After breakfast Flim, Flam, and Sunny all went strait to the north field, since Flim and Flam supposedly finished the work in the barn. Sunny told himself he would check it out later after the north fields were done. He pulled the cart carrying the baskets and barrels behind him while keeping an eye on the two shifty twin unicorns ahead of him. Sunny was a little more relaxed after talking with Granny and getting something in his belly, but he still couldn't shake the feeling he had.
He stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and looked ahead at Flim and Flam, who kept walking ahead, lost in their own conversation. "Granny is right. I need to just give them a chance. After all, they are Apples. And from what I've seen, all the Apples are good, hard working, honest ponies. Maybe they just need a chance... At least until they actually do something wrong."
"Oh Sunny" Flim broke Sunny from his train of though, calling from the edge of the north feild.
Sunny went into overdrive to catch up to the twins, the cart rattling behind him. He caught up to Flim and Flam in no time. "Hey guys, sorry. I, ugh... Was lost in thought."
"Oh no worries, pal" Flam said smoothly.
"A smart fellow like you must have a lot on his mind" Flim added, even smoother then his brother.
"Yeah..." Sunny said, not wanting to go into everything in his mind. "Anywho, let's get started. I'll place the baskets under the trees that we meet to hit. Most of them should be ready to be harvested by now, but there are always a few-"
"Actually..." Flam interrupted the yellow, Stetson wearing unicorn.
"We need to use the restroom really fast, if you don't mind." Flim continued, shaking his back legs.
"That delicious breakfast seems to just be going right through us, if you know what I mean." Flam added to the awkwardness with more information then Sunny really needed to know.
"Oh, ugh, go right ahead" Sunny told the two, not wanting to make eye contact. "There's an out house behind the barn, and the regular bathroom in the farm house. I'll get us started."
"Thanks" both of the brother said then ran off to words the farm, leaving Sunny to start the harvesting.
After placing the baskets underneath the selected trees, Sunny arched up his hind legs and kicked the first tree. Several apples fell and landed almost perfectly into the designated baskets. But something else fell. It was large, full of feathers, and seemed to... Growl.
By the time Sunny realize what the feathery creature was, it was up right, it's talons fully extended, ready to rip flesh, and it's flaming red and yellow eyes had locked onto the yellow unicorn. Sunny began to run faster then he ever had in his entire life as the infamous owl, known as Toast, chased him throughout the orchard.
About 15 minute later, after teleporting away several times and hiding behind various trees and the barn, and attempting to drive Toast into the west orchard where fruit bats often resided, Sunny was able to shake off the owl. He stood there, behind an apple tree for a moment, his lungs on fire as his chest rose and sank, heart pounding a million miles an hour.
'That bird is a menace!' He said to himself as he began to fan himself with his own hat, desperately trying to cool himself off.
After losing the deranged owl, Sunny caught glimpse of something moving down the dirt road that lead to the farm. Several things actually. He didn't recognize what they were. They appeared to be large and made of metal, with long metal pipes that expelled steam, large wheels that moved belts propelling them across rocky terrane and what appeared to be large metal mouths or claws in front of them. He made another mad dash to the farm, ignoring his tired and ache hooves, growing more and more concerned about the farm.
In front of the farm house that the dirt road fed into, stood Granny, who starred down these mechanical monsters, displeased with their presents on the farm.
As Sunny made his way down the road, galloping beside the giant, mechanical monsters, he couldn't help but notice on their backs, or maybe at top of their heads, were ponies. Curious, Sunny teleported himself up ontop of one of the mechanical beasts where a pony appeared to be ridding it. An earth pony mare was operating it, was surprised to see him magically appear there.
"Hey! What are ya doin'?" She asked as Sunny's eyes grew wide at the many tiny controls before him having never seen anything like it before. "Get outa' here! I got work ta do!"
"Huh?" Was all the yellow stallion could say as his eyes darted across the machine's controls, only half paying attention to the mare. There were so many leavers, switches and buttons with odd markings that Sunny couldn't recognize.
"We've been hired to bulldoze half of this farm, Now get off!" The mare's patience was growing thinner.
That shocked Sunny away from his new found interest and gave her his 100 percent attention. "What did you say?"
"Ugh! Just get off! I have work ta do!" The mare was fuming now as she tried her best to push Sunny off of her bulldozer.
Looking around, Sunny saw another pony, who appeared to be in a better mood then this mare, ridding a similar beast following behind. He closed his eyes and focused, and in a flash, disappeared and reappeared on the mahanical monster he was focusing on.
"Hey, what gives?" The mare asked, her tone still sounding more pleasant then the previous machine rider Sunny just felt with.
"I'm sorry to intrude, but who hired you? And when?" Sunny's voice was stern but sincere, not wanting to agitate this metal monster's rider.
"Two fellas in stripped shirts and straw hats, think they were twins. As for when..." The mare looked as though she was thinking and almost ran into the bulldozer ahead of her. When things were clear, and she was not about to rear end the already agitated driver ahead of her, she was able to recall. "I think it was a few days ago. Wednesday I think."
"Thank you" Sunny said as he closed his eyes and concentrated again, this time, focusing on Granny and where she stood. In a flash he was gone from the bulldozer driving mare's side and in a flash, reappeared beside Granny. He felt slightly light headed from the long distance teleportation. Twilight had warned him about the fatigue that could come from either teleporting too far a distance or too often in a short amount of time, and that he would have to get used to it, but this was a little urgent.
"What's the word, Sunny?" Granny asked as the unicorn gathered himself and the world stopped spinning.
"From what they said..." The stallion began to report. "It sounded like Flim and Flam hired them on Wednesday to bull-doz r the half the farm. Ugh Granny, what does Bull-doz mean?"
"It means those two want to destroy half the farm" Granny's gaze grew harder as shock spread all across Sunny's face. "And those rats had been planning this before Applejack ad Big Mac even left."
"So... They had planned this whole thing?!" Sunny felt his heart do a 360. He had spent the last few days trying to let go of his personal feelings for the two trouble makers. Now that they show their true colors, Sunny felt slightly sick for having pushed himself into believing they were anything but con ponies.
"I'm afraid so" Granny's words fell hard. "But they won't lay one hoof on a single leaf here. Not if I have anything to say about it."
"Ah, there you are Granny!" Flim said, trotting up to her.
"We've been looking everywhere for y-" Flam began to say before he saw the metal beasts that were making their way up the dirt road.
Panic broke out across the brothers faces for a moment. But as they whispered back and forth between each other, the fear began to slide off their muzzles revealing a relaxed and casual smile. They both calmly trotted up to Granny and Sunny, who looked down at them as they strutted their true colors with pride. More then likely trying to play it off as something other then what it truly was.
"Care to explain this, boys?" Granny asked as she motioned her hoof at the bulldozers.
"Well we just wanted to get a jump start on our projects to make the farm run more efficiently" Flam began to say.
"They must be really short on work to have arrived here so early, I could ask them to come back after you thought about our-" Flim began to continue where his brother left off, but Granny cut him off.
"Don't bother" se said, putting her hoof down. "I'd never sign that contract of yours even if I could."
The brothers were dumbstruck, but Flim went in to try and recover the situation. "G-granny, think about what you are saying."
"Yes!" Flam jumped in as well. "We're only trying to help the family farm, you know, progression? Spreading Apple family products around all of Equestria?"
"You two can stop acting like yer part of th' Apple Family" Granny said as se reached up into her bandana and pulled out a small journal. "Ah' went inta th' family storage and found this. It's Dutch Apple Pie's journal. See, ah knew old Dutch Apple was ah writer, and had a way with words. He would write poems and what not to his mare friends, and also keep a separate copy for himself and future generations."
As Granny began flipping through the book, Fim and Flam began to look nervous again, actual beads of sweat trickling down their faces as they watched the elderly mare skim the book. "Ah ha! Here we go!"
"What is it Granny?" Sunny asked as the giant machines arrived just at the farm, and the driver at the head of the heard called out to Flim and Flam, who ignored him.
"See here, Ol' Dutch Apple began writing poems first about Swindler in a very sweet tone" she began pointing to a page with red hearts on it, then flipped to one that had broken hearts and angry faces in their absence. "And here, he seems ta have ah change of heart. Saying how she only wanted him for his money, an' left him high and dry when she found a stallion who had some bits to burn."
Granny then closed the journal and turned to the Flim Flam brothers with a smirk. They sheepishly gulped and tried to wipe the rivers of sweat from their heads. Stress building up from both the Bulldozer diver yelling at them and from their scam being revealed.
"So... They aren't really Apples?" Sunny asked slowly, looking from Granny to the brothers.
"Less then the dirt yer standing' on, Sunny" Granny replied as she took several steps towards the twins. "If ah had ya guess, ah'm willin' ta bet these two were actually lookin fer Dutch Apple's Journal or anything else he may have written involvin' Swindler, so they could hide it and continue acting like they's family."
"That's why they were looking through all the papers in the kitchen!" Sunny finally understood what they were up to.
"Say brother!" Flim yelled out, looking at his wrist watch. "Look at the time!"
"Oh yes, brother!" Flam joined in. "Better not miss out train! Well it's been fun Granny, Sparky!"
"That's Sunny!" Sunny said as his anger began to build up, eyes falling heavier on the twins.
"Right, well, till the next family reunion!" Flim interrupted. And as the bulldozer driver gave up and hopped down off his mechanical machine, frustrated from being ignored, the the horns belonging to the twins began to glow. And in a flash, they disappeared.
"Hey! Where'd they go?!" The driver asked as he scratched the top of his head. "We got work schedules for today! Ain't got no time ta be hoarsin' around!"
Granny went on to explain the situation to the mare in charge of the construction crew as Sunny found himself atop if one of the Bull-doz-rs, playing and fiddling with the controls. Amazed at how pressing a few buttons and pulling a leaver could cause the giant machine to lift what looked like an open mouth and rows of large teeth. After a few moments of Granny explaining the situation, the construction mare boss cursed and called out to her team, signaling them to head back to town. Reluctantly, Sunny got off the machine and watched in awe as it moved away.
The rest of that day, Sunny spent his hours of sunlight finishing the work that Flim and Flam supposedly did. All of it was either pushed aside to look clean and done, or completely ignored. After that hard day's work, Sunny enjoyed sitting down to dinner with Granny. She had made his favorite, and for desert, she made small, personalized Dutch apple pies. But something still didn't sit right with Sunny, making eating harder then it should have.
Granny noticed this and decided it was best to clear the air. "Somethin' wrong, Sunny?"
"Granny" Sunny looked up from his plate and over at the elderly mare. "you wanted me to give those two a chance, and I was right all along about them. If I had just stuck with my gut, we could have avoided this whole thing."
"That's true, but tell me, are the trees in the orchard still standing?" Granny asked, smiling as she and Sunny looked out the window.
"Well... Yes" Sunny replied.
"And the house? Is it still standing?" Granny asked again.
"Yeah, but..." Sunny's words slowly trickled out.
"Then where's th' harm?" Granny asked. "Sometimes it's better to give ponies the benefit of the doubt then to jump to conclusions, especially when you take precautions."
"What do you mean, Granny" Sunny asked, feeling more confused then before.
"Ah was curious and wonderin' bout their family tree mah self" the began to explain. "So ah went up into th' family records and looked up Uncle Dutch Apple, and found his journal. Ah wasn't gunna bring it up to anypony unless ah needed to. Ah still hoped them fellers might have wanted to turn themselves around, but ah was wrong. But thanks ta my cautious side, no bad came of it."
Sunny nodded, thinking back to the confrontation with the Flim Flam brothers, something sticking out in his head. "Granny... What did you mean when you told those two that you wouldn't sign the contract even if you could?"
The elderly mare smiled up at the young wipper snapper. "Ya see, Sunny, ah don't own th' farm. Ah signed it'a ownership away ta Applejack and Big Mac when they both came of age, though, ah think Big Mac would let Applejack run th' farm while he works it."
"Wow" Sunny said, eyes growing a little wide. "So they couldn't get the farm from you if they wanted."
"Nope" Granny chuckled. "Them fellers was barkin' up th' wrong apple tree. But a darn good thing they were. Ol' Granny's got a few tricks up her sleeves. Now do ya feel better?"
Sunny smiled as he took a few bites of his meal, Granny began to do the same. Not long after they finished dinner and were relaxing before desert, did something else come across Sunny's mind.
"Hey Granny, " Sunny caught the elderly mare's attention. "When I came to live on the farm.... Were you as cautious with me as you were them?... Anything about a 'Sunny' or anypony who looked like me in the family records."
Granny could see the hope in the stallion's eyes, it pained her to shatter his hopes. "Ah'm 'fraid nothin' in the family's records about anypony like ya, Sunny. Yer one of a kind. But then again, ah didn't look too hard."
Sunny was more confused then disheartened. "Wait.... Why?"
"Cause, ya didn't really see me the trouble making kind" Granny said with a smile. "When ah first saw ya, ya just seemed ta glow. But if ya want, ah can look again for ya. Maybe ya are an Apple."
"Maybe we can look together?" Sunny suggested, a smile returning to his face. "And you could tell me all about the Apple family."
"Sounds wonderful to me, Sunny" Granny said, then whispered to herself. "And ah need ta know if ya are family before ah help AJ pick out a weddin' dress..."
"What was that Granny?" Sunny asked, curious as to what she mumbled to herself.
"Oh just saying ' how the pies should taste delicious! Let's dig in!" Granny chuckled and passed Sunny his as she sat down with her own personalized apple pie.