that. So it was up to Star Twinkle to bring them all back to reality. "We should probably go into the train if we don't want to be late..." he said with a complete absence of excitement in his voice. Rarity rasped and was the first one to calm down again. "He's right! Let's go and take Manehattan!" She said before she leads the way inside of the train with the girls following her right behind. Star Twinkle was about to enter the train as well but he then suddenly heard something crashing behind him. When he turned around, he noticed how some of the bags that Spike was carrying fell to the ground. The poor guy had to lift all of Rarity's bags on his back. He smiled a little embarrassed as soon as he saw how Star Twinkle was looking at him. "Hehe...uh...a little help?" He asked with a grin on his face to hide his exhaustion. "Coming..." Star Twinkle said as he walked over to the dragon to help him out with some of the bags so that they could finally board the train to go to Manehattan. Later... The train didn't take too long until it arrived at an island on the eastern coast of Equestria where Manehattan was on. A bridge was the only way to reach this island if you weren't a Pegasus. The train needed to travel across it to reach the island as well. You could already see the big city by looking out of the windows of the train. The first thing that usually jumped into the eye of everyone was the giant mare statue in front of the city which was located on a little island next to the city, one of the many tourist attractions of this city. Of course, the group decided to stop by some of those tourist attractions soon or later while spending the week in Manehattan. Once the group walked out of the train station, they were all greeted by buildings that were so high that you couldn't even see their roofs. There were taxis, modern street lamps, and whole shopping districts as far as the eye could see. Compared to this city, Ponyville and even Canterlot looked like as if you would compare a plank of wood to a solid and shiny plate of metal, to put in Star Twinkle's words. The streets were also a lot more lively, something that Star Twinkle instantly noticed. Rarity was leading the way. She seemed to know a lot about this city and didn't hesitate to give everypony some information here and now. She said that she booked a hotel not too far from the station for the group to stay in so they focused on going to that place first. However, all the shops or buildings kept grabbing the group's attention. "Hey, look!" That's the theatre where Hinny of the Hills is playin'!" Applejack said as she pointed towards a certain building on the other side of the street. Over the entrance of the building, there was a picture of a singing mare. It showed the date for the next screening for Hinny of the Hills. "Look at that line..." Star Twinkle said as soon as he saw a line of ponies standing in front of the building. There were probably over a hundred ponies standing in the line of this theater, all of them wanting a ticket for this musical. Suddenly, Star Twinkle realized how popular this musical must have been and how lucky he was that Rarity managed to get a ticket for him. "Wow, Rarity! How'd you manage to get us seats for tomorrow night?" Twilight asked, finding it impressive how Rarity managed to get them into this popular musical. "Oh, I gave some designs to the costume designer, so he pulled a few strings," she explained casually, making it sound like as if it wasn't anything special. This only made the group feel even more grateful for Rarity being so generous to them. The group soon arrived at the Manefair Hotel where they were greeted by a bellhop colt who offered to take all the bags that Star Twinkle and Spike had to carry all this time. "Thank you very much, here," she said as she pulled out a fairly big gem to pay the colt for his work. Needless to say, the colt was highly surprised. "Oh-ho-ho! I'll get your change!" "Do keep it all. I insist!" Rarity then replied, not allowing the colt to deny her generosity. Star Twinkle was the first one to point out her very generous act. "Somepony doesn't seem to care about spending money," he boldly said, surprised by Rarity's behavior. Rarity smiled and explained. "That is what makes Manehattan so splendid and amazing. You do something nice for somepony, and then you never know when they'll do something nice for you!" "So then you can do something nice for us!" Applejack pointed out. "Like get us in to see Hinny of the Hills!" Fluttershy added. "Which is only the best musical in all of Equestria!" Rainbow Dash said, causing the group to react in surprise by Rainbow Dash's excitement. "It must be good if Rainbow Dash is impressed. Normally she doesn't even like musicals," Applejack said, surprised by Rainbow Dash's words as well. Now Star Twinkle was really looking forward to seeing this musical if it even got Rainbow Dash excited. But it still had to wait for later since there was still a lot more of this city to discover. The group made sure to stop by every tourist attraction that they could find to get the most out of their trip. Star Twinkle had to admit that the city was quite fascinating, mainly because it was so much different than Canterlot, Ponyville, or any other town he knew so far. But of course, there was one thing that would make the trip even better for him. "Too many ponies..." Star Twinkle mumbled to himself grumpily. There was no denying that the streets were filled with a lot of ponies, which caused the town to feel a little crowded. Rarity chuckled after overhearing those words and turned towards Star Twinkle with a smile on his face. "I knew you would say that, Darling. I'm sure you will get into the spirit of this town sooner or later and enjoy your stay like everyone else," "I think you should say that to those ponies as well," Twilight said before she pointed towards a line of taxi carts in front of them. There seemed to be some kind of traffic jam on the street. One of the taxi carts had a broken wheel and was unable to move, causing the taxi's behind it to get stuck. This again caused some of the ponies behind the first cart to get a little angry. Watching that could make one feel really bad for the taxi-driver of the first cart who couldn't really do anything. "Looks like the only problem here is a broken wheel," Twilight figured after she inspected the cart a little further before she turned towards Star Twinkle. "Think you can do something about that?" She then asked the carpenter pony. Star Twinkle looked over to the wheel for a second and quickly realized that it wasn't anything that he couldn't repair in a few seconds. "Sure, but I need some tools to-" he said before he was interrupted by Pinkie Pie. "Here you go!" She said before she got a whole toolbox out of nowhere. "I always pack in stuff like that, in case something needs to be fixed," she explained casually. It only made Star Twinkle wonder what else she must have packed in her luggage but he decided to ignore that and quickly focused on repairing the wheel. Applejack lifted the taxi cart for a moment and Star Twinkle repaired the wheel within a few seconds, making the cart able to move again and change the mood of the taxi-driver, as well as his passenger and every other taxi behind them from angry or frustrated to happy and relieved. The traffic went on again and the group continued their way through the city. Rarity couldn't help but walk up to Star Twinkle while smiling and staring at him, making him feel a little uncomfortable. "What?" He then asked as soon as he couldn't take it being stared at like this by this mare. "Come on," she then said as she poked the stallion in his sides. "Admit it, wasn't it fun helping somepony out like that?" "I wouldn't really call it fun...but it felt kinda good helping out somepony in need," Star Twinkle admitted. After spending a little time more in the city and visiting various shops and attractions, the group had to take a little break and focus on Rarity getting to her appointment on time. Just thinking about her dresses soon being displayed in Manehattan was enough to get her excited. "Is there still anything left to do we can help you with?" Twilight asked to make sure that Rarity was well prepared. Rarity thought about it for a moment. "Hm, nothing I can think of. The dresses are all completely finished and all there's left for me to do but check-in at the runway with my dresses by two this afternoon," she said "Oh, that's funny," Pinkie Pie said. "Because that clock over there makes it seem like that's only ten minutes from now!" She said as she pointed towards a clock on a building showing indeed, that there were only ten minutes left. Of course, Rarity panicked because of this. "But the runway ballroom is all the way across town! If I don't get there, I'm disqualified!" Almost on cue, the rain started to come down now. It's like the sky wanted to make the situation feel even more dramatic than it actually was. But not getting wet was one of the least things that Rarity had to worry about now. The group had to act quickly. They all tried to get a taxi for her so that she would still make it in time but every taxi seemed to be taken due to the rain, making the situation even more hopeless. But thankfully, there was one taxi-driver who offered his cart just for the group. It was the driver of the one taxi that Star Twinkle repaired earlier. "New wheel works like a charm! So now which of you nice folks are hoppin' in?" The stallion said who was still thankful for his repaired cart. Star Twinkle was starting to take serious what Rarity said earlier, about doing nice things to other ponies while getting their generosity back some time later. "Fashion runway plaza in seven minutes. Can you make it?" Rarity said in a panic as she jumped into the cart. And just like that, the stallion quickly was on his way to get Rarity to her appointment. The taxi was quickly out of sight and judging from how fast the stallion was running, it actually had a good chance to make it in time. "Whew, that was close," Spike expressed as he swiped the sweat off of his forehead in relief. "Still, does anypony else got a sneaking suspicion we're forgetting something?" He then pointed out. After the group thought about it, they quickly came to the same suspicion and soon found out what it was. "The dresses!" Everypony said at the same time in shock. They all forget the most important thing. Of course, Rarity needed her dresses to participate in Fashion Week. Right now she was heading to the ballroom without a single dress to show. Rarity doesn't seem to have realized it herself yet but as soon as she would, she would probably completely freak out and miss her chance to win the Fashion Week competition. That was something that had to be prevented at all costs. They all quickly rushed back to the hotel and grabbed the dresses from Rarity and put them on a clothing rack so that it could be easily transported. After they were done with that, Twilight turned towards Star Twinkle who was supposed to be with Rarity at this moment as well. "I'm gonna teleport you to the ballroom, are you ready?" She then asked before she used her magic to start the spell. "Wait a moment!" Star Twinkle quickly replied. "Do you even know where it is?" He asked in a panic before he ended up landing somewhere he didn't want to. But before he had a chance to talk Twilight out of that, he quickly found himself covered in light by Twilight's spell and shortly after in completely different places. However, just as he expected, this place was not where he was supposed to be. Not at all... "Twilight!" Star Twinkle screamed in frustration after he found himself on top of the mare statue of Manehattan with a bunch of dresses next to him. Twilight must have made a mistake while being under stress of getting Star Twinkle to Rarity. Out of all times where she had to make a mistake it, of course, had to be now. He was really high up in the air and just wanted down from this place. So he had to think quickly. "Well, after making it to here, I guess it won't make any difference now..." he figured before he transformed into a Unicorn to use his own teleportation spell to bring himself to Rarity. "Here goes nothing!" He said before he used his magic to teleport himself and the dresses to another place. But of course, it wasn't the ballroom again. This time he ended up right in front of the train station. "Come on!" He said in frustration. This actually went on for quite a while with Star Twinkle spending a few minutes teleporting all over the town. Buildings, shops, tourist attractions, he could safely say that he saw almost every corner of Manehattan in just a short period of time. As he continued to teleport all over the place, he quickly came to the conclusion that he would either be too late once he found Rarity or maybe even not able to find her at all. Still, he gave the spell a shot again and landed somewhere else, once more. "I'm dooooomed!" He could hear Rarity scream right in front of him who was crawling on the ground in pure frustration. "Huh?" She then said once she noticed Star Twinkle standing right in front of him. As it turns out, Star Twinkle finally managed to "find" Rarity with his teleportation spell. He was in what looked like the entrance hall of the ballroom and not judging from how defeated Rarity already looked, he was not a second too late. "Yes! Finally!" Star Twinkle said exhausted after what felt like hundreds of failed attempts to make it to Rarity. "Good job...horn..." he then said shortly before his transformation ended unwillingly. "Here are your dresses...Rarity..." Star Twinkle mumbled before the room began to spin for him. Before he knew it, Star Twinkle collapsed and fell unconscious in front of the mare. He could swear that he saw her running towards him out of worry before everything went black but there was nothing that he could do. He felt too weak to hold his eyes open and couldn't prevent losing conciseness. Later... When Star Twinkle woke up again, he was no longer in the entrance hall but instead in a small backstage room. Rarity was working on her dresses already but as soon as she saw Star Twinkle sitting up again, she quickly forgot about them and rushed towards the stallion. "Star Twinkle, Darling! Are you alright?" She said heavily worried after she saw how Star Twinkle was waking up again. "What happened? The last thing I remembered was me teleporting all over Manhattan and then finally appearing in front of you..." he said as his head was still spinning a little from all this. "Don't overdo it," Rarity advised as she quickly put Star Twinkle's shoulders down on the bench where he just noticed he was resting on. "I was a little late but I was still allowed to enter the competition thanks to you," she briefly explained. "I got everything under control here. You can just rest for the rest of the day," she said before she turned towards her dresses again. It's not like Star Twinkle didn't like to hear that but he still felt as if he had to help her. He was her assistant in all of this after all. However, he was not sure if he actually could help her. The moment where his transformation wore off earlier, he just felt really weak and exhausted. And so far, that didn't change much. He still felt weak. He figured that it must have been because he used too much magic. Whatever the reason was, he just wished that it would get better soon. Star Twinkle grabbed his head with one of his hooves once Rarity wasn't looking. He didn't want her to get needlessly worried about his condition and let that influence her work. "I feel like as if I just completed ten Running of the Leaves marathons in a row. I never thought using so much magic would leave me so exhausted..." he thought. "I got really worried..." Rarity then suddenly said without turning around towards Star Twinkle and still working on her dresses. "Huh!?" Star Twinkle replied confused before he let go of his head again to pretend that he was completely fine again. Rarity then turned around and stopped working. She had a very concerned expression on her face and walked up to the stallion. "I feel really bad. First, I forget to get to this place in time, then I forget my own dresses before I left and now you got hurt because you wanted to help me..." "I didn't get hurt, Rarity," Star Twinkle assured which was, however, only partially true. "I'm your assistant in all of this. It's also my responsibility to think about those things," he explained in order to let Rarity's worry vanish. It actually seemed to work and Rarity formed a warm smile on her face."You're a dear, Star Twinkle," Seeing Rarity smile like this almost made it worthwhile to have gone through all of this. However, things got a little awkward after Rarity kept staring at the stallion with this smile. It was almost as if she was daydreaming. Star Twinkle coughed into his hoof and looked around in the room as if he wanted to get her out of this "daydreaming" state. It seemed to work and Rarity eyes widened for a second. "I should go back to work!" She then said almost in a panic. Shortly after she accidentally hit her head against the clothes rack and almost knocked the whole thing over. Once she secured that her dresses were still okay, she quickly turned her head around and giggled it off. "Hehe...almost forgot...that this was standing here...hehe..." she said embarrassed followed by some short nervous laughs. The only word with what Star Twinkle could describe this scene was "awkward". Rarity returned to her work and Star Twinkle continued to rest. According to Rarity, the competition will be held tomorrow but everypony who entered it had to first show it to somepony called Prim Hemline who served as one of the judges. Rarity still had a lot of time until it was her town, however. She is supposed to show her line last because she was the last one to arrive. While Rarity kept working on her dresses, Star Twinkle actually realized that this was the first time that he saw Rarity's dresses. They were all dark purple and had fancy symbols all over them. The fabric that Rarity used was practically shimmering. Even somepony who had no idea about fashion would probably call this amazing. In fact, that's exactly what happened. "My, your collection is gorgeous!" A female Earth Pony mare said after she entered the room. The mare had a very pale orchid colored coat, a grayish violet mane, grayish-brown eyes, and three buttons as a Cutie Mark. She was also wearing a two-toned blue crossed scarf and a light yellow headband around her mane. Rarity introduced this mare as "Suri Polomare". She and Rarity both met each other in Ponyville before in some kind of knitting competition. The mare greeted Star Twinkle and he introduced himself as well, however, Suri Polomare seemed more interested to talk with Rarity. Star Twinkle had no problem with that. They were both talking about fashion and fabric so he felt a little lost in all of this anyway. "Oh now, I'm sure your collection is equally lovely, if not more so!" Rarity modesty replied after taking the complement of Suri Polomare. As a fellow Fashion Designer, Suri Polomare was widely fascinated by Rarity's design and kept inspecting it carefully. She almost seemed to be a little obsessed with it, in fact. "It's alright, but nothing like this! Take my culottes, for example – they are simply crying out for just the right accent," she explained which almost felt like listening to a different language to Star Twinkle. "Actually..." Suri Polomare then said as she kept feeling the Rarity's dresses. "Just a touch of this fabric could be perfect with it. Hey, would you mind terribly if I took a swatch?" She then asked. "Oh, not at all! Here, I have loads extra," Rarity then replied before she gave Suri a whole bunch of fabric to Suri Polomare. "You're sure?" Suri Polomare replied, surprised by Rarity's generosity. "Positive!" Rarity simply replied as she returned to her dresses again. As soon as Rarity turned around, Star Twinkle saw how Suri Polomare rushed out of the room in a big hurry. Of course, Rarity was also confused once she realized how Suri was gone all of a sudden but she decided to not worry too much about it. Star Twinkle on the other hoof had a slight assumption of what was going on and quickly confronted with it. "Isn't she also going to compete against you? Should you really give her your fabric like that?" He asked. "It'll be fine, Star Twinkle," Rarity replied without a worry in her mind. "Remember what I said about this town earlier? You do something good and you'll never know when somepony will do something good to you in return," she explained. "Yeah...sure..." Star Twinkle replied with some concern in his voice. He didn't really believe in those words since Rarity was saying them for the first time but who was he to say her what to do with her own fabric? Still, he couldn't shake off the feeling that this generous act was a really bad idea... Later... "Hello! I'm here half an hour early for my run-through appointment, just the way Prim likes!" Rarity said towards the receptionist to get ready to show off her fabric in front of Prim Hemline. The receptionist said that Rarity had to get in line so that she could soon start showing off her dresses. They were the last in line so it would, of course, take a little while until it was their turn so all they could do was wait to wait. Still, Rarity couldn't help but take a little peek at what the other contestants came up with so she convinced Star Twinkle to go with him. They could hear Suri Polomare's voice from afar and wondered what she came up with. They were also both wondering what she used Rarity's fabrics on. However, what they saw was not exactly what they expected... Suri Polomare was proudly standing in front of her own fashion line, or rather...Rarity's fashion line. The sneaky fashion designer straight out copied Rarity's complete line. I almost looked identical. And since it was originally Rarity's design, it of course was well received by Prim Hemline. "Oh, bravo! I've never seen anything like it!" She said in awe after taking a look at the dresses. Suri Polomare was done showing off "her" dresses and was about to leave the stage again with a victorious smile on her face. That is when Rarity furiously confronted the mare about this thievery. "You stole my fabric!" Is all she needed to say. However, Suri didn't felt intimidated by Rarity and laughed arrogantly. "I didn't steal it, okay? You gave it to me, 'member?" She had the nerve to reply. "I gave you the fabric for accents! Not for your whole line!" Rarity replied angrily. "And how could you possibly make all of those outfits out of it so fast?!" "Fast? Hah!" Suri Polomare replied before she pointed to her assistant who was about to push her clothes rack out of the room. "Coco Pommel here took practically forever. Nearly got me completely disqualified," Coco Pommel was Suri's assistant. The Earth Pony mare had a light amberish gray coat, a pale, light grayish cyan-colored mane with some hints of light opalish gray colors in it, light cyan colored eyes and a feathered hat as a Cutie Mark. She was also wearing a white-bordered lavender sailor collar with a scarlet tie and a tri-shade hair clip in the back of her mane. Unlike Suri Polomare, Coco Pommel didn't show any hostility towards Rarity and instead seemed like as if she was feeling a little bad while still trying to be on Suri Polomare's side. "Well, I wanted to make sure you'd win, so I took the extra time to-" the mare tried to explain but was quickly cut off in mid-sentence by Suri. "Quiet! I pay an assistant to sew and get coffee, not talk. 'Kay?" She said, talking to her own assistant with even less respect than she did with Rarity. While Star Twinkle felt bad for the mare being pushed around by Suri like that, he had to focus on cheering Rarity up again who was taking the situation a lot worse. In fact, she started to panic and almost tried to leave the room without even showing off her own dresses."How could this happen? What are we gonna do now!?" She said as she walked up and down in a panic. "Don't worry!" Star Twinkle said as he tried to think of a solution to fix all this. Strangely enough, he came up with the most obvious one first. "We just go and explain everything to Prim. That should take care of things!" After calming down a little, Rarity figured that this would be the best solution as well. "Yes! Of course! Let's do that and set things right again!" She said highly motivated Later in front of the group's hotel room... "I can't believe they didn't believe you just because you showed up later earlier..." Star Twinkle said as he accompanied Rarity back to the hotel room where hopefully the rest of their friends would wait for them. "Not to mention that Suri actually went so far as to steal your whole design," "I know..." Rarity said while being dangerously close to breaking out in tears. "They even accused me of stealing her design!" She added. Of course, it looked like that because Rarity was the one who showed her designs last. She actually tried to not let the whole Suri thing bother while presenting her line but with everypony accusing her of stealing ideas from Suri, this was just too much to handle for the mare which eventually broke her down. As they approached the door to their hotel room, they could already hear laughter from inside. The rest of their friends must have had a really fun day. Rarity stepped a little further away from the door once she heard that. "Wait! I think I need a minute! Go inside while I prepare myself to not let them see me the way I am now!" She demanded as she mentally prepared herself next to the door, breathing in and out the whole time. Star Twinkle understood and walked inside. Maybe he could prepare his friends in some kind of way for Rarity. But with all of his friends laughing happily like that, that was probably not as easy as he thought. "Star Twinkle!" Twilight said as soon as she saw the stallion enter the room. "Did you make it in time to help Rarity!?" She immediately asked out of worry to see if everything went as planned. "What? Oh, yeah!" Star Twinkle replied after remembering that minor problem. "We made it in time and Rarity wasn't disqualified," he briefly explained. The group responded in relief after hearing that. "Thank goodness," Fluttershy said. "We were feeling a little bad for having so much fun this afternoon without knowing if everything went well with you," Star Twinkle could only smile nervously after hearing that. "Well, about that..." he started before he attempted to explain the situation. However, almost immediately after, Rarity then dragged herself into the room with tears building in her eyes and her mane was a complete mess due to the whole stress that she went through in the last hour. She actually looked way worse then she did before. "I thought she prepared herself!?" Star Twinkle thought in shock after seeing the mare in an even worse state than before. Of course, even a blind pony would have noticed that Rarity was about to cry now so they asked what was going on. But Rarity straight jumped into her bed and cried into her pillow. Now the group really wanted to know what happened but since Rarity clearly didn't seem to be in the state to explain things, Star Twinkle took it upon himself to do the explaining. "Well, you see-" "Suri stole my line!" Rarity interrupted, causing the group to look at her and waiting for her to continue from here on out. But instead, she went back to dig her face into her pillow. After waiting for a while, Star Twinkle figured again that Rarity wasn't in the state to explain the situation so he decided to continue. "It all started after Rarity-" Again, Rarity interrupted and did the explaining, despite still being really depressed and sad. "I let one of the other contestants use some of my one-of-a-kind fabric and then she turned it into a wardrobe just like mine, only now it looks like I'm the one copying her!" She quickly explained while almost hyperventilating throughout the whole explanation. The group didn't need much more explanation and straight out offered to help Rarity with whatever she needed to do in order to still win the competition tomorrow. "Come on, Rarity, buck up! All we need is some fabric and you'll be back in business!" Applejack said, causing the rest of the group to totally agree with that. Rarity was happy to hear that from her friends but just like Applejack said, she still needed some new fabric. Luckily, Rarity was blessed with an eye for fashion. She simply looked around in the hotel room. The curtains, the carpet, and even the bedsheets had the potential to be used as fabric for a new line of dresses. "Perhaps I still have a chance after all!" She said after literally came up with a new idea for some dresses from the get-go. The group was happy to hear that and we're more than willing to offer their help to Rarity. But...they would soon regret that... A little later... Offering their help was all good but instead of "helping" the group pretty much spend the whole evening working on this new fashion line that Rarity came up with. The inside of the hotel room transformed into a sewing factory with Rarity in charge of everything and her friends working on her dresses. "I'm pretty sure that I didn't sign up for this when I said that I wanted to help Rarity..." Star Twinkle thought as he was sewing together some fabrics, the way Rarity explained it to him. Rarity was working as well while also looking over everyponies work at the same time, however, she was much more serious then she was ever before and didn't even allow anypony to take a short break. She was much more focused on winning this competition instead of making sure that her friends were okay. Quite the opposite was the case in fact. "Twilight! Sew these pieces together according to that pattern there!" Rarity demanded from Twilight who was already looking a little too exhausted from working on her task given by Rarity. "You said if we skipped dinner at the Far-Afield Tavern, you'd order a meal for us while we keep working," Twilight then pointed out. "Don't fret. It'll be here in an hour. That's not going to be a problem, is it?" Rarity then replied. There was a short silence in the room after that which was soon broken by Rainbow Dash. "Well, we're supposed to be watching Hinny of the Hills by then..." she pointed out. It was unclear if Rarity was aware of that or not but instead of showing compassion towards her friends, Rarity got angry. "Oh! I see! I go out of my way to get you tickets for a show, and this is how you repay me? By abandoning me in my hour of need?" It was completely unlike her to act like that. Unlike earlier this day, Rarity didn't even seem to be thinking about the well being of her friends. It was true that she was generous enough to invite her and the rest of her friends to the musical but now she was pretty much using that to make her friends feel guilty about it. Things didn't get any better once Rarity further screamed at the group. "Fine! Go and see Hinny of the Hills tonight! And then tomorrow morning when you come to see my fashion show without any fashion to show, you can have more entertainment!" She said angrily at her friends. "Rarity, calm down. What's gotten into you?" Twilight replied to this, saying what literally everypony else thought at this very moment. "What's gotten into you?!" Rarity yelled back. "Oh, go ahead! See your little show! Congratu-pony-lations, fillies! Sounds like you've all figured out already it's everypony for herself in this town!" She said as she ran out of the room out of anger, leaving her friends inside of the room. Everypony sighed at the same time after this outburst. Especially, Star Twinkle, who was having not a really good time for the whole day now. First, he teleported all over the place, then he collapsed, and now he had to work on dresses. That was way too much for him to handle and he just wished that the day would be finally over. Still, he continued his work and just thought about getting it done as fast as possible. But Twilight became a little worried and walked up to him. "Are you alright?" She asked while Star Twinkle continued his work. "What do you mean?" He asked obliviously. "Don't get me wrong, Star Twinkle but...you look a little more exhausted than the rest of us," she pointed out. "Now that she mentioned it, I still feel a little exhausted," Star Twinkle figured. "Is it still because of earlier? The teleportation thing? How am I still exhausted from that?" He wondered. He didn't tell anypony that he collapsed earlier and Rarity probably didn't even have time to tell anypony about it as well. In order to not worry Twilight, he just played tough and told her that he was. completely fine. But it didn't work... Twilight quickly saw through Star Twinkle's lie and glared at him as if she wanted to pressure an explanation out of him. This went on for a really uncomfortable amount of time until Star Twinkle couldn't take it anymore and just gave up to not let this drag on any longer. "Maybe I'm a little exhausted because of some events earlier this day..." he vaguely explained, looking away from Twilight out of discomfort. Instead of getting mad at him for lying, Twilight smiled and didn't want to hear any more information. "Then take a break, Star Twinkle. I'm sure that we can manage to get the dresses done while you rest for a while. Besides, you have to get up early tomorrow so that you can still help Rarity in the fashion show," Just like before with Rarity, Star Twinkle didn't feel too good leaving the others with all this work alone. But he had the feeling that if he continued, things could actually get a lot worse so he decided to take Twilight's offer so that he could rest. He placed himself on a bed in the room and closed his eyes for a moment. If he was about to rest, then he might as well take a little nap to skip time. "Just for a moment...five minutes or so..." he said quietly before he closed his eyes and fell asleep. On the next morning... Star Twinkle might have made a mistake by closing his eyes. When he opened them again, he immediately saw the rest of his friends putting on some last pieces on a dress. Next to this dress, were, even more, dresses lined up. Before he closed his eyes, there was not a single one done. "How long have I been asleep? Did they let me sleep through the rest of the day!?" He wondered, feeling a little embarrassed to leave all his friends with this work. He quickly got up from his bed and tried to help out his friends but as soon a she got on his hooves, Rarity came running right into his face. "Star Twinkle! We're about to leave!" She said in a similar stressed manner than she did yesterday. "What!?" Star Twinkle replied confused, trying to find out what exactly was going on now. "There. That's the last of them," Twilight then said after she and her friends completed the last dress for Rarity. Rarity then pulled Star Twinkle's leg and dragged him with her. "Hear that!? That means we can finally go!" She said as she dragged the stallion out of the room while she used her magic to drag the clothes rack behind her as well. "We still have some more time left but it can't hurt to get to the ballroom even earlier than earlier!" She pointed out, which didn't make much sense since her line would be shown last again. "Rarity, you could have at least say thank you to us for making those dresses for you!" Star Twinkle said after her while he ran right behind her, now carrying the dresses with him. "Saying thank you would only take up too much time!" She simply replied as she led the way through the hotel. Star Twinkle could definitely tell that Rarity was still under stress because of what happened with Suri Polomare but he soon thought that she took things a little too far. Regardless of that, it was only today left for her fashion show so he decided to just accept a little more craziness for today and didn't say much more. Later at the fashion show... It was about to be Rarity's turn in the fashion show. As expected, Suri Polomare's copied fashion line was a really big hit with the crowd and the judges. What made it even worse was that Rarity actually had to watch how Suri was earning all those cheers while earning not a single credit for it. She was simply furious. "Here she comes," Rarity said once Suri was done with her show and walked backstage. But of course, she couldn't help herself to say some words to Rarity in her usual arrogant tone. "Well look who's here. Here to show off your copycat collection, mm? Well, good luck," she simply said before she left while being followed by her assistant who almost looked as if she wanted to apologize for the words of her boss. "Just ignore her..." Star Twinkle said, starting to get annoyed by this mare more and more now. "Oh, I am trying," Rarity replied before her eyes were focused on the stage again. Prim Hemline, one of the judges, was now starting to introduce Rarity's fashion line. "It's about to start!" She said worriedly while jumping up and down on the spot. Soon, the curtain opened up and finally revealed Rarity's fashion line. It looked rather...interesting. The clothes were made out of many different things that you could find in any ordinary hotel room. No matter how Star Twinkle looked at those clothes, he couldn't bring himself to think that this was "good" fashion. The models were wearing lampshades on their heads, or soap necklaces. It looked ridiculous. But of course, everypony liked it. Those fashion designer, the critics or judges were completely fascinated by this "fashion". "Oh! They're liking it!" Rarity said. Even Rarity herself seemed surprised to see so much positive feedback for her work. "Apparently," Star Twinkle said, even though he himself had no idea why. For him, Rarity's design looked rather...odd. This only proved that he would not survive one day in the world of fashion. In the meantime, Rarity continued to watch how everypony reacted to her design only to see almost the whole hall being fascinated with her work. "I think I may have just won this thing! Oh, I can't wait to celebrate with...with..." she stopped in mid-sentence and looked at the seats that were reserved for her friends only to find out that they were completely empty. "My friends...where are they? Why didn't they came to watch me win?" She asked Star Twinkle confused. "Can you really blame them?" Star Twinkle boldly replied, causing the mare to look at him confused. "You were so fixated to win this whole thing that you didn't even give them a break. I bet they overslept and couldn't make it in time. If they even wanted to come, after all, that is..." Those words may have sounded a little harsh but it was exactly the right thing that Rarity needed to hear in order to finally understand her mistake. "My friends...what have I done?" Rarity said with a crushed expression on her face. Star Twinkle felt almost bad seeing Rarity like that but he couldn't find the right words to comfort her right now. He was pretty sure that her friends would not hold a grudge against her for all this but still, he felt sadness watching the mare like this. Suddenly, Star Twinkle could hear a voice in his head. I don't expect anything in return...if I can make my friends happy with a simple act of generosity then that is completely fine with me... He grabbed his head in with one of his hooves out of confusion. "What was that? Who was speaking to me right now?" He wondered as he tried to find out what this was all about. Then one more thing happened. A purple light began to glow in his eyes without him realizing it. Something similar happened to Rarity but instead of a purple light, there was a rainbow-colored light in her eyes. "I have to go," Rarity then said out of the blue before she rushed across the stage to leave the room, much to Star Twinkle's surprise who didn't know what happened all of the sudden to her. "Come back at once!" Prim Hemline said in shock and confusion after she saw Rarity running out to the stage, knocking out another competitor out of the way in the process. "This is unheard of!" She said after witnessing this happening in front of her. Star Twinkle followed her right behind and apologized for all this in front of the audience. "Sorry, she really needs to be somewhere right now," he said in a rush while he made sure to follow Rarity out of the building. Star Twinkle followed the mare outside and ran after her so that he could find out what she was doing right now. "Rarity! Why are you running away!? You were about to win the whole thing!" He screamed after her. "I need to apologize to my friends!" She replied back. "I have to say sorry to them! They were so kind as to help me but I treated them like dirt! I have to go back to the hotel!" Rarity was now focused to return to the hotel so that she could fix everything. She wouldn't even listen to what Star Twinkle had to say. Not that he didn't agree with what she was about to do but he just wished that she would sometimes take things a little slow so that he could keep up with her. It didn't take long until the two arrived back at the hotel. The Bellhop of the hotel greeted the two of them but Rarity didn't have any time to talk with him and just wanted to find her friends. "Your friends?" The Bellhop replied after he overheard Rarity's crisis. "I saw them headed out this morning," he then explained. "Wait, you mean?" Star Twinkle replied confused as he imagined the worst. "Oh, no! Back to Ponyville, I imagine," Rarity figured. "Oh, they worked so hard on my behalf! And I repaid them with unkindness. What have I done?!" She said before she sat down on the ground in her frustration. "I'm sorry, Rarity," Star Twinkle expressed, feeling now even worse to see Rarity like this. Star Twinkle offered his hoof in order to help Rarity up again which she gladly accepted. However, she hesitated and decided to get up on her own. "No. I am sorry..." she then apologized. "I also was mean towards you..." "Don't worry about it..." Star Twinkle replied with a smile on his face. Seeing Star Twinkle not getting mad helped a little but Rarity was still frowning so the stallion decided to make her go back to the ballroom so that they could explain everything. Rarity was causing quite a ruckus after all. "Actually, I think it would be better to return to Ponyville..." Rarity replied with a frown on her face. "But could you do me a favor and go to Prim and apologize to her for leaving all of the sudden?" "Sure," Star Twinkle replied. Rarity planned to go to the train station. Maybe the others were still there waiting for the train. Star Twinkle was having some doubts about that but he didn't want to crush Rarity's last hopes so he just decided to do her the favor to return to Prim. Star Twinkle did as Rarity said and quickly returned back to the ballroom so that he could find Prim. "Oh, great..." Star Twinkle said quietly as soon as he saw the last pony that he wanted to see right now. "Well, isn't that Rarity's little assistant?" She simply said in her usual arrogant tone. Star Twinkle didn't have any time to talk with her and just went straight to the point. "Where is Prim?" "Uh-uh-uh, you'd best steer clear of Prim for a while. She's pretty furious," she explained before she turned towards her assistant. "Isn't that right?" "Um... yes," Coco Pommel replied a little hesitantly. Star Twinkle tried his best to ignore the words of this mare but he felt like as if it became even harder with every word that came out of her mouth. "I bet, Rarity was so embarrassed about her own designs that she couldn't even stay to admit her defeat. Am I right?" She further provoked. But Star Twinkle kept his coolness and didn't want to go down on her level. "I think that would be the last of her worries, right now," "Oh please," Suri replied. "What could be more important to her than having her dresses being displayed all over Manehattan?" She asked, being completely oblivious to the answer. Star Twinkle figured that Suri would not understand it but he still tried his best to explain the situation to Suri, even if she didn't deserve to know it. "You know...earlier this morning, that is exactly what she wanted more than anything else. She even resorted to using her own friends to help her making new dresses because you stole her designs. But then she realized what she did and felt bad. Right now she is looking for her friends to apologize o them, even if it means to lose this competition. That's what is more important to her now," As expected, Suri Polomare didn't take those words seriously one bit. "You still don't get it, do you? In this town, it's everypony for themselves. But as expected, small-town ponies like you would never understand that. Isn't that right, Coco?" However, instead of agreeing with her boss, Coco looked over to Star Twinkle for a moment. The usually shy and reserved expression changed into a more determined one and she quickly turned around and entered the room where the fashion show was held before. "Hey, where are you going!?" Suri yelled after her before she followed her in a rush. If what Suri said before was actually true, then there was no reason for Star Twinkle to stay at this place anymore so he decided to leave and was on his way to the train station as well. Instead of running, however, he slowly walked. He was not in a rush anyway. It gave him also some more time to think about the recent events. The only thing that really bothered him was that he wished that things ended a little more different. But there was changing that anymore so he was just looking forward to getting home to Ponyville and hoped that everypony would forget what was happening in this town. "Wait!" Then all of a sudden a voice screamed after him. It was Coco Pommel who came rushing towards Star Twinkle. Surprisingly, she was not in the company with her pleasantly and friendly boss. "You are returning to Rarity aren't you? Then here, take this!" She said before she pulled out something from the saddlebag that she was wearing. It was a small golden trophy. Star Twinkle took the trophy in his hoof and inspected it a little. "Wait...Rarity's name is on this. Is this the trophy for the first place?" He asked out of confusion. "It sure is. Suri lied when she said that Rarity lost and...so did I..." she explained with a frown on her face. "I felt so bad that Suri stole Rarity's idea and that I helped to cover up for her. I also believed that it was everypony for themselves in town so I put up with everything that Suri demanded from me because I alone wouldn't get far in this town. But after I heard what happened to Rarity, I realized that I could do much better than working with Suri in this town," she explained with a smile on her face. It was really nice of Coco, to tell the truth. It was also good to hear that she decided to not work for Suri anymore. It was funny. First Star Twinkle tried to forget everything that happened in this town but now he couldn't wait to tell Rarity that she actually won the competition. And it actually wouldn't take long until he could actually do that. "Star Twinkle!" Twilight screamed from afar, accompanied by Rarity and the rest of his friends, all of them having happy smiles on their faces. As expected, the group wasn't angry at Rarity for what she had done yesterday. The reason why they were not watching the fashion show was that they actually overslept, just like Star Twinkle said. They then went looking for Rarity and found her near the train station where they then settled things with each other. Star Twinkle also wasted no time and explained a few things. Of course, Rarity was shocked after she found out that she actually won the competition and couldn't believe it at first. Because of how everything went so well for Rarity, she decided to thank everyone for forgiving her. "How about we all go to an exclusive performance of Hinny of the Hills?" "Um, how?" Applejack asked confused. "The tickets were for yesterday, remember?" "I'm sure I can get him to agree to show it to us once I offer to do some work for him...or rather..." Rarity then looked over to Coco Pommel. "You are without a job now, aren't you? How about I talk to the costume designer who gave me the tickets? I'm sure if you offer to help out with some future work, he will gladly give you a new job," "If you could do that, that would be wonderful!" Coco Pommel expressed happily. "Oh! Almost forgot!" She then said before she pulled out a little present from her saddlebag. "I wanted to give you this, as compensation for Suri stealing your idea," Rarity happily accepted and opened the little box on the spot. "Oh!" She said impressed before she used her magic to lift out a spool of rainbow-colored thread. "Thank you. I'm sure this will come in handy soon," she said thanking Coco Pommel for her gift. "Then that is settled! Now let's all go to the theater!" Rarity said as she began to lead the way through the city again. "Aw Yeah!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed overly excited. After she realized that she was stared at, however, she decided to play it cool. "I mean...yeah...let's go," she said disinterested, causing her friends to laugh in response. In the end, this whole trip was a lot better than Star Twinkle originally expected. Everything went well for almost everyone and Rarity managed to win the competition to boost her popularity in Manehattan. Still, after some stressful days like this, Star Twinkle rather preferred to stay in Ponyville where it was a lot more quieter. He also had to admit that Hinny on the Hill was a lot better then he expected...