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// 14: Her Ticket [Slice of Life] 
// Story: Thirty Minutes of Fabulosity 
// by Esle Ynopemos 
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((Prompt: A new life.))

Rarity levitated ribbon after ribbon before her. Drab. Boring. Colorless. There was very little that she could do to try and turn the Ponyville Town Hall into something not quite so... rustic. But she made do with what was available. The story of her life, it seemed. Taking a lump of dirt and rock and working at it until at least something glittered.

What would possess the Princess to hold her celebration out here in a noplace town like Ponyville, Rarity had no idea. She was just grateful that she had an opportunity to have her efforts seen by somepony who mattered. She had fought hard for the chance, too. The mayor had been planning to assign the duty of decorating the event center to Roseluck, of all ponies. A great choice, if you wanted nothing but flowers everywhere, but Rarity had managed to convince Mayor Mare that a royal visit required something with inspiration. Simply throwing a few bouquets of sweet-smelling blossoms would not cut it.

A bunch of backwater yokels, the lot of them. Rarity hoped that with this royal visit, somepony with actual taste might notice her efforts, and she would get her ticket out of this one-horse town and on to a new, more glamorous life.

But to do that, first she needed to make the effort. She growled in frustration. None of these ribbons were working. They were all so dull, so lifeless. Just an endless stream of drabness, a perfect fit for this mud-pit of a village. Somepony's voice came to her. Somepony wanted something. “Just a minute, darling,” she said, not turning to see who it was. “I am in the zone, as it were.”

Sunlight glinted off of a few sequins on her work table, and an idea came to Rarity. “Aha,” she said, dusting a wide red bow with a cloud of them. “Sparkle always does the trick. Now, how can I help you—uaah!” Before her was a frizzy thing with a pony attached to it. She dared not call it a mane.

The pony said something about checking on things, but Rarity could not care less. This affront to all things fabulous had to be done away with at once!

A few minutes later, they were at her boutique. Perhaps there were various social pleasantries exchanged, perhaps not. The important thing was that there was no longer a hideous poofy thing wandering about town making the place even more unfashionable than it already was.

Well, one of the words exchanged caught Rarity's ears. “Canterlot?” she repeated. The nation's capital! Glamor aplenty! Sophistication in spades! Stars whirled in her eyes as dreams of rubbing shoulders with the most important ponies in Equestria passed through her head. This was her ticket! This purple mare, though a bit bookish by Rarity's own standards, was her way out of Ponyville and onto greater and better things!

“Oh, we're going to be the best of friends, you and I.”