//------------------------------//
// Strictly Business 
// Story: Applejack Through the Ages 
// by Paradise Oasis 
//------------------------------//

Strictly Business

So you were a big help to Sweetberry at the bakery?

Yes child, but I was an even bigger help to her with that daughter of hers. With me playing babysitter for Honeyberry, her mother was freed up to work more on business matters, and she didn't have to waste time on frivolous things like playing with her daughter, or being a mother, or any nonsense like that. She could then use her valuable time to the all-important task of acquiring more profit...

Apple Pie was working in the kitchen, cutting apples and putting the soft crust on the pie,  when she heard the bell above the bakery’s door ring. Looking out into the store section, she saw a pink stallion and a white stallion, both with rainbow manes, trot into the bakery.

"Mr. Barrington! Mr. Meadowsweet! Welcome!" Sweetberry welcomed the two of them, stepping out from behind the counter. "Please, do come in! I'm really eager to get down to business!"

Apple Pie went back to work, but she couldn't help overhearing the conversation between the three ponies sitting in the other room, and drinking coffee and having donuts. Mr. Barrington she knew, the stallion who had been in here the other day to tell Sweetberry her new van was ready. But this other pink stallion, a farmer who owned a parcel of land just outside of Coltonville, he was knew to Apple Pie. As the mare put the pie she had been baking into the oven, she heard the three's conversation continue.

"So you see, Mr. Meadowsweet, if I could get the ingredients for my pies from your farm exclusively- at a discounted price, or course- and I'm sure that would help your business out extraordinarily!" Sweetberry offered. "And I'm sure we could find an extra shelf to sell your wife's homemade pies to our customers on!"

"That sounds like an excellent plan, Miss Sweetberry!" Mr. Meadowsweet replied, nodding his head in agreement. "Why my boy Corny can even help you loading up your van when you come next week!"

"Count my boy Logan in on helping, too!" Mr. Barrington agreed, taking a sip of his coffee. "He'll always drop whatever he's doing to make an extra dollar besides his allowance!"

"Thank you for bringing Mr. Meadowsweet here to my bakery, Mr. Barrington!" Sweetberry thanked him, bowing her head gratefully. "This could turn out to be very profitable for all of us."

"Oh yes, this could be quite profitable for all of us." Mr. Barrington agreed, rubbing his chin with his hoof thoughtfully. "Say I wonder if we could expand our business even further by contacting..."

As Apple Pie continued to listen, she could only think of how... obsessed these ponies were with profit, with the gathering of material wealth, more than any kind of happiness or friendship or concern for thier families. Now, she herself had been all for making a profit back in her day, but that was always to make life better for her family. These three only seemed to care about making more money simply for the money's sake, not a means to an end. She even wondered how much say the two boys had in the work thier fathers 'volunteered' them for, and what she might be able to do to help make their lives easier...

"Those poor colts! Were you able to help them? What about Sweetberry?

"Well sugar cube, the opportunity to assist them came not long after. But it was not exactly the way I would have wanted it.

"Happy Birthday, Honeyberry!" Apple Pie exclaimed with a smile, handing her a carefully wrapped box. "Go ahead, open it!"

With a big grin on her face, the little filly quickly tore the wrapper off with her flexible hooves (a trait republic ponies have, which their Equestrian cousins do not), and eagerly threw off the box lid. As she gazed into the box, Honeyberry's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Oh wow, a diamond encrusted hairbow!" The little filly squealed in delight, fixing the bedazzled bow in her mane. "Thank you so much, Apple, I totally love it!"

"I thought you might." Apple Pie replied, a soft smile on her face. "it belonged to my little sister, it was one of her favorites."

"You have little sister?" The filly asked in surprise, looking back at the blue mare. "It musta been hard leaving her back in Equestria when you emigrated here."

"I actually helped bring her up, just like my big brother helped bring me up when I was a filly." Apple Pie replied sadly, looking away. "I really miss them both so much.."

As the two were celebrating the filly's birthday inside, Mr. Meadowsweet had just left Sweetberry off across the street, and she was walking back towards the bakery. But it wasn't her dear daughter's birthday on her mind, but rather a new business deal that was brewing in her thoughts that kept the mare busy.

"If I can just get my bakery advertised on PTV, I'll be up to my muzzle in customers!" She thought gleefully thought to herself. But it's going to cost a lot of jangles to get a television celebrity like Dazzle to promote my products-"

Her mind was so preoccupied with her business, that the mare never saw the swerving car barreling down the street towards her. She never saw the drunken stallion behind the wheel swerving at the last second to try and avoid her. The last thing that Sweetberry saw was the headlights of the speeding vehicle bearing down on her, and the poor mare was frozen in place before them.

*SCCCCRRRRRRRRRRREEEEECCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  CRASH!*

"Huh?" Honeyberry asked in confusion. "What was that that noise?"

"It came from outside." Apple Pie replied, as the two looked towards the door. "sounds like a car accident!"

The two ponies rushed outside, and were greeted by the sight of a red station wagon smashed up against an electric pole beside the shop. But as Honeyberry looked over towards the front of the car, she saw a familiar pink mane lying just in front of the wheel, with a small steam of blood leaking away from the wrecked auto, and flowing down the storm drain on the curb.

"Mama..." The little filly cried in terror, starting to rush over to the downed pony. "MAMA!"

"No, don't look!"  Apple Pie yelled, grabbing the filly, ad stopping her from running over to the grisly scene. "Don't look, sugar cube... you don't need to see that."

As pony bystanders gathered to gawk and sirens began to blare in the background, a lone filly and mare stood looking on holding each other and crying as the whole cold and unfeeling world around them seems to close in...