Chapter 3:
That night we sat in a hotel room, eating pizza. We were in a new town, the market long gone.
“We sold so much cider!” Flam says. “It was glorious.”
“River, the town we’re in now is where we’ll open the Flim-Flam cider factory,” Flim says. “It’ll be beautiful.”
“Think of all the money we’ll earn,” Flam says. “The money we earned today will be nothing compared to what we’ll earn once our factory finally opens.”
“Would you like to hear a story?” Flim asks. When he sees me nod, he continues speaking. “We were in Ponyville once,” he says. “You were there before, weren’t you? You look just as disgusted by it as we are, River. No wonder we’re getting along! Anyway, there was a great apple farm, Sweet Apple Acres, and we wanted to do some business with the Apple family. We ended up having a cider making contest, and long story short, we were, like in many towns, run out of Ponyville.” Flim sighs. “But we have opportunity here, as I’ve studied this town.”
“How?” Flam asks.
“You’ll learn tomorrow,” Flim says, smirking.
Oh, Flam and I learned. Once you walked a block beyond the hotel and the few shops and restaurants, this was a very poor town. Many ponies were unemployed, and many didn’t look happy. A factory could supply these ponies with jobs, improving life for everypony.
We went to the bank near the small area reserved for rich travelers, getting a loan. The factory would be expensive, but you could tell the loan would be paid back.
“Construction starts in a week, and already ponies are excited about finally having a job.” Flam says.
“We’ll be doing good, pulling a town out of the gutter,” Flim replies.
I pull out a piece of paper, writing: “What will I do?”
“Oh,” Flam says, thinking it over. “What will she do, Flam?”
Flim thinks over this for a moment. “We need to advertise, don’t we?”
“Of course,” Flam says. “You could be the cute little filly encouraging everypony to buy our delicious cider!”
“It’s perfect!” Flim says. “How about it, River?”
I look at myself awkwardly, questioning how an entirely grey pony like myself could do this. I also wasn’t sure I wanted everypony to see me.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. . .” Flim says.
“We’re not forcing you,” Flam adds.
But what would I do? These two have been so nice to me, taking me along with them. I owe them something.
I write: “I can do it.” I smile.
“Great!” Flam says. “Why don’t we take a practice picture tomorrow? There’s a nice photography lab and spots to model in the hotel.”
I nod.
The construction tools I’m posed with are fake, but even I have trouble telling. The picture turned out great, and soon enough it’ll be a billboard. My construction hat and the tools are even placed close enough together with me to block out my excess greyness. Ponies could look at the billboard and easily think I had a purple mane, as my mane isn’t even visible. As Flam had commented on earlier, the picture was, is, perfect.
“I guess our lives as traveling salesmen will stop,” Flim says. “The factory will be huge, enough to stock all of Equestria. We won’t need to travel anymore.”
“What a relief!” Flam says. “River, you weren’t with us while we traveling everywhere, and were lucky for that. It was so exhausting, but it’s paid off, finally. Just think of all the money.”
“Money, money everywhere,” Flim says.
I’m still unsure about my relationship with the two brothers. Am I their partner? Their more or less adopted little sister? How long will they let me stay with them? If I want to leave, can I? I can’t tell, but I hope they see me in good light.
“The town is definitely improving,” Flam comments.
Yes, in the few days we’d been here, the town already had fixed its unemployment problem, many ponies ready for construction. Other buildings are planning to be built, like a school, bakery, and more houses. The construction workers will go on to either work in the factory, the bakery, or the school. However, almost all jobs will be in the factory.
“Oh Flim, River, I forgot to mention our living arrangements,” Flam says. He pulls out a blueprint of what looks like a mansion.
“It’s just like we’ve dreamed of,” Flim says. “Oh Flam, it’s beautiful.”
“Just wait until you see it in real life,” Flam says.
I have no idea what to think about it. Yes, it looks nice, but how long will it take to construct it? I want to find out what happened to me, and soon. But it wouldn’t hurt to stay here, either.
“Won’t River have to go to school?” Flam asks, making me again question how they view me.
“She’ll need a private tutor since she can’t talk,” Flim replies.
That just drives the nail in of my suspicion that I may not be able to talk at all. Sure, there may be a chance that I’ll learn to talk, but I don’t utter a sound. Am I mute? Thinking this causes more questions to pile up, like what my real name is, why I had to be woken up, if I can perform magic with my horn, why I’m fully grey. I wish I could just answer these stupid questions.
The billboard was put up fast, and it seems everypony has seen it. It shows me next to an orange background, the words beside me being: “PREPARE TO BUILD, PONIES. FUTURE HOME OF THE FLIM-FLAM CIDER FACTORY.”