"Extra-soft, my hindquarters!" Twilight shouted in displeasure as she magically lifted the bulk of tissue boxes off of her. Spike however, remained sound asleep. The fall off her back onto the hard tile did little to disturb him, he was made from tougher stuff being a dragon and all.
"Whoever built this tissue display didn't do a very good job. I just picked one up to look at it and poof...pain." She quickly reassembled the display properly, sorting by type and size. "Rainbow Dash, could you come here for a minute?!"
A multi-colored blur whizzed by too fast for mere pony eyes to behold. Seconds later Twilight received a tap on her shoulder from behind. "Whatcha need, Chief?" Rainbow asked, standing at attention.
"Aargh, don't do that!" Twilight visibly flinched in fear. She then shook her head wildly, trying to rustle up another excuse for her display that wasn't based on her being scared. "I'm uh...still tender from the um, avalanche of Celestia's Sun-Snooty tissues!" She pointed with her hoof to illustrate her point.
Without missing a beat, Rainbow fell over, consumed with joyous laughter. "Sun-What? Hahhahaha, I can't believe you just s-said that!"
Twilight picked up a box and held it in her hoof as she carefully examined the item. "What? What's so funny? That's what it's called."
Rainbow attempted to compose herself as Twilight went on. "Celestia herself, has chosen to market this product which is both named after her and sold in her store. We can't sell it properly to ponies if we ourselves don't believe in it and only see it as a joke. You just got to be able to look a customer dead in the eye and say, 'Celestia's Sun-Snooty tissues is a quality product!"
Spike, still asleep let loose a light chuckle. "Snooty, haha..."
Rainbow immediately bit her own lip, trying to keep away from the giggles. Tears visibly began to build up in her eyes.
Applejack trotted out of the bathroom. "Twilight, where's the supply room? We're out of Celestia's Sun-Booty paper in the stalls."
Rainbow's dam finally burst. Twilight sighed and face-hooved her forehead as she witnessed her star stock-pony collapse, crying joyous tears as she snickered.
"In the back AJ, they're in the back."
Applejack eyed Rainbow as she passed by. "What's so funny?"
"Don't ask, just...it'll only make it worse." The acting Alicorn Manager gingerly placed the tissue box back into it's assigned space in the display.
"Well, okaaay then." Applajack said, scurrying along toward her goal. "Oh and I think my talk with Fluttershy worked. She'll be out in a jiffy!"
"Rainbow..." Twilight's voice actually caught her friends attention. Dash still giggled a bit but at least she was looking in her direction now. "Okay, I'll be straight to the point. Even though you didn't build this display, you will be in charge of maintaining and building them in the future. So just be careful that they're built properly so they don't fall on and hurt ponies."
That last part sobered up Rainbow quite a bit. "I u-understand, Twilight. You can count on me!"
Twilight smiled. "Thank you. That's all I wanted, you can g-."
The image of Rainbow Dash quickly faded away as she zipped back to work.
"Well, I suppose that takes care of that." Twilight looked around the check-stand. "Where's Fluttershy?"
"P-Present." Came a tiny voice and hoof out from under the counter.
"There you are." Twilight went behind the counter to the employee area. "What are you doing? You can't exactly cashier from down there. The customers need to see you so they know where to go."
"I know Twilight, I'm sorry." Fluttershy said. "I don't want to let you down but maybe there is something else I can do to help the store?"
"Oh, Fluttershy, don't worry. Princess Celestia chose you for this important role. She believes in you and so do I. You can do this." Twilight levitated several objects off the shelf and placed them on the stand. "I'll be your first customer, so you can get in some practice. Then after that I'll be right here by your side until you feel confident enough to fly on your own. Does that sound okay to you?"
The yellow pony's ears perked slightly. "O-Okay, I guess that'll work."
"Great, now let me get into character." Twilight closed her eyes briefly, letting out a long breath before reopening them. "Hello there, nice to meet you!"
"...Um, hello?" Fluttershy answered, thoroughly confused.
"Pssst, I'm a customer." Twilight gave a wink.
Fluttershy blinked several times over. "Oh? Oh! ...Why h-hello, it's nice to meet you too." she said weakly, avoiding eye contact. Right away she began busying herself with bagging each item and keeping a mental note of the total cost.
"Fluttershy..." Twilight whispered.
The shy little pony looked up from bagging without saying a word.
"Boop..." Twilight quietly breathed out the word from the side of her mouth.
"Boop?" Fluttershy echoed.
Miss Sparkle nodded strongly with affirmation. "Boop."
Fluttershy's eyes widened as if a great realization had come over her.
She reached out gracefully and gently touched the end of Twilight's nose. "Boop!" She smiled as she re-focused her attention on her bagging.
"Oh, darling!" Rarity called out from the customer service booth, having witnessed the whole exchange. "That's absolutely adorable!"
With understanding, Twilight patiently waited until Fluttershy was done bagging and announcing the price as being fourteen bits.
"You did a great job, Fluttershy! You were just as an employee of the Sunny Store should be. Hehe, though I was actually referring to the manual. Specifically the part where Celestia, for some reason, wanted you to make a boop noise as you bagged the groceries." she blushed lightly.
"Oh, my!" A tinge of scarlet filled Fluttershy's cheeks as well. "I'm sorry, I guess I just forgot."
"Sz'all good Flutters." Spike spoke up, sleep-talking as he snuggled Twilight's mane. "Boop-Snoot, hehe."
"Right, what Spike said." she teleported all items back to the shelf. "It's perfectly okay. It was just practice after all."
Just then Applejack came strolling by, carrying a load of bath tissue on her back. "Got all the Sunbutt paper we'll need right here! Go team Sunny Store!"
"Applejack! Is that anyway to speak of the Princess?" asked Twilight.
"What? That's what it's called ain't it?" She craned her head to examine the label. "Eh, close enough. Besides, I think Big Mac is ready to check out now."
"Wait, when did h-" Twilight turned to look but instantly smacked against the muscular physique of Big Macintosh, Applejack's older brother. "S-Sorry." she quickly apologized.
He merely nodded and placed his assortment of goods on the stand. His order was quite a load given how much he could carry without the aid of a cart. Soap, vegetables, donuts, peanuts, crackers, a dozen-layer cake and many other items had been collected.
Fluttershy sighed with relief. She was grateful that somepony she knew as well as Big Macintosh would be her first real customer of the day. Dutifully she picked up the first item and moved it to the bagging area. "Boop." She grabbed another. "Boop."
Twilight beamed with pride at her friend/employee's awesome performance. "Atta girl, Fluttershy." she thought.
Big Mac attentively watched as each item went through. He only diverted his eyes when she would speak. Slowly but surely he began to sway as he found himself entranced by her rhythmic voice. A smile came easily to him.
Twilight arched a brow. "Is he okay?"
"Boop...Boop...Boop." Fluttershy found herself grinning as well and waltzing along to his dance as she went on.
Each second she continued only heightened their joyous movement when suddenly Big Mac started to hum a song of sorts that perfectly highlighted her little tune.
"What is going on here?" Twilight thought aloud, finally waking up Spike.
The young dragon eyed the two frolicking ponies as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Huh? Am I dreaming? ...Either way I don't care!" He jumped onto the little bit of free counter space he could find and joined the dance party. He busted out his full arsenal of sick moves. The Disco Point, Moon-Walk and his signature Mirror-Muscle Admiration.
Twilight used a bit of magic to pinch herself good and hard. "Ouch! Nope, not dreaming." She shrugged. "Got room for one more?"
Sweetie Belle took shelter behind Rarity's rear legs.
"Wha- Sweetie Belle what are you doing?"
"T-Twilight's dancing!" Sweetie covered her eyes with both of her hooves.
"Oh, is that all? Daaarliing, you've seen Twilight dance d-dozens...of..." Rarity bore witness to the party of four at check-stand two. "Hmm...yes I see. Spike's Mirror-Muscle Admiration move most certainly does not fit Twilight at all."
Rarity shrugged before returning to the book she was reading. "Eh, she's happy."