Under her costume Bluebottle was exhausted. The difficulty of keeping up with a single excited filly was bad enough, but keeping up with three wildly excited, highly energetic Cutie Mark Crusaders? Herding them to random places to find Flim and Flam's hideout certainly was a workout. She felt that if she were to run out of power for her house, hooking even just Sweetie Bell up to a generator would produce enough juice to power the whole town for a month. Repeating her silent thanks to Rarity for making her uniform wicking, she brought the cavorting Crusaders to yet another motel to find a clue as to the whereabouts of the two conniving charismatic unicorns.
Overcoming her embarrassment at both the antics of the hyperactive foals behind her as well as for dressing as though nightmare night had suddenly been declared to be a daytime summer event was difficult for Bluebottle. She was once again mentally sending praise towards her benefactor for including a full face mask that would cover up her beet red blushing face. As this was the fourth attempt at doing the same thing Mare-Do-Well quickly sought out the manager of Pete Pot's Lots for Lots of Plots.
"Excuse me good citizen and/or motel manager," began Mare-Do-Well. "Are you aware of the locations of Flim or Flam? They are two unicorn brothers who are apparently quite famous for both being able to sell almost anything and using the word nonpareil correctly in a sentence. I came here after checking Fair Pastures Inn, Stable 6, the Coulton and the Mareiot."
Just then a crash was heard, followed by a pony moaning about their fate.
"I guess we aren't cutie mark crusader luggage cart racers." said a dejected Scootaloo
"Ooh! Ooh! Ah know! Hows' about luggage deliverers!" piped up Applebloom.
"They are called bellhops" Sweetie Bell chimed in.
Looking at her friend Scootaloo made an annoyed face. "What are you, a dictionary?"
The manager, for some reason, seemed incredibly eager and willing to give the fashionable hero all of the information that he had heard about the Flim Flam brothers. Making extra sure to stress that they weren't staying in his motel but camping out quite a distance away at the edge of town. Ponyville's resident hat wearing hero and well-meaning underage natural disasters set off leaving the manager crying. Mare-Do-Well felt he must have been moved by her heart of justice.
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While Bluebottle and the girls headed towards them Flim and Flam were in a discussion with the dreadful Diamond Dogs. Fido, their apparent pack leader was performing the negotiations. Fido was a superior Diamond Dog negotiator, with his expert haggling the Diamond Dogs were sure to make out fantastically on the deal with the two ponies.
"So we buy your elephant repellant for only 5 gems?" Fido asked.
Flam assured him that his bonified elephant repellant was worth more but they were cutting a deal. "Just think! Not an Elephant to be found anywhere, and if you buy in bulk we will even throw in this collectable lug nut."
The small Diamond Dog Spot cried out, "I'll take five!"
Deciding that getting the canines to open up lines of credit would be overkill, the brothers instead began to outline their newest plan for selling to Ponyville. Striking a bargain at less than minimum wage for the dogs, who would be working mainly for commission despite not actually selling anything the slick unicorn pair gained their workforce. The pack would dig up the various ingredients for the Miracle Mixer Elixir, while the bow-tie sporting ponies in pinstripes would mix up the concoction.
In an attempt to build up rapport with their new henchdogs Flim asked the large Rover what he did in his time off from hunting gems.
"I is story writer," Rover replied. "Have big project."
He produced a scroll with a large letter R on it.
"Wrote this on own, but now have writers block. I go on Hiatus," explained the obviously very proud dog.