When Rarity accepted the offer to negotiate trading opportunities with the United Feline Kingdom, she expected nothing but polite talk (and one fabulous masquerade ball). But upon reading that the UFK has some particularly strict customs, she must rise to the occasion with very little notice. The only question is, will her choice of companion make things difficult...?

Written for Everfree Northwest's 2015 Iron Author competition. The challenge was to write the story in two hours, and incorporate the themes of "one brief, shining moment", "a voyage", and "masks".

I'll be posting two versions; the original, posted as written (other than formatting to make it easier to read), and the cleaned up version.