Author's Note
All in Good Pun
Rarity galloped down the stairs of her hybrid store/house in the blink of an eye, her movements rustled and agitated. A bead of sweat trickled down her forehead. Sweetie looked up from her magazine to her sister with mild curiosity.
"Sweetie Belle, are you sure you can watch the shop for awhile?" Rarity gasped.
"Yeah! No prob sis," Sweetie Belle said nonchalantly, already at the cash register. She wasn’t happy that she had to watch the store. But rather that she could get some solace from her sister.
"Are you sure darling? It's just, we get so many clients, and we make sure we fulfill every request.”
"EVERY request?" Sweetie raised an eyebrow.
"Ew, No. Not like that. Don't be gross Sweetie Belle."
"WOW,” Sweetie said, taken aback. “Okay, I didn't mean it that way. Where is your mind at, Rarity? Jeez."
"Listen, that's not important. What is important is that I needed to see Fancy Pants at least five minutes ago. Just watch the shop and do your best. I believe in you."
Sweetie watched as her sister galloped out the door. Then, Sweetie heaved a heavy sigh.
Well at least she was getting some more responsibility. Maybe she could guilt her sister into snagging a pizza on the way back. And to be honest, she could probably just close the shop, then reopen it later before Rarity came back. Then she could get out of doing any work at all and her older sister wouldn’t be any the wiser. It's not like ponies in Ponyville regularly need dresses anyway. Who in the world would need some sort of beauty need on a normal, boring Tuesday.
That’s when the door to Carousel Boutique jingled open.
"Shoot. A customer. I mean, Welcome to Carousel Boutique! How can I help you?"
A noticeably fluffy kirin walked through the door, causing Sweetie to tilt her head slightly. Rarity mentioned their race before from the adventures from her friends, but this was a first time for her seeing one up close. Could they really set themselves on fire?
"Hi there small creature, is Rarity here?"
What? Who talks like this? Literally nopony talks like this.
"No, I'm afraid. Would you like me to leave a message for her when she comes back?" she asked. Hoping that maybe she could get out easy.
"Oh! Well what about Zephyr Breeze, I heard he snips manes here?"
Sweetie Belle blinked. Was this kirin being serious right now?
"That was like one seaso- I mean, one year ago. A-are you looking to have your mane clipped?"
"Yes! My name is Autumn Blaze and I'm one of Applejack's friends. I have this super special event that I wanted to look all fancy for rather than being some sort of crazy hot mess of a mare. Which is weird, because I also want to be hot, but also not, on fire? Like I want to be a fiery temptress, but not smouldering."
Sweetie Belle stared at her.
"Because of the fire and stuff."
"Yeah, I got it,” Sweetie Belle said. It just wasn’t funny. “Well... what can we do for you?"
"Can you cut my mane, then?" Autumn asked. “I need it done, like, three years ago.”
Sweetie Belle blinked.
‘Shoot. Rarity said to do anything that was asked. I’ve never cut a mane before. This is going to go really poorly.’ Sweetie Belle thought
“Well…” The kirin smiled widely at Sweetie Belle, and some part of her paused. Autumn looked at her with this sort of unrelenting positivity. There’s no way this creature could get mad and burn down the whole store and/or house.
Okay fine, but she owes me.
"Sure! Sit here."
Autumn sat down and closed her eyes. Sweetie Belle took a deep breath.
“Just like I saw on television,” she muttered to herself.
She grabbed a nearby bowl of fruit. Emptied it and placed it on Autumn’s head.
“What are you doing?” she asked, not opening her eyes.
Sweetie grabbed a nearby pair of clothing scissors and snips hair around the edge of the bowl.
“Ta-da!” Sweetie says, pulling the bowl off the kirin’s head. "It's new and modern! The bowl cut!"
Autumn opened her eyes. She glared in the mirror, her mouth dropping open. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes. The wispy ends of her mane began to glow and change.
"O-okay! You don’t like it!” Sweetie said, chuckling to suspend her fear of her house and/or job going up in flames. “That’s okay! I'll fix this. I got it! If you really wanna look nice, you should get a wig! We have tons of wigs."
Sweetie belle got out an electric shaver that Rarity got for when she wanted to try to replicate something she saw in a magazine on Opal. Luckily, there wasn’t any scarring.
The filly plunged the shaver into Autumn’s mane, when Rarity just so happened to walk into the Boutique.
"Silly me, the meeting was tomorrow. Sweetie Belle, how did- SWEETIE BELLE WHAT ARE YOU-"
And then Autumn’s mane was pulling off a sweet cosplay of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
"RARITY, GET A WIG."
"ON IT!"
Rarity grabbed a stylish wig that was designed to look like kirin hair that she had lying around. For reasons. She immediately slamed it on Autumn’s head. To the unicorns’ surprise, she looked exactly the same as before the haircut.
"IT’S PERFECT!" Autumn yelled in ecstasy. "I DON’T KNOW WHAT I CAN DO TO REPAY YOU TWO!"
"No problem! Just go speak praises of Carousel Boutique to all the world," Rarity mumbled nervously.
Autumn left. Sweetie Belle sighed. Rarity turned to her sister with a fire in her eyes, and surprisingly not a fire that was in the amusement park ride of a house they also work in.
"SWEETIE BELLE WHY DID YOU DO THIS."
"You literally told me to! You peer pressuring little-”
"Okay, I'll admit some fault to this."
"Good."
"But," Rarity continued.
"BUT WHAT?!"
"Next time I may not be around to save you when somepony needs Shaved by the Belle."
