The Jobs

The chant lasted until the group got into the town square until they realized that they should probably drop off their new clothes in their rooms before going on a job hunt. After they took that quick pit stop, the job hunt chant was back in full swing, chanting the entire way back to the center of town. They parted ways, and the chant died down. Thanks to Octavia's tour, Nate and Kendra had the locations of the music store and SugarCube Corner, respectively fresh in their minds while Cameron headed in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.

When Nate reached his destination, he peered through the window to see what the store was like. From where he stood, he could see rows of vinyl records sitting in the middle of the store with instruments, like violins, trumpets, and acoustic guitars lining the walls. He stood back and nodded, mentally approving of the quaint little store. In doing so, he finally noticed the help wanted poster in the bottom right corner of the window.

Finally, mentally prepared to ask for a job in a strange, new place, Nate opened the door to the store, welcomed by a bell chime. The cashier counter was located right next to the door, so the pony operating the counter noticed the human immediately. Nate looked back at the pony and gave a weary smile. At first glance, the white-coated, unicorn mare sort of rubbed him the wrong way. She was wearing headphones openly at work and wore sunglasses inside. The fact that she didn't take either of them off as he walked up to the counter also didn't sit well with him. It felt like she was rude in his eyes. The sunglasses also stopped him from being able to judge her reaction towards him as a being. He didn't know if she was frightened, curious, or confused, and that made trying to approach and talk to her even more difficult. Nate cleared his throat, hoping that would get her to remove her headphones. When she just stared at him through her magenta sunglasses, he sighed and started to talk.

"Hey, uh, sorry to interrupt, but I heard that you were looking for new hires, and I was interested in the job. I'm only going to be here about a month, but I don't just want to be a leech while I'm here, y'know," Nate smiled and chuckled nervously. The mare wasn't giving any visual feedback. That made Nate start to worry slightly. He wasn't entirely sure that she could hear or was pretending in hopes that he would leave eventually. It would take another moment for him to calm down a little as she poked her head under the counter for a second. She rummaged around for a second before popping her head back up, levitating a piece of paper and a pen onto the counter and sliding it toward Nate. He picked it up and scanned the writing. At first glance, he didn't know what he was looking at. It wasn't any language he had seen before, or so he thought. On closer inspection, he could see that the characters on the page were an extremely stylized version of English. With the weight of him beginning to think he couldn't read off his shoulders, Nate quickly understood that the piece of paper in his hand was an application form.

Letting out a small, "Oh, okay," Nate quickly went to work filling out his application, trying to copy the stylized English in the process. After several minutes Nate handed the form back to the spikey-maned unicorn, who took it in her magic and looked over it for another few minutes. Nate guessed it was because of his poor excuse of an attempt to copy down their alphabet, but he still couldn't glean anything from the mare herself. After those few minutes passed, the mare gave a small nod and levitated a stamp before stamping the page with an 'Approved.' She then popped back under the cashier counter and returned with another piece of paper. He read over it and saw it was a general info page giving him things like the rate of pay, a brief work schedule, and the actual description of the job for the person, or in this case ponies. Nate smiled and looked at the mare in front of him.

"Thank you. I guess I'll see you tomorrow morning," Nate said, stuffing the piece of paper in his jacket pocket. The unicorn mare nodded, and Nate nodded in return. He waved goodbye to the mare as he walked out of the store. It wasn't until a minute later as he was humming happily back to the castle when he finally realized the mare never said a word during that entire interaction. He briefly wondered why that could be before shugging it off. He'd have to ask Cameron about it later.

...

Cameron walked up to Sweet Apple Acres, still quietly chanting until he reached the front door of the house. He knocked three times and waited.

"Hold on, there. I'mma comin'," an old, frail voice responded. A moment later, the door opened, and a certain old, green mare appeared. It took the green pony a second to realize that whoever had knocked was taller than her by quite a bit. She slowly raised her head, getting a look at the human standing in front of her with a smile on their face. Cameron's smile became strained as the look on the old mare turned from curiosity to abject horror. He never thought about the reaction he would get from anyone other than Applejack.

"Oh, no."

"MONSTER!" The door slammed shut as she called out to her family in a panic. "Big Mac, get Applejack and chase the monster away! I'll get AppleBloom and hide!" It didn't take another second to hear hooves running to the front room.

"Where'd you see it, Granny?" Cameron heard Applejack ask.

"It had the nerve to walk up here and knock on the door itself. It was just standing at the front door. It might have run away, but it couldn't have gone too far," Granny replied. "Where's AppleBloom?"

"She went to school about 20 minutes ago. C'mon, Big Mac. Let's run 'em off."

The orange mare burst through the door, followed by a bigger, red stallion. They were already close to top speed, so when Applejack recognized the tall, skinny human standing near a bit away from the front door, it took all she had to stop her and her older brother's momentum. She dug her hooves into the ground and leaned back. She caught Big Mac off guard, causing him to slide his body, that's almost twice Applejack's size, into his younger sister. The two slid against the ground and looked like they were going to slide right into Cameron until he took a step to the side and watched the two earth ponies slide another couple of feet past him. Applejack turned around and walked up to Cameron after she came to a complete stop.

"Cameron?"

"Hey, Applejack." Cameron waved. Big Mac walked up wearily when Applejack disarmed him.

"Whoa there, Mac. I know this one. Go on back to the house and tell Granny I'll be right there. I got this," she said, patting a hoof on Big Mac's shoulder. The older brother looked at his sister skeptically and glanced between Applejack and Cameron before sighing and walking back to the house. Applejack looked back up at Cameron, bemused. "What are you doing here?"

"Long story short, I want to help on the farm," Cameron answered. Applejack tilted her head and looked at the human up and down. Even if she wasn't familiar with the muscle structure of a human, all Applejack was reminded of when she examined Cameron was a tall twig.

"You sure, sugar cube? It's a lot of physical work." Applejack began to list some of the activities and responsibilities tied to the job. Cameron only knew of a fraction of the things she listed. The sheer amount sowed the seed of doubt in his mind, and he started to shift uncomfortably in place.

"Well, maybe I can do like a morning shift. I come in at dawn and leave at noon or lunchtime," Cameron said with pleading eyes. Once Applejack stopped listing things. Applejack could see that he insisted on wanting to do something and, not wanting to be rude, she sighed and caved in.

"Alright. You got yourself a deal. We can use the extra help around here. Just come by tomorrow morning. I'll introduce you to the family, and then we can get started." Cameron did a happy little dance as the cowpony talked. Once done, he started to leave.

"Thank you, Applejack," he called, before pausing abruptly and jogging back to the orange mare, "Oh, one more thing. I don't wanna be that guy, but can I also get paid?"

"Well, I wasn't going to let you do honest work with nothin' to show for it," she replied.

"Cool," Cameron Thanks again, Applejack! See you tomorrow!" Cameron cried as he jogged off of the Apple family property. Applejack watched the human jog off giddily and chuckled softly. There was something contagious about that display of happiness that spread to her. She walked back into the house and was greeted by Granny Smith and Big Mac.

"Didja run it off, AJ?" Granny Smith asked.

"In a way," Applejack stated, looking back at the door then to Granny Smith. "Don't worry, Granny. He won't be any trouble for us."

...

Kendra paced at the front SugarCube Corner, trying to psych herself up enough to walk in the front door. Ponies passing by couldn't help sparing a glance at the human nervously muttering to herself in front of the bakery. With a sigh and a final word of self-assurance, Kendra stood up straight and walked into the bakery after three minutes of deliberation. Pinkie Pie was taking and filling orders upfront at the register. She noticed Kendra while looking up to serve the next customer. She gasped excitedly and stepped from behind the counter.

"Kendra?"

"I'm surprised you remembered my name."

"I remember the names and faces of everypony I meet. But what are you doing here?"

"Well, Nate and Cameron somehow got me to go on a job hunt..."

"A job hunt? Oh~. So you're looking for a job, and you came here to get a snack while you think about where you're going to apply," Pinkie Pie said, one hundred percent confident in her answer. Kendra just looked at her and shook her head.

"No. I came to see you."

"To see me? Aw, you're too sweet. But what does seeing me have to do with your job hunt?"

"I want you to give me a job," Kendra deadpanned.

"Oh, that makes a lot more sense. Okay." Pinkie said, going back behind the counter. Kendra waited a moment so Pinkie could continue the conversation or give her an application or something, but when Pinkie went behind the store counter, Kendra realized that the 'okay' was Pinkie giving her the job. Kendra did a double-take.

"Wait. Is that it? No questions or anything?" Kendra asked incredulously.

"Do you like baking?" Pinkie asked in response.

"Well, yeah. I like to bake as a hobby."

"Then you're hired," Pinkie cheered as a banner with the words 'Welcome to SugarCube Corner, Kendra' unraveled behind her and hidden confetti cannons went of raining the storefront in the colorful bits of ribbon and paper. Kendra stood dumbfounded at the level of preparation behind something the pink pony had no idea had a possibility of happening. "Why do you even want a job, anyway? You're not going to be here for more than two weeks, unless something pops up out of nowhere and threatens everypony, with the possibility of you being trapped here forever." An awkward silence rang out for a few moments before answering the initial question.

"Um... Okay. Well, since we're going to be here for a short time, we don't want to just sit around not doing anything. Plus, even if we didn't want to work but do things, we have no money, and we don't want to be house guests asking for money. The only logical answer was getting jobs." Pinkie Pie nodded before yelling.

"I can't believe I almost forgot to throw you three a welcome party. I need to make it you-themed, but I barely know you, so I need to get you to know you. I'll need two days. Tell the others. Oh, and you start tomorrow," Pinkie said, frantically looking and throwing stuff from under the store counter next to the display behind her. Kendra could make out balloons, ice cream scoops, and a rubber chicken, among other things. Kendra could see the hyperactive mare was fully occupied doing something else, so she started slowly backpedaling towards the door.

"Um...okay...I guess I'll go then. Thanks for the job.I'll see you tomorrow." Kendra backs out of SugarCube Corner and sighs heavily. The sheer amount of energy Pinkie Pie could put out worried Kendra. Having to keep up with that would require a significant effort not to just shut down on Pinkie. Kendra knew it would be good for her in the long run.

Kendra walked back to the castle and up to their rooms, stopping by the boys' room. Nate was the only one again at the moment. He looked at Kendra from his bed.

"Job hunt complete?"

"Job hunt complete."