Author's Note

Good Day everyone, this is my first submission to this site. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 1

Flim

Life became extremely tough after those incidents at Ponyville. Our names became well known throughout Equestria, but for all the bad reasons. Everywhere my brother and I went, everypony knew who we were, and would usually drive us out of town. What places let us stay, the ponies there would never purchase our wares, and would treat us terribly. We get charged twice the bits a different pony would pay for goods and services, and ponies constantly give these looks. We did the best we could, selling off anything we had. Utensils, spare clothes, even our wagon, we sold them all. We had enough bits to last a few weeks, so we had to think up of something before then. We're both intelligent stallions, I was sure we would have come up of something by then. But then, Flam started to develop a cough.

We thought it was just a simple cough, but it wouldn't go away. It got worse, and worse, and after a few days, he barely had the strength to get out of bed. I stood by his side as he laid in bed, ragged of breath, and in a cold sweat. He had a terrible fever, and he was looking pale. "What can I do?" I said to myself, "Our funds are running low, and we still haven't come up with anything." My brother broke into a violent coughing fit, and I decided to go see a doctor. Flam was in no condition to get out of bed, so I had to get the doctor to come here. I took our bag of bits, and set it on my back. "I'll be right back brother, I'm going to get a doctor."

I ran out the door of our run down room at the inn, and past the front desk. But before I could get out the door, the Innkeeper spotted me. "Hey Scim Scam! your weekly payment is late again! If you don't get it in to me by tomorrow, I'm kickin' you crooks out!" Flim stopped in his tracks. I knew upsetting the Innkeeper meant risking another payment increase, so I had to swallow my pride.

I turned around to face him with a forced smile, "Of course good sir! We'll be right on that sir! I just need to go and pick up a few things in town, and I'll be right back!" The Innkeeper seemed satisfied with my response, so I ran out the building and went straight to the hospital.

I got to the hospital, and saw it was completely empty. "Thank goodness, the doctor can take care of Flam right away." I ran into the doctor's office and saw her balancing a pencil on her nose. "Doctor please, you gotta help me!" My outburst surprised her, causing her pencil to jump off her nose.

"Oh! Yes! What do you nee-" She then noticed who it was in front of her, and started looking at papers on her desk. "I'm sorry, but I'm very busy today. You'll have to come back another time."

She was clearly lying to me. "Doctor, please! My brother is horribly sick! He needs medical attention right away!" "And like I said, I'm very busy! I have more important matters to attend to then help a pair of thieves!" It was clear she didn't want to help me, but my brother desperately needs medical care, and I was willing to do anything to get it. I swallowed my pride once more. I begged and pleaded, I repeatedly told her of My brother's condition, I promised to pay her any price necessary. And after twenty minutes, she finally cracked, and begrudgingly agreed to help him.

The doctor looked over Flam, gave him a full inspection. The entire time, she had a serious look on her face the entire time, which worried me deeply. I spoke up, "Well? Will my brother be alright?"

The doctor put her tools away and faced me, "Can we speak outside?" My worry only got grew. What did she have to say? Once we were outside the room, she spoke,"Your brother has a serious fever, and is suffering from malnutrition." It's true. In order to save bits, we bought the cheapest food we could find. And even then, stall owners usually gave us the lowest quality products they had. But I was glad it wasn't anything dire. "Then, can you help him?"

"Yes, but the medicine won't be cheap." She pulled out a pencil and some paper, and started writing on it. "The price of the medicine, as well as the price of today's service, as well as a requested home visit."

Flim looked at the piece of paper, and saw the price. "What! W-we can't possibly afford to pay that much! There has to be another way!"

"I'm sorry, but that's the price. I can't compromise about it." With that, she walk away, leaving me standing there dumbfounded.

As I walked back through the door, I felt an overwhelming sense of defeat. I thought to myself, "Why? Why is it like this? Sure, my brother and I scammed a few ponies, but we never hurt anypony. My brother's life is in danger, and we can't even get some basic medical care!" I stood over Flam, who took a few minutes to notice me.

He struggled to speak, "w-well? what did...the doctor...say?" His eyes were barely open, and he could barely speak. His face was filled with pain and sorrow.

I wasn't sure what to say. "She...she said you'll be alright. You just need a few weeks to recover."

His expression eased up a little. "that...that's good." He immediately fell asleep.

Looking at him lying there, I felt my resolve strengthening. "Flam, I promise, I'll make the bits needed to make you better. I'll work, and work, and work, and work until I can't work anymore. I'll make you better." With that, I ran out the door again. I ran through the hall, and through the front lobby.

The Innkeeper saw me again "Hey! Scim Scam! You said you'd have the bits by now!" But I had no time to listen, I ran straight through the door.

I went all over town, going place to place, begging every business I could to hire me. I was willing to work for next to nothing. I was willing to work around the clock, to work straight through the night. All I needed was a source of income, something, anything to make bits. Finally, after asking almost everypony, the owner of a construction company finally hired me. I was in his office, which was more just a wooden shack with a desk and a few chairs, while he explained the details. "Alright, you'll be part of clean up. That means you're gonna clear up all the rubble and materials that need to be removed. You'll receive a ten minute lunch break, and will be working for two bits an hour, and if I hear anything about you from the other workers, you can kiss your job goodbye. Are we clear?"

I responded enthusiastically, "Yes sir! Of course sir! Thank you sir!"

"Then you start tomorrow. Come by here first thing in the morning, and we'll head to the construction sight."

"Yes sir! Thank you sir!" Things began looking up. I found myself a job, and I'll work hard every day to pay for Flam's medicine. I got back to the Inn and ran right for our room. "Hey Scim Scam! where's your payme-" Before he could finish, I ran right past him, throwing the correct amount of bits on the desk. I took my bag off, and went straight to bed. "I'll need to be well rested if I wanna get my pay tomorrow." I drifted off to sleep, and dreamt of Flam and I traveling the road together, him being healthy and well.

I woke up the next morning, even before the sun came up, and made my way to the company. There, I saw a group of burly colts, all huddled around a wagon. The boss was on top, talking to them all. "Alright, let's get movin'. Hey new guy! You're late!" He looked right at me.

"Yes sir, I'm so sorry sir!" With that, everypony started getting on, while others started harnessing themselves to the front. I walked up to the wagon, and before I could get on, one of the workers stopped me.

"Woah there skinny, we got a rule around here. New guy's gotta be a runner. So get yourself strapped up." All the other workers started snickering, including the boss. It was clear that there was nothing I could do.

"right away…" I struggled to get myself strapped in, and once I did, the boss started yelling.

"C'mon new guy! We're losing time because of you!" "Yes sir, I'm sorry sir!" I was never an athletic colt, but with this team, I should have been alright. We started moving. After a while, I noticed something strange. There was a whole team of us, and yet I felt like I was carrying the entire load. I looked around and saw the other runners smirking, their legs barely at a trot. It became clear that they were barely pulling their weight, that they were making me do most of the work. But what could I do? One complaint, and I lose my job. So I just ran without a word. After about ten minutes, we finally got to the construction sight. I hadn't even started working, but I was already exhausted.

The day was filled with nothing but hard labor and being yelled at. But the thought of my brother sick in bed kept me motivated. I didn't complain, and I didn't slack off. Once the day was done, I was told to get back with the runners. I was too tired, too sore to run. The boss saw that, and told me to get in the cart. Of course, he took this out of my pay. When we got back, He gave me my bits, and I went back to Flam. I went straight to bed and instantly passed out. The next day, I woke up and was still exhausted. But that didn't matter. I had to work, I had to make bits for Flam. It was the same thing today as well, I had to run, I had to carry heavy loads all day, and I got my pay deducted for not being able to run back. For a week, I did this over and over. All the while, Flam's condition worsened. I received my bits every day, and bought food for Flam and myself. If things kept going this way, I would have the bits in about a month. I only hope that Flam can last that long.

Working every day started wearing on me. My body became weak, and my conviction grew weak. I began to lose my way. I began to forget why I was even working. Was there a point to all this, will I ever make enough bits to help Flam? And even if I do, is it even certain that he'll get better? I thought these things to myself as the day finished. I started walking to the wagon, but before I could get on, they pulled away. I tried running after them, "Wait! I'm still here! Come back!" but no matter how much I yelled, they didn't stop. I was more than certain that they left without me on purpose. Normally, I would have gotten mad. So mad, that I would yell at the top of my lungs. But I got so used to pretending not to be upset, that I didn't feel mad at all. And so, with my head down, I started slowly walking back to town.

I contemplated my situation, a lone stallion, walking down a dirt path, tired and dirty, barely making enough to get by. On top of that, his brother was bed ridden, unable to get up, and we were unable to pay for the medicine. But what bothered him the most, was that not a single pony was willing to help them. Everypony they met would treat them like garbage, they don't care about us at all. I remembered back in Ponyville, there were a few young mares who talked about 'friendship' and 'teamwork' and 'caring' and all that junk. But what about me? What about Flam? Why was nobody there for us? I asked myself all these, but I knew exactly why. It was because we were terrible ponies as well. We drove ponies out of business, we scammed ponies of their bits, we made a living off of tricking others. We're treated terribly because we treated so many others the same way. "Well not anymore! If I want others to be nice to me, than I have to start being nice to others. No more, putting on a fake smile and telling ponies what they want to hear. No, I'm going to turn over a new leaf, become a new colt! I'll earn the trust of other, and help out everypony I can. That way, other ponies will help us. In fact, I'm going to go up to the first pony I see, and ask if they need help with anything. I swear on it."

I lifted my head, and had a new spring to my step. As I walked, I looked around for anypony to help. And after a few minutes, I saw something by a pool of water. As I got closer, I saw that it was somepony being swarmed by a bunch of strange, dark pony looking things. The situation looked dire. Were they eating the pony? My first reaction was to run away before they got to me. But I already swore on it. "Me and my big mouth." I began running to the pony.