Friendship is Magic Issue 82

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #82 is the eighty-second issue of IDW Publishing's. In the issue, Rarity is tasked with giving Cerberus obedience training after he leaves his post at Tartarus again.

Summary
The issue begins in Ponyville where Cerberus, after abandoning his post at Tartarus again, is causing chaos and destruction with his typical dog-like behavior. The Mane Six arrive to rein him in; among them, Rarity is the most tired and eager to get back to work at her boutique. After the ponies spend hours trying to restrain Cerberus with no success, Princess Celestia appears to help and brings him back to Tartarus' gates. With Cerberus leaving his guard post more often, Celestia asks one of the Mane Six to give him obedience lessons.

However, Fluttershy is busy helping the forest animals stay cool in the summer heat, Twilight Sparkle is busy with important research, Applejack is busy with her family's midsummer harvest, Pinkie Pie is busy with foal-sitting duty, and Rainbow Dash is busy supervising Wonderbolt training. Rarity says she is busy filling an order for one of her customers, but Pinkie points out that she has until Hearth's Warming Eve to complete the order. Because she is not as busy as her friends, Rarity begrudgingly agrees to train Cerberus.

The next morning, Rarity meets with the excitable and easily distracted Cerberus and attempts to train him to be more obedient and calm. Unfortunately, her only experience in dealing with animals is as a cat owner, and her techniques and cat toys fail to tame Cerberus. At the end of the day, after being dragged around by Cerberus' leash, she meets with her friends and vents about her stressful task. Fluttershy points out that Cerberus is an intelligent creature and that his job of sitting around all day guarding Tartarus is probably very boring.

Rarity refuses to admit defeat in her assigned task, but by the next day, she reaches her wit's end with Cerberus' constant unruliness. When Cerberus expresses interest in playing catch, Rarity harshly scolds him for refusing to follow orders, and she leaves after hurting his feelings. She goes to Fluttershy's cottage to beg her to train Cerberus for her, but a swarm of fireflies informs her that Fluttershy is not home.

Just then, the Cutie Mark Crusaders arrive and, having heard about Rarity's job of giving Cerberus obedience training, express how much work such a task would be and their confidence in Rarity's ability to see it through. When the Crusaders compare Rarity's job of being a fashion designer to Cerberus' job of guarding Tartarus, Rarity recalls Fluttershy's words about Cerberus' job being very boring and wonders if he leaves his post in order to get some excitement and activity.

The next day, Rarity meets with Cerberus for his next session of obedience training. She apologizes to him for losing her temper and sympathizes with how boring his job gets at times. Realizing Princess Celestia picked her for this job because both she and Cerberus can overwork themselves sometimes, Rarity offers to teach Cerberus how to handle the stress and boredom of his job by taking regular mini-breaks every now and then, and the two of them play some catch.

Quotes

 * Rarity:  yaaaaaaaaawn  The nerve of some animals. Doesn't he know some of us have jobs? Ahem! Let's go get that wily, wayward pup! The faster we find him, the faster I can get back to work!


 * Rarity: Ah-ha! A hat commission for Madame Velour! She's so demanding, I'll have to sequester myself for weeks to ensure it's to her liking!
 * Pinkie Pie: Wow, that sounds like a bummer! Good thing she doesn't need it until Hearth's Warming Eve—you've got plenty of time!
 * Rarity: [sigh] Very well. When shall we start?


 * Rarity: You know what? None of that! I'm a capable pet owner—although I'm more of a "cat-pony" than a "dog-pony"—and I can surely train this pup!


 * Twilight Sparkle: Dare I ask how your day went?
 * Rarity: It. Was. The pits. Like, "the pits of Tartarus" the pits!


 * Rarity: Don't you worry! It'll take more than an overgrown puppy to defeat me!


 * Rarity: I give up! You win! What was I thinking?!


 * Rarity: Why should I throw the ball for you? You won't sit, you won't stay—all you do is chew, dig, and wreck everything you see! You. Are. A. Bad dog.


 * Sweetie Belle: I've seen you when you're working too hard. You can be a real monster yourself.


 * Rarity: I will admit, it is hard to focus on the task at hand when I'm overworked and out of sorts. Or just plain bored with the work. Which happens, dream job or no. You know what, I wonder if that's not the case for Cerberus? Like Fluttershy said, sitting all day with nothing to do but watch a door is terribly dull.


 * Rarity: You work very hard, but this isn't the most thrilling of jobs at times, is it? But no one can keep watch quite as well as you, so we'll just have to make the unfun parts of the job a little bit better for you, hmm?