//------------------------------// // The Mail // Story: CMC: Chocolate Bar Salesponies! // by Crazy Chocolate //------------------------------// It was a boring Sunday morning at the Carousel Boutique, and Sweetie Belle was waiting for her package to come in the mail. She had been waiting what seemed like days, or months, or years! No, it was days, she thought to herself. She was expecting her jetpack to come in the mail any of these days now. She had ordered it a week ago from an ad in one of Spike's Power Ponies comics, which advertised a jetpack to be shipped to your home in four to eight days for the low low price of only 20 bits! Apple Bloom had been skeptical, so had Rarity, Spike, and Apple Jack, but Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle decided to take the risk and split the price, each pitching in 10 bits and mailing it to the listed address. Sweetie Belle waited eagerly every morning to see if they got it in the mail yet. Derpy Hooves dropped off the mail, but she did not have any large heavy packages with her, only letters and a few magazines. Sweetie Belle was disappointed, to say the least. It was the seventh day now! Next morning was the last morning it could arrive before being proven a hoax. Sweetie Belle was surprised to hear the bell from the front door, before she remembered she was expecting Scootaloo and Apple Bloom to drop by. "Hey, Sweetie Belle," greeted her pegasus friend, "did it come yet?" "Nah, just a bunch of letters and stuff." "Anything good?" asked Apple Bloom. "Haven't checked yet. let me see..." She skimmed through the pile of papers, tossing the ones that didn't interest her onto the floor behind her. "Junk mail, junk mail, junk mail, Opalescence, Opalescence, Rarity, Rarity, Rarity, HEY, a magazine!" Apple Bloom read the cover. "What the hay is... 'Entrepreneur's Digest?' I've never heard of it before." "Let's find out, shall we?" announced Scootaloo as she ripped the magazine from Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo proceeded to flip through the magazine, mostly looking at the pictures. She came across a picture of a tan unicorn stallion in fancy clothes standing in front of his golden mansion. "Whoa! This pony has a solid gold house!" "No way, lemme see!" proclaimed the others in unison. They looked over and saw another picture of a huge swimming pool with a kiddie swimming pool inside of it. "He has a swimming pool, IN a swimming pool!" noted Apple Bloom. "Look! That guy has shoes!" Sweetie Belle said, probably with more enthusiasm than she expected. Her friends looked at her strangely. "What? They're nice shoes!" Rarity walked into the room, still with her evening gown and her blindfold on her forehead from last night. "Sweetie Belle, did you get the mail yet?" She looked closer and saw her sister and her little friends reading her magazine. "WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING MY THINGS? I THOUGHT I MADE IT CLEAR NOT TO GO RUMMAGING THROUGH MY THINGS!" "Sorry, we were just curious!" apologised Sweetie Belle. She was practically cowering at her sister. "Well, I suppose I was a little harsh, it is just a magazine after all. It's not like you were opening my letters... were you?" Rarity seemed highly concearned. "No, we didn't! I swear! Pinkie promise!" She made the gesture. "Um, Rarity, what the hay is an entrepreneur anyways?" Apple Bloom interrupted. Rarity's mood instantly turned from concearned to pleasantly suprised. She was glad to see her sister and her friends possibly interested in business. "Oh, an entrepreneur is somepony who sells things to ponies, like me, or your sister Apple Jack." "What kind of things?" inquiried Scootaloo. "You know, stuff ponies want to buy." Rarity levitated the magazine and the letters her sister left on the floor and walked away twoards her room with them. "You two thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Scootaloo. All three fillies jumped in the air and screamed in unison. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: ENTREPRENEUR SALESPONIES!" "So, what are we going to sell?" Apple Bloom inquired. "Um... apples?" suggested Sweetie Belle. ""No... I'm not good at selling apples. I've tried. And I don't think AJ would be too happy about us mooching off of her market." "Ok, think, if you could have anything in the world, RIGHT NOW, what would it be?" "Our cutie marks?" asked Apple Bloom. "More time to think of ideas?" added Scootaloo. "No, something real, an item, something you would PAY for..." Sweetie Belle started rubbing her chin with her hoof to help her think. Apple Bloom did the same. After a few seconds, she said "A... chocolate bar?" She seemed unsure, as if she was worried it was a stupid answer. "That's perfect! We can become chocolate bar salesponies!" Sweetie Belle liked this idea. She liked it a lot. "But wait," asked Scootaloo, "where are we going to get all of the chocolate bars?" "We'll buy a bunch from the store, and just sell em for a bit more than we bought it!" suggested Apple Bloom. "Yeah, I think that'll work, but how are we going to sell 'em?" Scootaloo inquired. Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin again. "Hmm... we could sell door to door?" Apple Bloom looked quickly at Sweetie Belle, then looked quickly at Scootaloo. "Cutie Mark Crusaders, I think we have ourselves a business plan."