Episode 11: "The Great Manehattan Clothing Wars"
…
As the owner of a franchise, Rarity had achieved the dream she'd long desired to have: That of a fashion empire. As a princess and a businesspony, she always did everything that was within her power to maintain those dreams as she continued to eye the possibility of expansion. However, her reputation and her integrity was to be challenged in more ways than one thanks to the return of an unexpected rival in Manehattan.
It all started one morning when Fluttershy was paying a visit to Rarity's Manehattan boutique to help oversee the operations, as well as check in with the boutique's newest manager.
"Well, my dear Blue Bobbin," Rarity commented as Blue Bobbin stood behind the cash register. "I must say your ability to run my Manehattan store is satisfactory. Coco made the right decision to bring you onboard."
"Thanks, Rarity," Blue Bobbin replied with a bow. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
"Well, there's nopony with a deeper fascination for fashion than you." Fluttershy remarked as she entered the boutique.
Blue Bobbin blushed.
"So, now that you've completed your first week as the new manager of Rarity for You," Rarity declared, pulling out a clipboard with her aura. "Let's discuss some of the benefits you shall receive. A ten percent increase in pay for the first year as manager. After that, if you continue to enforce the Rules of Rarity that I created, we shall move your pay up to twenty percent."
"It really doesn't matter if I get more pay, Rarity," Blue Bobbin smiled. "I mean…I'm sure that you want me to be a fantastic manager, but don't forget about the other associates here. I couldn't get a thing done without them."
Looking out, Rarity saw some of her salesponies waiting on various customers as well as making sure her creations looked presentable to the paying customer.
"Um…Blue Bobbin, sweetie," The fashionista chuckled. "I get that you're being mindful of your teammates, but some of them may not have me as their personal career choices."
"Unlike somecreatures," Fluttershy added, taking note of Smoky and Smoky, Jr, two of the three raccoons that worked as attendants, serving food and drink to the customers. "I mean…you have these three hard workers helping you out."
The three raccoons chittered at what their friend said.
As they were talking however, a random female earth pony quietly snuck up behind Fluttershy and took notice of her tail. Without making her presence known, she took a pair of scissors with her teeth and cut off a small lock of Fluttershy's tail, before attempting to sneak her way out of the boutique. Unfortunately, she tripped over a stand base causing her cover to be nearly blown with a yelp!
"Oh, are you all right, miss?" Rarity asked while turning to the mare.
"O-oh yes, yes! Sorry, excuse me!" The mare stammered before making her way out the door. As she left, Rarity took notice that she had several strands of pink mane in her mouth.
Right away, Rarity began to grow suspicious. Something was amiss.
"Um, Rarity?" Blue Bobbin asked, tapping on the counter and catching Rarity's attention away from the door. "Don't you have anything else to mention about benefits?"
"Oh, yes! Do forgive me, Blue Bobbin," Rarity nervously chuckled while getting back to the task at hoof. "Of course."
But she still had her suspicions that she kept in the back of her mind. Something was not right with that mare.
…
…
Leaving Rarity for You, the earth pony retreated to a shop located across the street. Stepping inside, she discovered a light purple coated earth pony mare with a purple mane tied back with a yellow hair band and a blue kerchief around her neck standing at the entrance.
"Did you get what I asked for?" She asked and the orange coated earth pony nodded that she did. "Good. I hope this cloning spell works as they say it does."
"I had to keep stealthy, Suri," The orange coated mare answered. "In fact, I almost blew my…"
"Of course you did!" Suri interrupted. Taking the lock of Fluttershy's hair from her assistant, Suri took them into the backroom of her store where a black cauldron was placed in the center of the room. "Finally, Rarity will see that I'm not to be taken lightly. I will make my own associates and bring her down!"
Suri dropped the hairs into the cauldron and stepped back, preparing to cast a spell only for her assistant to interrupt her.
"Um, Suri," The mare interrupted. "Don't you think that…?"
"Hey, I don't pay for you to interrupt me, Orange Sherbet!" Suri snapped, turning around and looking her associate in the face. "Now be quiet and meet your new colleagues!"
Saying nothing, Orange Sherbet watched as Suri recited a spell, causing a sickly green light to rise out of the cauldron.
With a sinister smile on her face, Suri watched as a pair of hooves emerged from the cauldron. "Yes, yes!" She cackled with delight as a pony in Fluttershy's likeliness came out of the cauldron, dressed in a green jacket and dress pants. The Fluttershy copy raised an eyebrow and looked at Suri with a snooty expression on her face. "It works!"
"What works?" The Fluttershy clone asked in a snooty tone of voice.
"You!" Suri laughed. "My new associate! I have brought you to life, and now you will work for me!"
"Uh huh, like that'll ever happen!" Another pony in Fluttershy likeliness spoke up. This one was dressed in a purple jacket and pink shorts while wearing a large purple hat on her head. "I mean…like… really, this place is drab!"
Then, another Fluttershy copy came out of the cauldron wearing nothing but black and had black mascara on her eyelids.
"This is the sheer drabness that engulfs my soul. I can't believe I was brought back."
"Well too bad, now listen up! You three are the ones who shall bring my business to be on par with Rarity's," Suri declared. "Snooty, Hipster and Goth, I am Suri Polomare, your boss and mistress."
The Snooty Fluttershy approached Suri and flicked her hoof on her kerchief.
"And how just are either of those things with that ridiculous drab?" She remarked. "I have seen far better couture."
"Yeah, just where did you come from?" The hipster Fluttershy remarked. "You look like somepony out of a fillies doll collection, am I right?"
Not wanting to be insulted by her creations, Suri turned to her associate.
"Perhaps you'd better leave us, Orange Sherbet," she suggested and the orange mare complied, leaving her boss and her creations alone. "You there are all here for one purpose and one purpose alone, to crush my rival…Rarity! You will obey me, or I will terminate you in employment and existence!"
"Who is this Rarity you speak of?" Snooty asked. "Is she a rogue?"
"She's more than a rogue," Suri bitterly answered, walking over to a dress form with one of her creations that she had stolen from Rarity. "She's a thorn in my flank with her taste of fame and fortune. I tried to steal her idea and that did little for me in the end, she even had the nerve to steal my assistant away from me. And now with her newfound status as a Princess as well as a competitor, the thorn is even bigger! It's high time I remove it!"
"Um, what's that to do with us? I don't really care much for thorns." Goth asked in a long drawl.
"Now that Rarity is a princess," Suri grumbled while sharply moving towards her created associates. "Everypony is applying to work for her business and not even considering me! She's going to drive me out of business and reduce me to having to live on the streets if I don't stop her. But I'm going to show her that two can play at this fashion game! Manehattan was mine long before she ever showed up, she should've stuck to Ponyville where she belonged! But since I can't find anypony to work for me, I've had to create ponies to work for me! That's where you three come in."
The three Fluttershy copies each looked at each other confusingly.
"You are to run my store and deal with all my annoying customers!" Suri demanded, leading herself and her associates out of the back room and into her office where she stood behind a desk. "But while Rarity has respect and standards that her associates have to abide by, you three shall use your personalities to drive up my sales by any means possible! Each of you shall deal with a particular kind of customer that matches with your personality."
Taking a drawn up plan, Suri placed the plan down for her Fluttershy copies to see for themselves. "Snooty, you shall deal with rich, stuck up ponies willing to place all of their bits into the most expensive product," She explained. "Hipster, you shall deal with ponies that defy order and are willing to be 'woke' as it were."
The hipster Fluttershy could only smile in delight. "Like…woke ponies is really my thing."
"And you, Goth shall reach out to the ponies who are helpless and pathetic," Suri continued. "My collection has products that will make them put a smile on their oh so pathetic faces."
"I shall be the one to rescue them from their pathetic souls." Goth declared.
"Good," Suri snickered. "Together, we shall bring Rarity to her knees and become the queens of Equestria's fashion world!"
…
Meanwhile, Rarity was at her Canterlot boutique still thinking about what had happened in Manehattan.
"I just know that Suri Polomare is out to get me, Sassy," She sighed as she worked on getting a design set up for presentation in one of her store windows. "I just know it."
"Buttons and bobbins, Rarity, you're overreacting," The Trottingham-accented mare suggested. "I mean, Suri Polomare is nothing more than a pretender. She'll never get to the level you're at."
"What makes you say that, Sassy?" Rarity remarked, taking her attention off of the dress form. "Suri Polomare is a pony who is like a leech, a cockroach who feeds off of others to grow her own ego. That mare has no originality whatsoever. I saw it for myself first hoof with the way she treated Coco. I mean, you worked for some of the best. Did they ever copy off of one another the way Sassy did, ripping off someone's entire line?"
Sassy couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable with her boss' question. Still, she found the courage to answer.
"To be honest, no. They all followed their own concepts," She nervously chuckled. "Maybe there were a few copycats…but they all quickly went out of business. Plagiarism is a major fashion no no."
"Even so, we have to make sure that whatever Suri's plans are, they're thwarted before anything gets out of hoof, Sassy!"
Rarity declared. "If she wants a war, then it's a war that Suri Polomare will have! I just know she was behind that unexpected visitor at Rarity for You. Now, do we still have any originals in the back?"
"Well, there are some of the dresses you created in honor of Celestia and Luna," Sassy answered. "However, now that they're retired and you are a princess yourself…"
"It doesn't matter, Sassy!" Rarity interrupted, running into the backroom and bringing out several of the dresses made in the previous princesses' honor. "We can sell these at a discount. I'm sure that every mare in Canterlot will want something at least as nice as this. Retro is always popular, it never fully goes out of style."
Shrugging her shoulders, Sassy begrudgingly agreed with her boss.
"Sassy, go in the back and see if there are any other unused products from a ways back we can sell, post haste!" Rarity ordered. "Perhaps with a bit of touching up if necessary.'
"Um, of course…Rarity, right away!" Sassy said, quickly racing into the back to collect any designs that looked like they could be sold at a discount.
…
…
Back at Rarity for You, Blue Bobbin went about her business of opening Rarity's Manehattan branch for another day of operation. However, she couldn't help but notice Suri's store across the street as she watched Snooty Fluttershy wiping down one of the windows.
"Blue Bobbin," An associate asked. "You've been looking out that window a lot lately. What's going on? Something on your mind?"
Blue Bobbin turned her attention to said associate.
"No, nothing! Nothing at all!" She chuckled quite nervously. "Just... make sure those displays look presentable, I'll be back shortly."
"If you say so." The associate replied as she shrugged her shoulders.
"Now, if anypony needs me," Blue Bobbin called to the other associates while walking out towards her competition. "I have… er… personal business to attend to. The rest of you just hold down the fort here."
Stepping outside, Blue Bobbin walked over to Snooty Fluttershy.
"Very presentable!" Snooty declared. "Suri shall love what I have done."
"Excuse me?" Blue Bobbin called, causing Snooty to take her eyes off of her work.
"Hmph, don't you know it's rude to sneak up behind ponies?" Snooty flounced, turning around to face Blue Bobbin.
"Um, sorry," Blue Bobbin tried to chuckle. "I'm Blue Bobbin, the new head manager of Rarity for You."
"Oh, that drab place," Snooty remarked. "I never liked it anyway. The owner is stuck up and welcomes rodents into her establishment. Rodents!"
"I'm sure Rarity isn't as stuck up as you claim," Blue Bobbin protested. "At least to me. And those 'rodents' are highly trained and highly sanitized racoons, which you would know if you ever visited. Look, I just wanted to welcome you to Manehattan and say that…"
"That you plan to be better than us?" Snooty interrupted, going back to her work. "Ha! I highly doubt that. None will be better than Suri Polomare, you can bet on that!"
Taking slightly aback by Snooty's behavior, Blue Bobbin made her way inside and saw all of the cheap knock off copies of her boss' designs being prepped by Hipster and Goth.
"Something about this seems off," Blue Bobbin whispered to herself as she studied the designs closely. "All these designs look like Rarity's, but with a Suri twist." She then eyed a stained glass like dress that looked like a sloppily made knock off of its predecessor. Seeing the dress made one thing clear to her, "Suri" was a pony who didn't care about putting any effort into her work. She would rather rip off someone else's work without even a regard for what made the design work.
"That dress is one of my most recent creations," Blue Bobbin heard a voice say behind her, revealing it to be Suri as she walked onto the floor with Orange Sherbet in tow. "Inspired by the Princess Dress created by my competition, Princess Rarity."
"Uh huh, best in the biz, right?" Hipster added, turning her attention away from her task only for Suri to clear her throat and get her back to work. "Right, MYOB."
"S-Suri," Blue Bobbin stammered with a puzzled look on her face. "I'm surprised to see you in business again, not that I have a problem with competition. Er anyway, this is a nice dress that you've made. But uh... don't you think that maybe…?"
Suri rolled her eyes.
"Maybe what? If you've got something to say to me, spit it out."
"I'm just saying that this dress looks an awful lot like my boss' dress and…" Blue Bobbin began.
"-Stop!" Suri cried, holding her hoof in front of Blue Bobbin. "Let me guess, you work for Rarity, don't you?"
Blue Robbin reluctantly confessed.
"Yes, I'm the new manager for her Manehattan boutique, recently promoted too."
"She brings in brightness to counter the drabness," Goth said as she walked by in her duties. "Watch out."
"Well, let me assure you that being a new manager means taking on a whole lot of responsibility, sweetheart," Suri explained, throwing a hoof around Blue Bobbin's shoulder. "There's a lot to learn in such a short period of time. You've got to stand out from your competition and drive that home to the associates under your command, am I right?"
However, Blue Bobbin was not buying what Suri was explaining to her. She looked around at all the clothes on display and felt as if things could be better.
"I mean, it's not like that they are following the same formula, am I right?" Suri added. "Admit it, you're shocked!"
"I'm…not shocked," Blue Bobbin stammered, plucking up courage for what she planned to say next. "It's just that…well, have you ever thought about being an original designer? You wouldn't need to steal other ponies' works, you could be successful because of your own merits."
A sour look fell onto Suri's face upon hearing those words.
"What did you say?" She bitterly remarked. "You want me to abandon what works?"
"I mean, have you ever thought about being original in your work?" Blue Bobbin suggested. "Using your own creations that come from your own heart? It's not a recipe for failure if you know what you're doing."
"Sweetheart, that's the kind of talk Rarity programmed into you. Being original only makes things worse for you instead of better," Suri sighed, showing Blue Bobbin the door. "And if you and your 'boss' are going to clash with me on that, then perhaps you'd better mosey on back to the dark side where you belong."
Suri then pushed Blue Bobbin out of the store and slammed the door, smirking smugly to her assistant, who couldn't believe what her boss had just done.
"What?" Suri remarked. "Don't tell me you believe her phony baloney ideas about being original."
"She does bring up a good…" Orange Sherbet began to suggest.
"Shut up, Orange!" Suri bellowed. "As long as you work for me you do things my way, is that clear?!"
Orange reluctantly and nervously nodded. at her boss' demand.
"Good," Suri added, before turning to her three cloned associates. "Now we open in a few minutes, everypony. Make sure everything is all set for our presentation."
Meanwhile, heading back to Rarity for You, Blue Bobbin struggled to come up with how to respond to Suri's arrogance and desire to copy her competition.
"Blue Bobbin, how did things go at Suri's?" The associate from earlier asked as Blue Bobbin walked behind the counter.
"Oh, fine, fine," Blue replied, trying to hide her displeasure and disbelief. "Great operation…just not an original clothing design."
Looking up at the clock, the time to open was upon them and she gestured to her associates to get ready for store opening as the first few customers walked in.
...
…
Back in Canterlot, Rarity and Sassy were assisting customers in seeking out desired outfits, most of them old designs from Rarity's past.
"And you say this was inspired from Princess Twilight's first gala dress?" A asked customer as she stood in the mirror, looking at herself wearing the inspired gala frock. "It definitely makes me feel like her."
"Well, I'm certainly glad to hear something like that, darling," Rarity answered with a smile. "Shall we consider that a purchase, then?"
The customer smiled back and Rarity set out getting the dress ready for purchase as another customer came out with a dress inspired by Applejack's second gala dress, while yet another customer came out with a dress inspired by Rarity's bridesmaid dresses from Cadence's wedding.
"Thank you for shopping at Canterlot Boutique," Rarity said to each customer as they left. "Come back soon!"
"I must say that these sales are going by fast," Another customer remarked as she approached the cash register. "At least you are treating them with respect and creativity…unlike that brash Suri Polomare in Manehattan."
Keeping her emotions in check, Rarity focused on her customers.
Later that same day, Rarity sat in the back room, counting up how much bits had been made.
"All right, Sassy," She spoke up. "We've made over five hundred bits in the span of six hours. Not bad so far. But we need to keep improving."
"Um, beg your pardon, Rarity," Sassy said as she noticed the shift in Rarity's tone. "But, do you have something else on your mind?"
"Only that a customer dared to mention Suri's name in one of my stores, and that she's apparently still trying to compete with me" Rarity remarked. "I mean…honestly. Why would somepony like one of my customers…?"
"Perhaps she was just making a harmless comparison," Sassy suggested. "Suri will never be better than you, Rarity. No matter how hard she tries. Perhaps with her store being in front of Rarity for You, she was only trying to increase competition to ensure she stays in business."
Rarity snorted. "Well, no matter. I'll be paying a visit to my Manehattan boutique and see to it myself that she doesn't gain the upper hoof on me! I won't allow it!"
…
Sure enough the next day, Rarity arrived in Manehattan and came to her shop to find competing against Suri's establishment. Seeing the cheap knock off copies of her designs gave her a sick feeling in her stomach.
"Hey Rarity, what's up?" Blue Bobbin called.
"Oh, just paying a business visit, Blue Bobbin," Rarity answered. "How have we been doing with the profits?"
"Sales have been up," Blue Bobbin replied as Smokey Jr. poured her and Rarity some tea. "Thanks, Smokey Jr. But, um…there's something I have to tell you, Rarity."
Immediately, Rarity's right eyebrow raised up at what Blue Bobbin had just said.
"Really, Blue Bobbin? What is it, sweetie?"
"Now don't get me wrong!" Blue Robbin flustered. "Just hear me out on this. I stopped by Suri's business two days ago out of curiosity and…"
"-Hold it, hold it, hold it!" Rarity interrupted. "You walked into Suri's store?! Why, Blue Bobbin?! Why would you do such a thing?!"
"Just to be neighborly, that's all! No harm, no foul!" Blue Bobbin confessed. "I'm only saying that Suri has room for improvement. She's not very original."
Rarity didn't buy it.
"Let me be perfectly blunt on something, Blue Bobbin," She explained. "Suri Polomare is a pony who had no room in her mind for any improvement, not even before she left Ponyville to make her own mark in the fashion world. The last thing I would ever want is for her to come in here and entice you to work for her. Would you do that to me?"
"No, I would never work for her!" cried Blue Bobbin. "I'm only saying that…"
"She tried to brainwash you?" Rarity cried out in an angry voice, slamming her hoof on the counter and causing the teacup she was drinking out of to fall on the floor and crash! "Well, we will just see about that! COME WITH ME! Sassy's not gonna get away with stealing my designs again!"
And with that, Blue Bobbin reluctantly followed Rarity out of the shop to pay Suri Polomare a visit, while Smokey Jr. was left to clean up the mess Rarity had made with her tea.
…
Storming towards her rival's store, Rarity was determined to get back at Suri for trying to supposedly "brainwash" Blue Bobbin.
"SURI POLOMARE!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, scaring everypony inside. "I KNOW YOU'RE HERE!"
"Hey, could you like chill for a second?" Hipster asked while reading a magazine from behind the counter, much to Rarity's irritation. "There are other customers in here, you know."
A few moments later, Suri appeared and walked over to Rarity.
"Well, well, well," She remarked in an obviously sarcastic tone. "If it isn't Princess Rarity herself, come to pay her competition a visit. What took you so long?"
"Don't give me that look, Suri!" Rarity snapped. "Who do you think you are trying to brainwash one of my hardworking associates into joining your ranks? Hoping to steal my designs again?"
"I never did anything of the sort," Suri replied, unfazed by Rarity's angry behavior. "She just came here on her own free will, am I right? Now, if your designs you're mad about, well I can't help it if your trade secrets aren't exactly secret now can I?"
But Blue Bobbin remained level headed and stood in between the two fashion mares.
"Look, before things get out of hoof," She spoke up "I only came here because I know that you can do better, Suri. All these cheap knock offs of Rarity's designs. It's going to bring you down and not up!"
Suri just narrowed her eyes at the statement.
"Who do you think you are?!" She snapped. "Telling me that my practices are going to bring me down! Ha, look around you, sweetheart…"
"Don't you go insulting my hardworking employees, Polomare!" Rarity snapped back. "You've always been unoriginal in your designs, and selling them at dirt cheap prices. I mean, look at this one for example."
Rarity then trotted over to a gown similar to what Twilight had worn for her second coronation not too long ago. Except rather than being blue colored, it was red colored.
"What do you call this, huh?! The 'Blame in Stain? '" She cried out. "Look at this! No care went into this design, and you are selling it at a low price. You're pathetic."
"So what?" Suri remarked, feeling unamused as she turned her back on her rival. "As long as it sells I don't really care."
"So what?!" Rarity shrieked, stamping her hoof down and trying to get Suri's attention. "You only went into this business just to make me look bad! You think that by ripping off my designs you'll somehow prove that they aren't good. Well, I'll have you know that I happen to be a Princess of Equestria, and I can make a decree that you be shut down…PERMANENTLY! So either you start being original, or you can be out of work."
"Hah! I'd like to see you try," Suri huffed, plastering a smug smile on her face. "Go ahead, try and shut me down for good! I'm not afraid. I'm tough, I'll survive. I have before. After all, it's everypony for herself in this town. And that means you gotta do whatever it takes to survive."
Not wanting to waste her time any longer, Rarity left with Blue Bobbin following behind.
…
"Rarity, I thought that…" Blue Bobbin tried to explain as they walked into the store.
"Blue Bobbin, I forbid you from ever setting hoof in that store!" Rarity ordered. "That pony tried to brainwash you into joining her ranks and I will not stand for it!"
"But, I tried to make her see the error of her ways," Blue Bobbin sadly protested, causing Rarity to turn around and face her. "I know there's potential in her, Rarity. If not for her, maybe for that one associate of hers that follows her around."
"Blue Bobbin," Rarity sighed, her voice lowering a little as she placed a hoof on her employee's shoulder. "I'm sorry for shouting, but you have to understand that Suri is a pony who simply can't be changed. There are many promising pony like myself who have a passion for fashion, but if I am to set a good example for my subjects, yourself included, then I have to put an end to her business practices before they have a chance to corrupt anyone else or set a bad example. I wish there was another way to do this, but there isn't it."
Blue Bobbin couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for both her boss and her rival. But she had to understand that Rarity was not just her boss, but also her princess.
And one morning a few days later, Suri and her associates arrived at their boutique only to find it boarded up with a notice on the board where her door was once located: BY ORDER OF PRINCESS RARITY OF EQUESTRIA, THIS BUSINESS IS HEREBY SHUT DOWN FOR FALSE BUSINESS PRACTICES!
Angered, Suri could only glare at her rival's store. "I'll be back, Princess Rarity!" Suri snarled, stamping her hoof down. "And you will be sorry that you ever shut me down in this city! You hear me?! I WILL BE BACK!"
"Uh, yeah, of course we'll be back!" Hipster remarked in a nonchalant tone. "Like, we don't back down easily, right?"
"Oh shut up," Suri remarked quietly at Hipster Fluttershy.
Later that day in Ponyville, Rarity picked up a copy of the Foal Free Press in front of Carousel Boutique with Suri's picture on the Front Cover and the byline reading that she vowed to return.
"Like that's ever going to happen, Ms. Polomare," Rarity chuckled. "If there's one thing I despise the most, it's cheap knockoffs."
Shutting her door, Rarity continued to take in delight of what she had used her power as a princess for: To put an end to, at least in her mind, Suri Polomare's plagiarizing practices in the world of Equestrian fashion.
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@twilightsparkle3562 Sorry to say it, but you made some mistakes. A couple of times, Suri was referred to as Sassy, and there were a few spelling errors. I don't know if they can be edited at this point. I also feel that Rarity was a bit too abrasive in this chapter. I am also surprised that Rarity and her employee never pointed out that Suri had made clones of Fluttershy. This chapter wasn't particularly bad by any means, but it seems weak compared to the previous ones. Don't sweat it. Almost everyone hits a bump in the road somewhere. I see potential if you are to continue the subplot with Suri, and I hope you can learn from this to double check your work for spelling, grammar, or other errors before posting. One thing I did like was seeing Rarity actually use her status as one of the land's rulers to actually enforce her integrity and keep others from copying her work, though again,, I feel she went a bit too far with it. I actually side with Blue Bobbin here. I don't think Rarity had to close the store down. Hopefully this subplot is continued somewhere down the line.
Anyway, you still have my support of your work. I am looking forward to the later chapters. Since you keep switching the order around, might I ask what you (currently) plan to publish next week?
You just never learn, do you, Suri? Maybe the notice will be enough to make you realize Rarity is out of your league.
Finally managed to catch up on the fic.
Didn't expect that the 3 personas Fluttershy made up when handling one of Rarity's places are now back in form of clones.
Pretty interesting. I do wonder where Suri got that cloning spell, would be a bit funny in seeing Chrysalis's reaction to that later on.
A bit odd that Rarity didn't find something strange with Suri's 3 new "employees" with them being clones of Fluttershy.
Wonder if Grogar would end up taking advantage of those the girls thwarted such as Suri or Lightning Dust?
Yeah, this wasn't a bad episode, but not as good as the previous ones either. On one hoof, the exchanges, general wrap-up and future chapter set-up are well done, as were most of the characterizations. On the other hand, considering the effort Suri is going to just to push Rarity's buttons, it IS understandable that Rarity would be more than a little upset, but she might have taken it too far. And, creating clones based on three of Fluttershy's alter egos? Not only is she ripping off Rarity, She is ripping off much nastier and more competent villains too (even if, to be fair, Suri's attempt at the cloning scheme at least had more logic behind it than Chrysalis's attempt, especially with the jobs the clones were assigned). That's TWO counts of Bullying A Dragon. And, yeah, I DID enjoy Blue Bobbin's attempts to at least reason with Suri, even if Suri absolutely refused to listen. And, yeah, I am surprised that neither Rarity nor Blue reported Suri to the Royal Guards for creating Fluttershy clones without permission. I would think that would get Suri at least a couple of years in a medium security prison (not Tartarus, as Suri is NOWHERE NEAR dangerous enough for THAT, but at least a medium security prison).
That being said, while it was a weak episode compared to previous ones, it still wasn't bad by any means and I will still be looking forward to more of this.
I do wonder if Grogar will recruit Suri and the Bad Shy’s for his cause?
10261309
Probably not. Suri doesn't seem to be competent enough to get Grogar's attention in a positive way.
On the other hoof, it's not outside the realm of the possible, but Grogar would have to SERIOUSLY upgrade Suri for her to be ANY real use. Perhaps if he could find the Alicorn Amulet. We know what it would do for a unicorn, but what about a Pegasus or an Earth pony?
For Pegasi, the Amulet would probably increase their flying speed and weather skills.
For Earth ponies, the Amulet would probably greatly increase their strength and durability and possibly grant a telepathic link with plants and animals and geokinetic abilities.
And, yeah, it might be darkly amusing seeing "Mean Fluttershy" playing Drill Sergeant Nasty/Bullying Big Sister on her three "younger sisters".
Of course, on the other hand/hoof, it might be entertaining seeing Suri actually refusing Grogar, giving a line pretty similar to Eddie Valentine in the Rocketeer: "I might not make an honest bit, but I'm one hundred percent Equestrian.".
But, yeah, seeing a few of the smaller scale villains get an offer from Grogar and refusing (either out of Even Evil Has Standards, Pragmatic Villainy [i.e. being Genre Savvy enough to KNOW Grogar and his Legion are going to lose in the end and NOT wanting to add "high treason" to their list of charges] or a combination of both) could be good to see.
10262020 Again, you just gave me an idea for a possible future episode involving the Alicorn Amulet.
10263739
Is the next episode going to focus on Flurry Heart?
10271301. No, rockhoof.
10271485
The episode list said Flurry Heart is next on episode 12th.