Twinkleshine walked merrily down the streets of Canterlot under the bright shiny day, a day that made the marble unicorn feel like she was under the biggest spotlight of the world. Her aim was straight forward to the best district of Canterlot’s, one known as Fame and Fortune, where all kinds of agencies and talent hunters resided, offering the opportunity of a lifetime, and all the ponies that had the desire to become a star could be seen walking down this same avenue, trying their chances in one of the many agencies to show they could become the next super star.
It was her dream, her passion, to become the next famous star among the celebrities and be praised for her acting skills from the best talents there was. “This will be the first chapter in my career to the stars! Look out, Canterlot! Here comes Twinkleshine!” shouted the unicorn, causing several heads turn directly to her, which in retaliation made the marble unicorn blush in embarrassment and trot faster down the street.
Today was her meeting with an important stallion that had, probably, made some space in his busy agenda to interview Twinkleshine and give her the opportunity to cast for a role in the new movie they were to be making.
“I’m almost there. I hope I can impress the agents and get a good spot for the upcoming movies… No, none of that kind of talk, Twinkleshine. You are going to get the stellar role!” she shouted once more, causing the ponies in her vicinity to look at her with strange looks, which made Twinkleshine chuckle and blush once more. She quickly decided to gallop out of their sight and make a beeline straight to the building she was going to have her interview.
Passing by several buildings, she soon slowed her pace once she spotted the one she was to visit, and without missing her pace, she made her way inside the small built office that held a desk and four simple chairs, with several photos of celebrities and some of Canterlot scapelands. In the middle was a coffee table with several old magazines sprawled all over it.
Twilkleshine walked directly to the receptionist and stopped close to him. “Hello? I’m here to meet with Mr. Ratburn. My name is Twinkleshine,” she said to the stallion, who was a green coated unicorn with a brown chocolate mane, who was reading a fashion magazine in an uninterested manner. He looked at the ivory unicorn in a bored manner and sighed.
“He’s currently busy. Sit over there until you are called out, please,” he said in a flat, careless voice, barely giving the marble unicorn a care in the world before resuming on reading the magazine lazily on his seat.
Twinkleshine merely nodded and took a seat on the couch and waited patiently as she glanced at the clock and then back at her hooves. She noticed how her hooves were shaking and let out a squeal of excitement, which the receptionist groaned and rolled his eyes at how childish the mare looked.
The receptionist tried to ignore Twinkleshine as much as possible, annoyed by how the mare before him was acting all childish like and did his best to focus on his magazine and reading about the gossip it provided.
Twinkleshine was sitting patiently, glancing at the door now and then, expecting the door to open up at any minute, but she decided to play it calmly and tried to act with a certain amount of disinterest and anticipation, waiting for the moment of the meeting they had arranged come closer.
Several hours had passed, and nothing had happened since she talked to the receptionist, who was still engulfed in the magazine he held from earlier. She wanted to stand up and ask the receptionist if she was too early for the meeting, or at least to call the agent to let him know that she was here, that was... until she heard the latch of the door inside the building move.
The door opened to reveal a dim gray coated unicorn stallion with a brown mane and moustache, who noticed Twinkleshine on the seat and smiled at her. “Miss Twinkleshine! So glad you could arrive,” the stallion greeted, holding Twinkleshine’s right hoof and kissing it, “Please follow me to my office. There is so much we will be discussing.” His tone was of a proper gentlecolt and was just as chivalrous, guiding the mare to a small hallway and directly to another room inside the building.
The office was decently spaced, with several awards and trophies displayed on a shelf on the wall. It had a simple desk and two seats in front of another one, much bigger than the other two in front. “Please take a seat, miss,” invited the stallion as he took his place behind the desk.
Twinkleshine took his offer and sat on the couch on the right, smiling expectantly before talking, “Mr. Ratburn, I am thankful that you accepted me for this interview for the job as an actress. I know I am new in this business, but I am more than willing to-”
“Let me stop you right there, miss,” he interrupted with a kind expression on his face. “I am afraid that we won’t be able to have anything for you to work with.”
Twinkleshine was confused by his words and tilted her head slightly, doing her best to comprehend what he implied, “I am sorry, but I don’t think I follow,” she said, trying to keep a smile on her face.
“Miss Twinkleshine, I am afraid to say that we are looking for ponies with experience and talent on the matter, and you being just on your first day is something that we call in this business as… an actress in training,” he explained, trying not to cringe on the last part and not wanting to be so rude with the mare.
“Actress in training?” she repeated, the disbelief was on her face as she leaned closer. “Why would it be a problem if that’s the reason I was invited for the job, to gain experience?” she asked, knowing that she was being rejected from the very start of the interview.
Mr. Ratburn arranged his mane with his right hoof and breathed deeply, “Miss Twinkleshine… It may sound unfair, but you have to understand that it will take us a lot of time to have you become the actress we need you to be. We will be investing plenty of bits on making sure that you can have the pose, style and charisma that this house of production needs from you to be a glamorous star that will be the center of attention,” his voice was stern and cold, he was now looking at the mare with certain disinterest as the discussion dragged on.
Mr. Ratburn took a deep breath and eased his posture. “Look, I am truly sorry for making you come all this way just to tell you all this, but this part of the industry is where we must face the facts and be confronted with the cruel reality of this business: that only the few selected ponies that can have the natural born talent are those who can step on the stairway of success and fame,” he finished, giving a little attempt at an apologetic look at the marble unicorn.
Twinkleshine took a deep breath and nodded. She knew that discussing things further would only make her look desperate and decided to leave with dignity. She got off the chair and walked close to the desk. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Ratburn. I appreciate that you offered up your time to tell me this,” she managed to keep herself composed, turning around and walking outside the door and shutting the door behind her as she walked out of the building, not even sparing a word to the receptionist.
The calm quietness of the agency house soon changed into the noises of carriages passing by and the trotting of other ponies around the street. With disappointment on her face, Twinkleshine trotted down the road, being tired of the entire ordeal that just happened a few moments ago, wondering why she was called just to be turned down like that. She decided to put aside her frustrations away to keep herself calm and composed for a moment. Feeling entirely disappointed that the interview wasn’t in any way what she was expecting and that she had just walking around aimlessly in her depressed state.
She was so focused on the paved ground, deciding to walk back to her home to relax for the rest of the day, that she didn’t notice the mare who walked near her from the opposite direction.
“Twinkleshine, what a surprise!” shouted the mare, Twinkleshine soon recognized the voice and lifted her head up to see the mulberry mare was trotting quickly to catch up to her friend.
“Huh? Twilight! A surprise indeed to see you here,” Twinkleshine felt her bad mood vanish, replacing it with a smile towards her friend. She gave her a hug the moment they got within hooves’ reach.
Twilight smiled, breaking the hug, “I remembered that you had an interview today. So, how did that go?” Her smile soon was an expression of concern as she looked directly at her friend with a frown after she made that question. “Why are you so gloomy? Something happen?”
Twinkleshine sighed, once more walking past Twilight. “There is a cafe here at the corner. We can talk there, my treat,” she invited with a faint smile on her face, taking the lead to the local cafe.
Twilight was surprised by the sudden invitation and soon made a hoof pump in excitement, “Yes! First one on one friendship bonding is happening! I can’t believe Spike was right on letting these things happen out of the blue!” she murmured to herself, strutting happily behind Twinkleshine.
It was truly a surprise to Twilight to meet with Twinkleshine, and it was even more to have a little bonding time with each other. She had been planning to make a schedule for each friend on different dates, until Spike found out what she was planning and said that it was preferable to let these things happen on their own, ‘let things flow’ as he quoted. Twilight scoffed at the idea of letting things occur just like that. it was something that never suited her in the slightest, and she was certain that she could just make out a schedule including an activity for each friend in ample time to work on taking in consideration the preferences they all had, including times to eat lunch or if they encountered with a third party.
But as things turned out, she had the opportunity here and now when Twinkleshine appeared. Having free time herself, Twilight couldn’t dare to hesitate on taking on the chance and followed her. Schedules can be rearranged at another time anyway.
Twilight and Twinkleshine were now close to the cafe and made their way inside, passing by a few customers and taking seats near a small table where a waitress arrived to request their orders. They ordered a cup of coffee and a hay sandwich each and waited for a few moments until it became slightly awkward for the two of them to speak.
“So… um... you were acting a bit gloomy back there on the street?” Twilight asked, trying her best to be subtle, but she soon flinched in nervousness, as she knew that it wasn’t subtle enough.
Twinkleshine smiled sadly, giving pause for a second and began to explain, “Today was supposed to be the day where I would have an interview with a movie agent and start my career as an actress, but things didn’t go the way I thought they would,” she was now looking away as her smile vanished and was now completely sad, remembering the rejection she had to suffer.
“What happened? They didn’t offer you a job?” Twilight asked, leaning closer in concern for her friend.
“Worse than that, they didn’t give me any opportunity at all,” she replied, “Seems that the stallion I met up with wanted to have some natural born talent that would just save him time and money, I guess. He wasn’t really interested in somepony like me that still is new in the world of acting and celebrities,” she explained with a bored tone as she watched the window outside.
Twilight was taken aback by that last bit of the explanation and leaned closer. “But you had an appointment with him, didn’t you?” she wondered out loud, surprised by the news.
Twinkleshine shrugged in confusion. “I don’t know. I had sent my profile and application to them, and then after a few days, I had a call that said to arrive at his office,” she admitted, groaning in disappointment. “He seemed more invested on the idea of having a famous mare that could just make a movie out of good looks and popularity and just win him bits easily,” she assumed while focusing on her meal.
Twilight mulled over the situation, while chewing on her sandwich, “That is really unfair that it happened to you, since you want to be a famous star.” After finishing her drink, she sighed, “You must have worked so hard on studying acting and taking lessons on the matter, so it would be a waste not to give you a proper chance at being an actress in any agency in Canterlot.” Twilight was now looking directly at her friend and considering that using this method of approach was a good method of motivation to lift Twinkleshine’s mood.
The white unicorn smiled softly and nodded, sitting straight on her seat and nodding, “you’re right, Twilight. This might be a setback on what I want to achieve, but I can’t just drop everything just like that because somepony thinks I am not good enough,” she said, feeling more motivated within a moment. “But where can I go now? It’s not like I can go to any agency out of blue and request kindly to be the star of their next film, just like that.” The confidence that she once had vanished the moment she realized that there was nothing else to do in the near future except for waiting to be called once more.
Twilight was in deep thought. She wanted to help Twinkleshine in her situation, and she was thinking on the many subjects she knew about the different agency houses in the city that could be interested in giving her a job. Sadly, that didn’t last long, as the mulberry unicorn didn’t have any clue about what she could do to help Twinkleshine directly.
Except for one thing, she knew one mare that could help, one that could even give her the job she knew Twinkleshine would need in order to become the superstar that she wanted to be.
“I know somepony that can help,” Twilight slowly suggested, then looking at her friend she was more certain with her words. “Follow me. I know a place that can certainly help you.” She paid for the lunch and began to walk out of the cafe.
“Really!? Hey! Wait up!” Twinkleshine was excited as she jumped off from her seat and rushed behind Twilight out to the streets once more.
The white unicorn rushed to catch up to Twilight and smiled. “Soooo, what’s the plan?” she inquired as they both trotted down the street of Fame and Fortune Ave.
“We will be visiting with an old teacher of mine and asking for her help,” Twilight explained vaguely, keeping her eyes forward as they continued to walk until they reached a luxurious building that was pink and held golden details around the windows.
Twinkleshine was about to say something about Twilight being very vague and avoiding the answer directly, but the fact that she recognized the agency building and who the pony that worked inside was gave her enough conviction to make her believe that Twilight knew well who would help her have a chance to become the future actress she wanted to become.
“This is the Super Shooting Star Agency, a place that can certainly help you with whatever you need,” Twilight stated with a proud smile to her friend, watching how Twinkleshine awed at the building before her.
The marble unicorn was excited, as everypony knew that this was one of the most famous house agencies renowned throughout the entire kingdom, and Twinkleshine knew that this was the true opportunity that she wanted to obtain for herself to start her career.