//------------------------------// // Flim Flam Apples?! // Story: Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale // by TheothersideofSunny968 //------------------------------// "Now are ya sure you'll be ok?" Applejack asked Sunny for, what must have been, the 100th time as she finished securing the straps on her cart one last time, still a little nervous to be leaving. "Applejack. I'll be fine" Sunny said as he finished double checking the load on Applejack's cart. Making sure everything was neatly and securely tucked away. "Besides, Granny's here with me. What could go wrong?" "That's what I keep telling myself..." Applejack said with a worryful sigh. "It's gunna be a long 3 day week end, and it's just you and Granny running the farm while I'm making deliveries from here ya Canterlot, Big Mac's visiting Braeburn in Appaloosa, helming with the Rodeo preparations and Apple Bloom is away visiting Babs and her folks in Manehatten, so ya won't really have anypony ta help much with the' farmin'." "We'll be fine, Applejack" Sunny reassured her, again, number 101. "It's not like there's much to do. Harvest a small orchard, do some planting, and maybe if we get to it, start backing and clean around the farm. What could go wrong?" With another heavy sigh, Applejack straitened her Stetson hat and looked back at the yellow stallion with a smile. "Ah know ya really have learned a lot 'bout the farm since coming here and ya can handle yerself and them' chores. But Granny can sometimes be a hooffull to handle too." "We'll be ok, Applejack" Sunny reassured her again with a hoof on her shoulder and his relaxed smile. "Now you better get going. You don't want to waste all your sunlight." Applejack sighed heavily again, heading down the dirt road, waving back at the yellow stallion. Sunny waved back as she began to disappear in the distance. But as the last tiny image of Applejack vanished, a puff of black smoke blew out of the kitchen window of the farm house! Sunny raced inside, fighting through wave after wave of black smoke to get to its source. He was half worried it might have been the fiendish shadow king, Sombra, again. But to his relief, it was actually the oven. As Sunny opened it up, a darker cloud of searing hot, black smoke blew into his face, causing the stallion to cough uncontrollably as his eyes began to water. "What's all the commotion?" Granny asked as she entered the kitchen, her eyes narrowing at the image of the smoke filled room. "What in tarnation is goin on in here?!" Sunny then levitated a very burn pie out of the oven. It looked more like a charcoal covered cookie. Granny looked closer at the 'pie' and thought for a moment. "Hmmmm was I backing a pie? Oh well. No harm done. (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SJMizrTFiFo) It didn't take long for Sunny to clear out the smoke with a little help from a spell Twilight taught him a few weeks ago, called 'fresh breeze'. He thought maybe it would come in handy when he was laying down fresh manure in the fields, but it also came in handy in the kitchen apparently. Sunny sighed and wiped the sweat from his forhead as he began to relax for a moment when he heard a loud scream coming from the other room. He bolted in there to find Granny chasing his new pet ferret, Crackers, around, trying to smack him with an old broom! "Granny! What are you doing?!" Sunny panicked and with a flash of his magic, the little frightened ferret disappeared from the elderly mare's sight, only to be teleported safely under the stallion's Stetson hat, safely out of sight. Since Sunny adopted crackers, the ferret spent quite a deal of time sleeping underneath his hat. Luckily, Granny didn't think about that. "Found a thevin' weasel runnin' around, waiting ta steal some eggs!" Granny said as her eyes darted around, looking for the creature who got away. "Granny, that's Crackers, my pet" Sunny tried to calm her down. She eyes the yellow stallion, sizing him up. "Why would ya want a weasel for a pet?" "He's a ferret" Sunny began. "And it's a long story." "Well ain't got time for story telling yet. Save that fun for tonight" the elderly green mare began to say as she put the broom up in the closet, then paused, looking at the broom with a slight since of confusion. "Don't know why I brought that out, was I cleaning something?" "No, ugh... You were chasing my pet ferret" Sunny answered uneasily. "Why would I go and do a thing like that?!" Granny asked again. " You thought he was a weasel" Sunny answered again and pulled his Stetson off to reveal Crackers, who was happily asleep and curled up in a nice little ball. "Ah! A weasel! Get him before he eates the eggs!" Granny called out and grabbed the broom again. Crackers lazily woke up but quickly realized the danger he was in when he saw the raised broom coming down fast on him. Before it could make contact, Crackers jumped off of Sunny's head and made a mad dash out the door. Sunny, however got the full brunt of Granny's mighty broom smack. "Ow! G-G-Granny! He's not a weasel! He's a ferret!" The yellow unicorn cried out as Granny smacked him a few more times before she stopped and realized the 'weasel' was gone. "The what?" Granny replied as she went to put the broom up again, completely forgetting about Crackers, again. "No time for playing with brooms. We got work to do. We need ta go inta town fer supplies ." Sunny stood there for a moment, slightly confused, before he brushed the broom straw from his face from the broom, and readjusted his Stetson. He knew Crackers probably found a nice, safe place to take a nap, he always did. Sunny just hoped it would be out of the sight of Granny. Sunny walked along side Granny cautiously, his empty saddle bags hung by his sides, ready to haul back anything and everything Granny needed to pick up. She acted strangely from time to time. Like when she woke up and thought she slept through Hearthswarming day, or the time when she forgot Applejack and Big Mac harvested all the apples in the north orchard and thought bandits from town robbed them, or the time when she thought the farm was being taken over by spiders just because one made a web in the corner of the kitchen. Granny was old, forgetful, and may over exaggerate, but she never meant anypony any harm. She had been nothing but kin and sweet to the yellow unicorn since the day he arrived on the farm. Sunny knew that, and tried to keep it in mind as she rambled off different uses for backing powder, some of which he really, really, really didn't want to know. ".... Oh that was one the doctors at the Ponyville hospital took down in their books that day. Who knew backing powder could be used for that?" Granny said with a chuckle as they approached the market area of Ponyville. "So what in all do we need from here" Sunny asked, trying desperately to get that story out of his mind. "Oh just a few things for some projects I wanted to try while the others are away" Granny replied, smiling at the young unicorn. "You can by my little assistant and if yer good a good little colt. Ya might even get to a be mah official taste tester." Granny laughed out loud to herself while Sunny awkwardly chuckled along with her, feeling more then slightly nervous as to what Granny was planing to make. Just then, as Granny walked up to a stand to purchase some honey from the bee keeper of the town, Two light yellow unicorns stepped in front of her, slick and conniving smiles on their muzzles. They each had on matching blue and white stripped shirts, matching straw hats, and looked almost identical say for one of them having a mustache. "Why if it isn't sweat, little Granny Smith" the one without a mustache stated as he tipped his hat to her. "Indeed it is, brother of mine" the one with a mustache added, mimicking his brother. Granny seemed unmoved by their chivalrous notions and glared down at them. "The Flim Flam brothers. What do you two want?!" "Why Granny, we're hurt" Flam said as he pushed his hat back on top of his head and plastered a relaxed smile across his face. "Indeed, all we want is to spend a little time with our 'family'" Flim continued speaking where his brother left off. Before Granny could shoo them away, Flam pulled out a rather long and warn scroll from under his hat. He and his brother began to unravel it and came to almost the very end. "See, my brother and I wanted to look back in our family's rich roots" Flam began to explain as he smiled at the elderly green mare. "And to our suprise" Flim continued where his brother left off. "When we went back, oh, sixt or seven generations or so...." "On our great grand mother's side" Flam popped in, his hoof trailing up a line of names and pictures of various ponies in their family tree. "That we are actually..." Flim spoke up, adding pressure to the anticipation. "...Distantly...." Flam added, smiling now at his brother who smiled back with the same mischievous grin. And together they announced the surprise "related to you and the Apple family!" This came as a shock to Ganny and Sunny, as well as some of the ponies who had been walking near by. Granny pulled out a pair of large lensed reading glasses and began to fallow along the Flim Flam brother's family tree. As she got the the part where they were actually linked, she was shocked by the image of the pony at one end of the link. "Why, that's my great great uncle, Dutch Apple Pie!" Granny said, looking to who it said he was married to. "Married to Swindler, a unicorn mare from the settlement in Vanhoover. Oh my! You are actually related." "Now I remember you!" Sunny spoke up. This whole time he had been running the names Flim and Flam over in his head. He knew he had heard about them from somewhere. But it took him this long to remember that he had read about Applejack's issues involving them. "You two tried to take the Apple farm from Applejack and the family about a year ago! And then you sold a fake magical elixir to everypony in town!" It wasn't until Sunny finished speaking that he realized just how loud he was, and how many ponies had gathered around, and shot angered looks at the Flim Flam brothers. The brothers themselves just forced a pair smiles as beads of sweat rolled down the sides of their heads. "Well, that's the thing" Flim spoke up, trying desperately to ignore the hateful looks he and his brother were getting. "We've traveled all across Equestria, but have never really been able to call a place 'home'" Flam continued, after loosening his collar. "And, well, we were wondering if you could find it in your hearts to forgive my brother and I and maybe..." Flim trailed off, unable to finish his sentence. "... Give us a place to stay on the farm?" Flam finished the sentance, and both the brothers smiled at Granny, awaiting a verdict. "You think Granny's just going to let some trouble makers like you live on the farm after-" Sunny now glared at the two brothers as he spit venom filled words, but was quickly interrupted by Granny. "Well sure" she said with a smile which through everypony in town off, especially Sunny. "After all, family is family. And who would I be if I turned away family? Especially in their time of need" "Oh thank you Granny!" Flim said as he dove into his knees at her front hooves, looking up at her with a grateful smile. "You are so kind, Granny" Flam joined his brother, copying his actions movement for movement. Meanwhile the surrounding ponies, although shocked by this change of heart, began to dissipate back into the crowd. All except for Sunny, who stood there with his mouth hanging open, frozen in shock. Unable to process what just happen. Back at the Apple family farm, Sunny and Granny were joined for dinner by Flim and Flam. While Granny served up some helpings of her family's recipe for Apple cobbler, Flim and Flam told her all about their adventures around Equestria. Meanwhile Sunny glared angrily at them from across the table. His gaze was so sharp, Granny looked over and almost thought his eyes were turning red. "You ok there, Sunny?" Granny asked him as she dished Flam up his third helping of cobbler. "Ya haven't even touched yet first helpin'. " "Granny, I'm sorry, but after what they did, all they put you and Applejack and Big Mac and Apple Bloom through, you just forgive them because they 'apologized'?! " Sunny's emotions just burst out. "I'm sorry, have we met?" Flim asked, raising a brow in his unamused muzzle. "Yes, I don't recall seeing you anywhere on the family tree" Flam noted, now both brothers narrowing their eyes at Sunny. "The name's Sunny" Sunny declared. "And I've been living with the apples for quite some time. While you two were 'traveling' and scamming ponies left and right, I've been working hard on the family farm, urning an honest bit." "But you're not a 'real' Apple" Flim said with a smug grin. "So that bit you work so hard for doesn't even belong to you" Flam added, growing equally smug. "Now hold on there, fellers" Granny banged on a pot with a wooden spoon, trying to clear some of the testosterone from the room. "If ya work the farm and do as much as Sunny has, yer as good as blood ta the Apples." Sunny shot a smug look right back at the Flim Flam brothers, who recoiled slightly, but didn't break. But the yellow unicorn's victory was short lived. "But Flim and Flam are blood, and as such, will be treated like any other Apple, ya hear" Granny shot a look at Sunny. Sunny ignored the triumphant looks the Flim Flam brothers shared as he turned to Granny, a desperate and concerned look thrown at her. But Sunny's concern was over looked as Granny placed a now empty pan in the kitchen sink. Sunny's eyes then looked over to the twin brothers who were chowing down on their meals. Sunny sighed heavily, feeling defeated, a bitter taste lingered in his mouth before he even took his first bite of food.