“Twilight, you are the best student a teacher could have!”

“Well, thank you Princess Celestia!” Twilight played with her dolls. She giggled and played in the solitude of her library. When Spike had left to go help Rarity, as he always did, she had immediately started playing with her Twilight and Princess Celestia dolls in the Canterlot play set.

“Well, Ah’m happy for you Twi’!” Twilight tried her hardest to master Applejack’s accent. She made her Applejack doll trot up to them.

“Well, thank you Applejack!” Twilight said to Applejack. Applejack danced around in joy for Twilight and her accomplishments.

“Ah’m afraid Ah have to go back to the farm now.”

“I also need to attend to something in Manehattan.” Celestia added. They both left the plastic Twilight.

“Forever alone…” the plastic Twilight sighed.

“No you’re not, Twilight!” Twilight grabbed a black colt doll from behind the Canterlot play set. “You’ll never be alone.”

“Oh Tom!” Plastic Twilight squealed. “You’re everything I ever wanted!” Plastic Twilight kissed Plastic Tom. Suddenly, a plastic, armored stallion appeared and stole Plastic Tom away. “No!” Plastic Twilight screamed. “Dawn! Kyris! I need your help!” two plastic dolls appeared from behind the play set. A teal mare and a white colt ran after the armored stallion.

Twilight was having fun making up her own adventures with her toys, which most she made up characters for because they were only random models. Ever since Mane*Mart came to town she was a bit skeptical about the idea, but all of these toys made her happy. She secretly played with them. She didn’t want her friends to think of her as a filly for playing with dolls.

“Oh Tom, thank Celestia you’re safe.” Plastic Twilight hugged him.

“Where are your friends?” he asked, looking around.

“Dawn and Kyris are very mysterious! They help and then vanish!” Plastic Twilight continued to hug him. “We’ll get married, and we’ll live happily ever after!”

“Only one problem, Twilight,” Plastic Tom said. “We don’t have the Royal Canterlot Wedding play set!”

Twilight dropped her toys.

“To be continued!” She announced to herself. “…After I run to the store and pick up the play set!” She squealed in delight.

***

“Alright, little friends.” Fluttershy dropped the bags of food. She could get more food for less and all in the same place. She felt a little bad though, buying apples from Mane*Mart instead of from Sweet Apple Acres, but it was more convenient for her. The animals started to dig into the food. “I’m sure one less person buying her apples won’t hurt.”

***

“We’ve lost over a hundred customers!” Applejack cried out as she sat at her apple stand in the marketplace, which was almost deserted now. Other merchants had already gone off to sell their products to Mane*Mart. Applejack couldn’t do that, though, since Mane*Mart already had an apple orchard that was ran specifically for the store. What luck?

“We’re going to have to sell the barn at this rate.” She sighed. She sat there in silence, thinking. “Maybe Ah’ll have to take up something else…”

***

“Well, Applejack, I see you have a good work ethic, reliable references and a well written resume… Welcome aboard the Mane*Mart team!” The manager shook hooves with Applejack, whom was wearing a full suit. “I see you’re used to working with food, so you’ll be in charge of handling the fruits and vegetables, restocking and making sure there’s not one bruise on anything! We like to keep everything looking fresh.” Applejack nodded as he gave her instructions.

“Ah’ll do my best, sir!” She tried her best to smile, but the thought of working in a store and being ‘professional’ made her sick to her stomach. At least she wasn’t running the cash register, she thought. She wasn’t very good with math, even if all she was doing was pressing buttons. Seeing so many numbers made her mind feel stressed.

“You start tomorrow morning, early. Be here at 6’A.M sharp! Don’t be late, or else it will be deducted from your pay.”

“Yes, sir!”

***

“You got a job, sis?” Applebloom stood behind Applejack as she undressed from her interview.

“Ah had to, Applebloom. At this rate, we’re not going to be able to sell enough apples to make enough profit to live. We’ll just have to wait until Zap Apple season to come to make some more profit.”

“But what about our normal apples?” She asked. Applejack sighed.

“Ah don’t know, Applebloom.”

“Ah think you shouldn’t take this job.” Applebloom protested. “You don’t like being professional! Ah know you don’t!”

“I have to.” Applejack ended the conversation there.

***

“You’re what?!” Pinkie Pie couldn’t believe her ears. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were selling the business.

“I know it’s hard, Pinkie.” Mrs. Cake put a hoof around Pinkie. “We have no other choice though. We’re still a family though, Pinkie. We met through the business, but just because we’re selling it doesn’t mean we can’t still be a family. I think it will be better for the babies as well if we had a normal home.” Mr. Cake nodded in agreement.

“We’re both taking up jobs at Mane*Mart as bakers, so we’ll still be baking!” He smiled, lightening up the situation. “Maybe you should get a job there too, Pinkie.”

“I don’t want a job at Mane*Mart though!”

“Well, Pinkie, you’re going to have to do something! You can’t just lope around our new house all day.” Mrs. Cake told her. Pinkie sighed. They were right.

“I’ll go turn in an application…” She walked out of what was soon to be an empty building within a couple of days.

***

“What are you going to do, Rarity?” Sweetie Bell asked.

“A little bit of…competition is good, Sweetie Bell.” Rarity assured her while working on a new dress. “They may have lower prices and more clothes, but ponies only really need clothing for special occasions, and that is my specialty!”

They waited all day for a customer to come in. They hadn’t had any for the past few days, but Rarity kept that a secret from Sweetie Bell. She didn’t want to have her sister think they were financially in trouble.

“No one’s coming, are they?” Sweetie Bell glanced at Rarity, who didn’t answer. “Please answer me, sister! You don’t have to be alone on this…”

“We haven’t had a customer in over three days!” Rarity spat it out. She started to pace the floor. “We usually make quite a bit of bits a week, but we haven’t made any yet, and it’s already Wednesday! We’re in trouble, Sweetie Bell.” She admitted.

“They do sell dresses at Mane*Mart. Granted they’re not as stylish as mine, they’re still cheaper than mine. I can’t bring down our prices though to meet ours, because that would mean we would be paying more to make it than to sell it! I don’t know how they afford to do it!”

“It’s because they have multiple ponies working on dresses, and they buy the materials in bulk. They most likely have certain facilities that are specifically for Mane*Mart that provide the materials. More ponies to make them, plus bulk prices mean that there are a lot of dresses for not a lot of money.” Sweetie smiled from her knowing the answer. That didn’t make Rarity feel any better, however. “But uh… I’m sure there’s a lot more that goes into it.” Her proud smile turned to a nervous one. Rarity sighed.

“My last resort is to get a job at Mane*Mart. There’s nothing left to do!” She paced around the floor. “We have no income otherwise!”

“I’ll fetch your business dress!” Sweetie Bell obliged.

***

“You here for a job too?” Pinkie asked Rarity as she entered the waiting room. She nodded.

“It seems that Mane*Mart is affecting everypony.” Rarity sat next to Pinkie, who wasn’t happy about the situation either. “At least I’ll be working with one of my best friends.” She smiled, and Pinkie smiled back.

“And me.” Applejack walked into the room, wearing a full suit. “They made me hiring manager! Mr. Mane was having trouble with all of the incoming applications that he needed a hiring manager, and he picked me since I’m the hardest worker.”

“That means you’re going to hire us, right?” Pinkie’s face glistened. Applejack shook her head.

“I have to interview you first. Even though I know both of you already, it’s store rules.” Rarity and Pinkie noticed that Applejack’s accent wasn’t as heavy as normal.

“What happened to your accent?” Pinkie asked. Applejack chuckled.

“Oh, just trying to be a little more professional is all.”

***

“So, Pinkie, tell me about yourself.” Applejack put her hooves on the desk, professionally of course.

“Weeeelllll, I love parties and I love cake, and I love my friends very, very much!”

“It says here on your resume that you’ve worked as a caterer and an MC? Tell me about those work experiences.”

“They were fun.” Pinkie simply said with a big grin on her face. They both were quiet for a moment until Applejack started writing something down on a piece of paper.

“Thank you Ms. Pie. That’s all I’ll need. Please send in Ms. Rarity on your way out. We’ll call you if you got the job.”

“I think that went well.” Pinkie told Rarity as she walked out the door. Rarity stood up, walking into Applejack’s office and shutting the door behind her.

“Your resume is outstanding, Ms. Rarity. I’ll only need to ask you a few questions.” Rarity smiled at the compliment.

“How well do you deal with customers? Do you always try to be polite even when they aren’t? Would you say you’re a good helper?”

“Why of course!” Rarity began. “I try my best to be of the best service to every pony. While I’ve never worked in this kind of profession, I do believe I’m up to the challenge!”

“Welcome aboard, Ms. Rarity.” Applejack reached out a hoof which Rarity graciously shook.

“Oh thank you, Applejack.” She stopped, thinking for a moment. “I mean ‘Ms. Jack’. It will be so great to work with you and Pinkie.”

Applejack didn’t say anything, but only looked down at her desk.

“She… did get the job, right?” Rarity tried to look into her eyes, which were faced down at the table. Applejack shook her head.