“Are you sure about this, brother?” a tired, yellow unicorn asked, pulling his fair share of the wooden cart along the dirty path.
“Of course, I’m sure,” he replied from behind his red moustache, pulling the other half of the cart along, “We were bound to return to this town sooner or later.”
The younger unicorn looked up at the early morning sky as he continued to pull the heavy load behind him, “I just don’t think we’re welcome in this town anymore. We were really sent off in a huff, if I do say so myself.”
Grunting as he continued to pull, the older answered, “We’re not welcomed much anywhere, dear brother, not after the messes we’ve caused. But mark my words, we shall try to turn our luck around for the better.” He gave a hopeful smile to his brother.
“Right, for the better,” he smiled back.
Celestia’s sun had just peaked over the mountains in the distance, but all of the ponies in the Apple family were already busily moving about with in their home, getting ready for the day. They were gathered around the table in the kitchen, going over the work for that needed to be done.
“Right, so first thing we need ta get done will be feedin’ the animals, that will be mah job. Big Mac, the bales of hay need ta be brought outta the barn an’ stacked up by the cow pen. Also, a few parts of the fence need ya be fixed when yer done. After that, we gotta get our rear in gear fer our cider season next week. Granny, ah think ya just need ta make some of yer apple preserves fer the upcoming season,” Applejack was dictating instructions to the rest of her family as they ate their breakfast of apples and oats.
“Ooo! What ‘bout me?” Applebloom excitedly bounced up and down in place.
“Hmm,” the orange mare thought for moment, “well, we do need somepony to open up the gate from last night.”
“Aww, but that sounds borin’ compared ta what ya’ll are doin’,” Applebloom replied with her mouthful, causing bits of food to fly out of her mouth.
Granny Smith placed a hoof on the yellow filly, “How ‘bout when yer done with that, ya can help me by makin’ some of our famous apple butter? Ya can’t say that’s borin’, now can ya?”
“No ma’am!” the filly brightly beamed as she left the table and trotted away. Once she past through the front door and was outside, Applebloom galloped quickly down to the front of Sweet Apple Acres. Her red mane and pink bow trailed behind her as she quickly arrived at the gate. Humming to herself, she opened up the gate up and locked it in place. After doing so, she noticed that there were two yellow unicorns sitting behind a wooden stall that had been set up on the other side of the dirt path.
One of them waved to her with a nervous, but polite smile, “Hello there, little filly.”
Applebloom stared at the two stallions for a few moments before turning back around to gallop full speed back towards the house. “APPLEJACK!” she shouted as she raced back.
The unicorn turned to the other, “Was it something I said?”
Going as fast as her young legs would carry her, Applebloom hurried right back into the kitchen of the house. The entire way, she continued to shout her sister’s name.
By this time, the rest of the family knew she was coming back solely by her yelling. When she entered the kitchen, Applebloom was lively and was hard for anypony to understand.
“Whoa, Applebloom, what’s the matter?” Applejack asked as her little sister entered.
In one single breath, Applebloom answered, “Iwentdowntoopenthegateandthenthereweretwounicornsdowntherewho-“
The filly was cut off by her sister placing a hoof on her mouth, “Start over, and speak calmly, no pony can follow ya when ya talk like that.”
Taking in a deep breath, Applebloom started over, “Ah went down ta open the gate like ya asked, but when ah got there, they were two yellow unicorns with a wooden stall outside the fence!”
“Two yellow unicorns?” Applejack asked herself.
“It’s them Flim Flam ponies again! Come back ta steal our business!” Granny Smith shouted as she slammed her hoof on the table! We gotta get down there and drive them out yet again!”
With this surprising news, the entire Apple family was quick to leave the table and head down to the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. Upon arriving, it was just as Applebloom had said: it was the Flim Flam brothers behind the stall, seeming to be selling something.
Applejack trotted right up to the stall and hit her hoof down in anger, “Jus’ what in Equestria do ya think you two are doin’?”
Big Mac followed suit and trotted up to the small wooden stall, “Ya got a lotta nerve shown yer faces ‘round these parts.”
Trembling, Flim was first to speak up, “It’s now what it seems, honest! We have no intention of doing what we have done in the past.”
“Horseapples! We know what kind of tricks you two use ta make a profit! Cutting corners, being sneaky, and driving honest, hard-working ponies out of business! It’s disgraceful!” Granny Smith shouted at the two unicorns, “The two of ya should be ashamed of yerselves!”
“Yeah!” Applebloom added in for good measure.
Flam finally spoke up, also shaking like his brother, “We know we should be ashamed of ourselves, and we are!”
“Darned right ya are!” Applejack spoke before she really understood what he said, “Wait, what’d ya say?”
“I said we are ashamed of what we did,” Flam restated, still shaken from the shouting from the Apple family.
“That’s why we stopped being traveling salesponies for a while and tried our hoof at other occupations,” Flim continued off his brother’s statement.
“Ya did what now?” Granny Smith asked.
Flam answered, “We understood what we were did was awful, tricking others for our own personal gain, so we quit that lifestyle and tried carpentry.”
His brother spoke, “Most ponies prefer goods that are made with one’s hooves, not magic, so we then tried baking.”
“It was then I learned I can’t cook anything to save my life. So then we tried beekeeping,” the other brother continued.
“Turns out I’m allergic to bee stings, so that didn’t go well. Basically, we’ve tried everything we could, but we now realize that we were best as salesponies. But we obviously didn’t want to do what we had done in the past,” Flam explained.
“So we came to the conclusion, we would continue traveling and selling cider, but instead of using our magic, we would make our product by hoof,” Flim finished the explanation.
“So, ya really changed?” Applebloom asked.
The brothers nodded in unison.
“Are ya sure?” the filly edged on, raising an eyebrow.
They nodded again, with Flam adding, “As sure as Celestia’s sun rises in the east.”
“Well, excuse me fer havin’ mah doubts,” Applejack crossed her hooves at the statement.
The Flim Flam brothers gave each other an uneasy expression. They were expecting some opposition when coming to Ponyville, but they were hoping for some sort of forgiveness.
“We give you our word, we have changed for the better, “Flim pleaded.
Big Mac spoke his skepticism, “Yer word don’t carry much weight ‘round these parts.”
“Perhaps they should taste the product for them to understand our intentions are pure,” Flam insisted. Taking a mug down from the cart, he filled it with the apple cider from the one barrel upon the old beaten up cart next to their stall. After filling it up, the unicorn placed it on the wooden surface of the stall for anypony to take.
Cautiously, Big Mac took the mug and had a sip. Taking a moment to thoroughly taste the liquid, he nodded. “It’s high quality, ah’d even say it might even rival ours,” the red stallion said, taking another drink.
An expression of delight appeared on the unicorn brothers.
“Really, Big Mac? How can ya say that ‘bout these two con artists?” Applejack scolded her brother.
“I am telling you, we are no longer such. You can ask anypony in Vanhoover, Coltland, and even in Appolossa, we are strictly honest salesponies now,” Flim claimed, “We care about our product, not about profit.”
“We even do our cider making by hoof now,” Flam added.
Granny Smith spoke up, “Do ya now? All yer cider done by the two of ya?”
Flam nodded, “That’s correct, ma’am. After we lost to you, we understood that while you can mass-produce a product, you can’t mass-produce the love and care that you put into yours. We’ve been doing our best to use the same practices that your family used in besting us.”
“It might have given us significantly less cider to sell, it’s all worth it to see the happiness on our customer’s faces,” Flim gave a small smile.
“Gimme a mug of cider so ah can test yer product ya’ll claim to be proud of,” Granny ordered. Within moments, she was given a mug filled with cider. She took her time to examine it visually, “Hmm….has a strong an’ bold scent to it, very good….very foamy at the top, the way it’s supposed ta since ya just poured it….”
Flim and Flam looked at each other for a moment before the mustached brother asked, “Aren’t ya….gonna taste it?”
“In time! A pony’s gotta judge everythin’ ‘bout the cider their gonna drink,” Granny Smith insisted as she continued to judge the beverage, “The cider is deep brown in color and seems ta be freshly made.” Finally, she took a sip of the cider, “Well, how ‘bout that? It certainly is tastin’ the way cider should be. This here is a darn good cup a cider, if ah say so, boys.”
Applejack was still not convinced, “Ah don’t care if ya two say yer all better now or whatever, ah still can’t forgive ya fer the way ya acted back then.”
“We understand, Applejack,” Flim stated, “but won’t you at least take a mug of cider as a peace offering?”
The orange mare was still sour with her hooves crossed.
Filling up a fresh mug of cider, Flim placed it on the surface of the stall, “Come on, one mug, on the house.”
Sighing, Applejack gave in and took a sip of the cider. The sip became a larger drink of the liquid. “Ah gotta say, that was a well made cider the two of ya’ll made,” Applejack wiped the liquid off her mouth, “Maybe there’s still hope fer the two of ya after all.”
A wave of relief washed over the Film Flam brothers as Applejack finished her mug of cider. “Thank you, Applejack,” both of the brothers said in unison.
Placing the mug back down on the stall, the orange pony spoke up with a determined grin, “Now, with cider season jus’ ‘round the corner, ah’m fine with some friendly competition. Jus’ don’t expect the Apple family ta go easy on ya!”
The brothers smiled and Flim spoke, “We wouldn’t expect it any other way.”
END
