//------------------------------// // A Fraternal Dispute // Story: Quills and Sofas Anthology // by Scrying Mind //------------------------------// “I’m sorry, but WHAT!?” Flim looked at his brother, his eye twitching and his teeth clenched. “‘My idea’? How can this possibly be considered MY idea!?” Flam looked back with a calm expression and replied, “Simple. You advocated for it.” Flim stamped his hoof on the ground, causing the floor to shake. He turned from his brother and walked to the other side of the small room. He stood facing the wall with his eyes squeezed shut as he slowly said, “Let me get this straight. You mean to tell me that I’m the one who came up with this simply because I’m the one who sold it?” After a long silence, Flam shrugged and replied, “Well, partially. If you don’t think that’s true, I’ll gladly explain more.” This response hung in the air for a minute. The only sound was that of the ticking clock displayed on the wall. Flim whipped back around to face Flam, trembling in anger. “I can’t believe this!” he shouted. “In what world does this have anything to do with me!? I said that we should just keep selling cider, and you said that we had to adjust our ‘business parameters’. Not only was profit the sole motivator, but you didn’t believe that we could succeed with our original product!” With exasperation evident both on his face and in his voice, Flam replied again, “I said it then and I’ll say it now. Those Apples completely ruined our reputation. It didn’t matter that we had a superior product. Who do you think the ponies will believe: two small-time entrepreneurs, or the element of honesty?” “And? Do explain how this is my idea.” “You came up with many of the sales. Remember Friendship University?” Flim’s mouth hung open before he found the words to respond. “But I only came up with ideas because of you! You insisted we become con artists. If you’re so good with ideas and business, why couldn’t you figure out how to salvage our first one?” Flam’s calm demeanor finally cracked. He stopped, a mixture of offense and shock on his face. He took three steps back and swallowed a lump in his throat. He tried to speak, but Flim’s accusatory glare made him wither. Why had he felt that need? Why did he decide to resort to cons? Most importantly… Why did he feel so bad about it? He tried to shake himself out of his trance. Of course he had taken the logical route. Their business couldn’t prosper with the scorn of the element bearers, so he proposed an alternative course of action. What was so wrong with that? They had to live somehow. “Flam, I’m sorry.” This simple sentence was enough to snap Flam’s attention back into the real world. He noticed that he was shaking, but he was still thinking about what Flim said. I’m sorry. That was all. No request, no teasing, not even a proposed solution. That was very unusual for either of them. What made Flam even more perplexed, however, was the tone of voice. Even when Flim wasn’t selling a product, he usually sounded that way. Now, however, he didn’t. He was being completely genuine, which was something Flam hadn’t heard since they were colts. “Flam?” Flam looked at his brother. Flim was concerned, that much was obvious. No, it was obvious that Flim was concerned for him. Not the two of them, but specifically Flam. “Flam.” “Huh?” Flam finally responded. “Right, yes. Like I was saying, the best course for our business to take was to-” “Flam, I can tell when you’re trying to hide something. You’re not as good of a salespony as me, remember?” “So you keep reminding me.” Flam’s voice was dismissive, but his pupils were still dilated. “It’s important to keep our goal in sight.” “And what is that goal?” Unlike earlier, Flim’s voice was calm, almost consoling. “What do you really want out of this?” Flam furrowed his brow as he pondered the question. It couldn’t be the money; Flam could easily make it in the world of business. It couldn’t be the travel; he could go wherever he wanted… “What about you?” he asked, “What do you want out of this?” Flim smirked and fell back into his usual style of speech. “Nice try, brother of mine. I know a diversion when I see one. How about you give me an answer?” Flam finally said, “Money. It’s always been the money, hasn’t it?” Flim raised an eyebrow, eliciting a nervous chuckle from Flam. “Well,” Flam said, “that’s not entirely true. The truth is I don’t really know.” Flim gave an exasperated sigh. “Do you really expect me to believe that? You’re smart; I’m sure you can figure it out. I’m here out of necessity. Sure, I can sell pretty much anything, but that doesn’t matter if I don’t have something to sell. You on the other hoof… You can build whatever you want, whenever you want. I’m sure there’s more money to be had if you’re not always traveling.” “The truth,” Flam replied slowly, clearly thinking through the response word by word, “is that we’ve always worked together, ever since we were colts. We’ve been a great team all through our life, and our cutie marks even complete each other. I suppose I couldn’t think what it would be like if we weren’t a team.” This response left the room quiet once more. Flim was obviously trying to process what he had just been told, and he allowed the minutes to pass by. His face changed between confusion and realization before finally settling on the latter. “Okay.” Flim had a determined tone in his voice as he spoke. “We’re meant to work together; we’ve always known that, but we don’t need to be common scammers to be a team. We sacrificed our pride when we abandoned our unique products.” “That’s true,” Flam replied, also having reverted to his normal speaking voice, “so then there’s a question, isn’t there?” Flim nodded, his eyes alight with fire. “A question you’ve always been able to answer: What do we do now?”