Flim And Flam’s Rent-A-Friend Center
Author's Note
Author’s Note: Rent-A-Friend companies are a very real thing. They are common across different parts of Asia as well as certain areas of the Middle East. They are also becoming more common worldwide due to a site called RentAFriend.Com. I worked as a friend for hire for several years off and on using the RentAFriend.Com site and I thought I’d write this fan fiction for fun to see how Twilight Sparkle would react to a business like this. I hope you enjoy the fan fiction.
Flim And Flam’s Rent-A-Friend Center
Flim And Flam’s Rent-A-Friend Center
It was the middle of the night and Twilight woke up to the sound of heavy construction. It sounded like it was taking place next to the School Of Friendship. But…how could that be? She hadn’t ordered any new editions to the school to be built. It was very curious indeed.
The noise went on for a bit but then abruptly stopped so Twilight figured that maybe it was construction taking place in town and the noise just happened to carry over. Either way, she was too tired to think about it at the present moment and she drifted back into a deep sleep.
The next morning she was woken up by Spike who shook her and pointed towards her window.
“Twilight, you need to look outside and see what’s happening. Like NOW!”
Twilight yawned and rubbed her eyes sleepily.
“What…is going on Spike?”
Spike pulled Twilight out of bed and pushed her towards the window. When she was in front of it he pointed below and said, “Just take a look at THAT.”
Twilight looked down towards the right side of her School of Friendship where there was now a large building. The building had a large sign near the top of it which read ‘Flim And Flam’s Rent-A-Friend Center’. Twilight’s mouth promptly fell open in shock.
“What in all of Equestria is THAT?”
Spike shrugged.
“I don’t know Twilight. But if Flim And Flam are involved it HAS to be shady at the very least “
Twilight nodded.
“You are right Spike. I’m marching down to that…Rent-A-Friend place or whatever and I’m going to get answers.”
With that Twilight left her room and journeyed to the intrusive building that was now right next to her School of Friendship.
She stopped when she was outside and glanced momentarily up at the sign again.
She sincerely wondered what renting a friend could possibly even mean but she tried not to think about it too much as she knocked on the front door.
There was silence.
Frustrated she knocked again.
And again.
Finally The door opened revealing both Flim and Flam on the other side.
“Why dear brother, if it isn’t the Princess Of Friendship herself, Twilight Sparkle! “ Said Flam excitedly, gesturing for Twilight Sparkle to come inside.
Twilight did so and raised an eyebrow when she saw all of her students from her school on the other side.
“Flam. Why are all of my students HERE? What is even going on?”
Flam laughed heartily and said, “Why Princess I thought you’d never ask. My fabulous Frere how about you explain!”
Flam winked at Flim.
Flim winked back and then smiled down at Twilight.
“Why of course brother. You see Princess this is possibly our most important endeavor yet. We admit you were right about the Friendship University thing. By the way we are genuinely sorry about that.”
“Truly we are.” Flam piped in as Twilight rolled her eyes.
Flam cleared his throat and continued.
“Anyway we want to turn over a new non-scamming leaf if you will. That’s why we created this establishment here. We call this Flim And Flam’s Rent-A-Friend Center! Now I’ll bet you are asking yourself, what IS a Rent-A-Friend Center? Don’t you worry. Both my brother and I will explain!”
A spotlight all of the sudden shined down on both of the brothers and they begun to sing. The song was as follows.
Flim: As you can see Twilight this is our new venture, to spread magic, friendship and laughter!
Flam: But the thing is we are business ponies, so we can’t just give away friendship for free!
Flim and Flam: So here we train professional friends, you’ll find none better from all of Equesria's ends. We teach them friendship lessons as you can see so they can use those friendship lessons to make us money!
Flim: That’s right, they become professional friends, a pony rents their friendship for all sorts of events!
Flam: And then they make the money from their outings a hard earned reward, we only charge them a small percentage of their earnings for room and board!
Flin And Flam: And that’s how every pony profits from the magic of friendship!
The students behind the brothers clapped as their song came to a close. Twilight’s right eye twitched.
“Charge…for friendship...what does that even MEAN?”
Flam gestured around the newly built building and Said, “This here is a place where we train students to be professional friends. Once they are properly trained, they can be rented by clients for anything really. Going to parties, attending events, any occasion that needs a friend, you can rent out our professional friends!”
Twilight could not believe what she was hearing.
“What! How can any pony charge for Friendship??”
Flim chuckled.
“Why it’s simple. Our professional friends provide premium friendship services…for 10 bits an hour starting at the low price point. Extra fees may apply.”
“But…but that’s not how friendship is supposed to work. Friendship is supposed to be something you offer for FREE.”
Twilight said, in a huff.
Flam rolled his eyes.
“Frankly that’s a poor business decision. Why not charge to do the same thing? You know what they say. All of the most worthwhile things in life come at a high cost. Friendship is no exception.”
Before Twilight could say anything, Flim pointed to her students she said, “You see them? They have already gone through our Extra Deluxe Fast Action Friendship Training Program (Trademark) which takes seven hours! Now they can rent out their services as friends!”
Twilight saw Smolder, Gallus, Ocellus, Yona, Sandbar and Silverstream in front row beaming with pride. They all were wearing a type of uniform had a name tag pinned on the front. The other students were dressed in the same outfits.
Yona and the rest of the student six waved at Twilight. Twilight weakly raised her hoof and waved back.
Flam placed his hoof around Twilight’s shoulder and said “There you see? Every creature is extremely happy with our friendship training. We only offer the best!”
Twilight shrugged off Flam’s hoof and let out a heavy sigh.
“Look, I want to believe you two are at least TRYING to do the right thing, even if it’s a bit misguided. So how about you demonstrate to me how renting a friend you’ve trained actually works?’
Flam clapped his hooves together excitedly.
“Why Princess we would be delighted. How about you give it a try with one of our new graduates? Silverstream dear, why don’t you show the Princess of Friendship how things are done?”
Silverstream stepped forward and bowed humbly.
“I would be delighted.”
She walked up to Twilight and gave a big grin.
“Hello Twilight. My name is Silverstream and I offer the most premium of friendship services. Whether you want to go swimming, roller skating, hiking, need a study partner, dance partner or friend for an event I am here for you to rent for the extremely low cost of ten bits an hour! Extra fees like charging for photos we take together may apply!”
Twilight shook her head, hardly able to believe what she was hearing. She had all sorts of feelings about what was going on here but she decided to try this friendship renting process out. She wanted to understand everything that was going on for herself.
She forced a smile, turned to her student and said, “Hello Silverstream. Of course I already know you from the School Of Friendship where you are one of my top students but I’ll go along with this demonstration. I will rent your friendship for the day. I need a friend to accompany me as I go shopping. I will pay you at the end of the trip.’
Silverstream clapped her claws together, barely able to contain her excitement.
“Excellent! I’m so looking forward to this! This is going to be the best shopping trip ever!”
She pulled Twilight out of the Rent-A-Friend building by the hoof eager to help Twilight with her task.
The two spent the rest of the day shopping together in town. Silverstream helped her to pick out things she needed for an upcoming party she was planning to celebrate Rarity’s new fashion like being offered in some major department store chains across Equestria. The two had lunch together, shopped and had a general good time.
At the end of the trip Twilight smiled at Silverstream and said, “I sure appreciate all of the help you gave me to day. I guess I will need to pay you now. How much do I owe you?”
Silverstream did a quick calculation in her head and said, “Well we went shopping from seven o’clock am to three o’clock pm which is eight hours of shopping. At 10 bits an hour that would be eighty bits.”
She held by out her claw eagerly, happy to accept the payment. Twilight was a bit disappointed that her student actually wanted to follow through with being paid after the fun time they had but she had already agreed to see this thing through to the end so she paid Silverstream the eighty bits and Silverstream squealed with delight when she received it. She thanked Twilight and ran off to tell her friends about her first successful job as a professional friend.
Twilight collapsed on the floor feeling a bit defeated. She couldn’t believe that all of her students were just going along with this. Since when was it okay to rent out your services as a friend? Sure she had had a great time with Silverstream and everything and she was glad that paying her the bits made her happy. But it all just seemed so… wrong.
Spike saw Twilight moping on the floor. He came over and put a claw on her shoulder.
“I got the run down about the Rent-A-Friend Center From Flim And Flam while you were out shopping with Silverstream. They said you were renting her friendship and stuff. I guess it didn’t go well eh?”
Twilight covered her eyes with her hooves secret wishing she could wake up from this nightmare.
“That’s the thing Spike. It didn’t go bad at all. It was actually FUN. Somehow it actually DOES make sense to rent out a friend for specific things. Like for errands or events or things where you might need a friend for the day because every pony else you know is busy or something. I’m supposed to be the Princess Of Friendship. I shouldn’t be agreeing with this. But I have to admit. It actually makes SENSE.”
She groaned as she raised up her head and stood up from the floors. Spike took his hand off her shoulder as she stood up and shrugged.
“Well…what are you going to do about this then?”
Twilight let out a sigh.
“I don’t know. Technically Flim and Flam aren’t doing anything wrong. It’s not like I can just go over there and shut things down for no reason. And my students should be free to study and do whatever they want.”
Spike rubbed his chin in thought and then said, “Well it’s not like the end of the world. Maybe you can talk to your students. That Rent-A-Friend place is more like a job from how it’s been described. It can be something they do on the side. But the rest of the time they can STILL attend the School Of Friendship. So every creature wins!”
Twilight’s eyes lot up at Spikes suggestion.
“Spike, you are a GENIUS. That’s a brilliant idea!”
Spike puffed out his chest in pride. “Well you don’t need to tell ME that Twilight. I am pretty awesome. Anyway, you should go talk to your students about this.”
Twilight nodded and ran off to the Rent-A-Friend Center to pitch this proposal to every creature. She arrived to see her students in the main halls of the Rent-A-Friend Center chatting about their first day working as friends for hire.
She waved at every creature and said, “Hello students! I’m glad to see you are liking this job. But I would like you to still be my students too. So how about during the day you learn about friendship and after you come and work here. What do you say every creature?”
There was some silence as her students exchanged confused glances. Finally Ocellus walked up to Twilight and said, “Twilight, we were never going to leave your school. Your classes are super fun and we like being taught by all of your friends “
Gallus walked up to Twilight and smirked.
“Yeah. Your school is like, okay and stuff. The field trips are honestly the best part. Can you like make more of them?”
Smolder walked up beside Gallus and jabbed him lightly in the stomach with her elbow.
Gallus smiled sheepishly as Smolder said, “What Gallus is Trying to say is we like being your students. This is just kind of a fun thing to do after school plus we can earn some bits doing it. You know what I mean? Dragons do enjoy making money after all.”
Gallus smirked. “Not as much as us griffons do. I guarantee it.”
The student six all exchanged glances and nodded.
Twilight’s eyes begun to water a bit as she said, “I’m so relieved to hear this I thought every creature was just going to abandon the School Of Friendship now that this place is next door.”
The student six all let out a hearty laugh as did the rest of her students behind them.
Yona walked up with a big grin on her face and said, “Pony princess is funny. Yona never leave school of friendship. Yona loves all of her friends!”
All of the students nodded and smiled at Twilight.
Twilight wiped the tears from her eyes and then said, “Well then, it’s settled. I’ll see all of you guys at school tomorrow!”
All of her students cheered as Flim and Flam entered the room, eyebrows raised.
“Now what is going on here?” Flim asked, genuinely curious about what all of the cheering was about.
Twilight grinned.
“My students will be attending my school during the day and work here after they are done with their classes each day We have all decided that’s an excellent idea.”
Flam flashed Twilight a giant grin.
“Why, we wouldn’t have it any other way. However there is a little matter we need to discuss with you. You see, we have trained your students to be excellent professional friends and training does not come free. Isn’t that right brother?”
Flim beamed.
“No. Training is a specialized thing. Of COURSE there should be compensation for it. So the thing is Princess we are sending you the bill for training approximately two hundred students. Technically you should be the pony we bill as you are their guardian at the school. It will be…let’s see 20 bits a student per training course times 200…well there’s some extra fees too like boarding here when they have a long shift of working so all and all your bill comes to 4,809 bits. Tax has been included.”
Twilight’s right eye began to twitch again. She was about to give Flim and Flam a piece of her mind but then it occurred to her how happy her students were and she didn’t want to cause a scene and make things hard for them. So she simply glared at the two brothers, eyes twitching and said, “Lucky for you I saved up for an emergency in like this and I’ll have no problem compensating you for the training and everything. I warn you guys though, you better not pull any OTHER stunts like this or I will have a reason to put you both out of business. Are we understood?”
The two laughed nervously as Flam handed her a contract.
“Of course, Princess. It’s more like just a one time training fee and a one time fee for room and board. Please look over the contract and pay us with seven business days.”
The two grinned as Twilight held the contract in her hooves, deadpan expression her face.
Indeed she did pay Flim and Flam at the end of the week and her students continued to attend her school during the day and work at the Rent-A-Friend Center when they weren’t attending classes.
Flim and Flam amazingly didn’t try to sneak any additional fees in. They stayed true to their word. Of course there was the percentage they took out from the money each student earned when they completed a friendship job, which they assured they had made clear in their ‘song’. But otherwise they stayed true to what they had promised and with the help of their newly trained professional friends, their Rent-A-Friend business thrived.
After a year of hard work running their Rent-A-Friend Center, Flim and Flam earned enough money to fund the expansion of the resort they had taken over from Gladmane in Las Pegasus. They even opened a second Rent-A-Friend Center there which also became a huge success. This time they did things fair and square. Well…mostly. Although they probably wouldn’t ever admit it, it felt good to do the right thing. Maybe they’d have to try it more often. It could prove to be good for business, after all.
