Applejack looks perturbed at the state of New Canterlot. While buildings do seem to be emerging in due time, most of them are what would logically be built at a time like this. Homes for the needy, buildings for key facilities, waste management and governance.
A hotel, a motel, or even an inn appears to be off the table, not that she blames the ponies. Some needs are just greater than others.
"Well, Twi, looks like we'll be roughin' it till this is done, lessun' you got a house packed in there," she says with an agitated tip of her hat, glancing askance at the unicorn's usual over-packing.
"Oh, well, I have to admit, this is... It's not good," Twilight said, uncharacteristically lacking in vocabulary or solutions, the two mainstays of the purple bookworm.
It absolutely was not the right place for her to be, something she realized as she stared around the slowly rejuvenating city that had sprouted on the crater that used to be her home. There was nothing. The things that were lucky enough to become rubble after Discord's return were things outside of the actual blast radius. Everything else was so obliterated that the new streets of New Canterlot practically sparkled once the black soot was washed off, a glassy smooth shell, flat and serviceable for new growth.
She, for a brief moment, felt a touch jealous of the ponies on Star Road. It seemed for all the world that they were far more prepared to quickly make an unfamiliar place home for themselves. She tried to stomp out the feeling, and replace it with sympathy for individuals who had no choice but to become skilled at making themselves at home, metaphorically and otherwise, but the feeling had come, and that was sufficient to bring her some shame.
"Let's... Let's see my parents, Applejack, maybe they've got a place we could stay in all of this," Twilight said after a long few moments.
Applejack seemed to notice and realize the reality of the situation, and bumped up against her friend dutifully. "Sorry, Twi. Looks like my troubles ain't the worst ones here," she mused, getting a sad nod from Twilight before they made their way down the wide open main street.
Thankfully, it seems there are benefits to being a student of the princess. While it wasn't quite what she remembered, Twilight Velvet and Night Light were far from homeless. A humbly sized home made of solid, immaculately sharp stone turned out to be their current residence, and after Applejack reported their location to the local mailponies for any correspondence needed while they were in the area, the two were welcomed warmly.
Unfortunately for Twilight, the welcome was the traditional fare of any proud parents, and was flush with embarrassing stories and photographs alike.
"Oh, and here's one of her after one of her little experiments turned rather hairy. The poor dear was inconsolable!" Velvet said, showing a picture of a teenage twilight, face utterly obscured by the overgrown hair of a malformed hair-growth spell gone wrong.
"Mom, please!" Twilight begged while Applejack did her due diligence in trying not to laugh.
Soon enough, though, around the time Night Light brought in a plate of hay-appetizers for the group to snack on as they talked, bad news inevitably came, in the form of a mailmare popping in with an urgent delivery to Applejack.
The earth pony read the letter with a growing scowl, before tossing it on the couch with a half-sigh. "Consarnit, Golden Apple's stalling. Court date got moved to a few days from now."
Twilight's eyes widened at this. "That's not good. I hope we can get this done soon, knowing our luck, the longer we stay here, the more opportunities there are for strange things to happen in Ponyville without us..."
Applejack smirks. "Maybe. I ain't worried though, Sweet Apple Acres'll keep without me for a lil while, cider season or no. With granny all fixed up, I pity whoever'd be dumb enough to cause trouble round the farm."
Today was going to be a VERY profitable one, or so two ponies thought as they interjected on one particularly thirsty day at Sweet Apple Acres, bursting into song over the cider running out for the day.
As they sang, more and more of the crowd was getting hyped up for their cider-squeezing machine, and it wouldn't be long before the whole town was excited and ready to start buying their product instead of whatever these hodunk farmers were able to make by hoof. The wonders of automation!
♫"Well you've got opportunity, in this very community!"♫
♫"He's Flim-"♫
♫"-He's Flam"♫
♫"We're the world famous Flim Flam Brothers! Traveling salesponies nonpar-"
Two unicorns find their large overblown musical number interrupted by a rather odd sound.
Crunch!
Everypony looks over to Granny Smith, who crushed an apple in a small wooden tub nearby.
"Oh, don't mind me boys, lotta thirsty folks, so I'm gettin' started on tomorrow's load a' cider," the rejuvenated and young Granny Smith said, crushing another apple loudly.
"Though. Iffin you don't mind me saying, I imagine ponies hardly need a song to get em cravin' a mug of cider, if yer offering," she continued after an awkward pause from the two brothers.
"Brother, I suddenly feel quite nervous for some reason," Flim mutters in a sotto tone to his brother, Flam.
"Yes, funny that," Flam responded, gulping quietly.
The crowd seemed to notice the proposal Granny Smith offered, and shifted from excitement to anticipation.
"Yeah! Hurry it up!" Rainbow Dash shouted, voicing the will of the crowd.
"Uhh, alright then! Of course, show tunes can hardly slake a thirst, we'll move on to the demonstration! If you don't mind ma'am, we could produce cider right this minute, with only some of your absolutely lovely-looking and decadently fragrant-smelling apples!" Flam said to Granny, who was receiving some looks from Applebloom and Big Mac.
Unlike the filly, who let out an "Umm" of confusion, Big Mac was quiet. Not because of his usual taciturn nature for once, but because he knew full well what Granny looked like when she had had just about enough of somepony's nonsense.
"Go right on ahead, boys," she allowed.
Nervously, Flim flipped on the machine and a hose extended from the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, floating over to suck apples straight from one of the nearby trees.
Ponies watched with excitement and unbridled thirst as the machine spun and hummed and whirred and buzzed, beeping and booping as it quickly began turning apples into cider.
"Now, here's where the magic happens, deep in the mechanical innards of our wonderous machine, these freshly plucked apples are being turned directly into high-grade, high-quality, high-octane cider that's bound to have you chomping at the bit to try it!" Flam boasts.
"Don't take his word for it, take a look!" Flam continues, pointing out the glass panel revealing the machinery's internal components churning away at the apples.
Granny walks up to the machine with an appraising eye, watching the device discard mushy or discolored apples after a brief scan.
"I see it's tossing out the bad apples. And I'm supposing it does that by sight, some fancy way or another, but how's its smeller?" she muses, glancing at the unicorns who blink at this.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, ma'am, but our machine does indeed visually inspect every single apple for quality assurance!" Flim begins
"No bruised or mouldy apples go into our high quality cider!" Flam interjects.
Granny Smith only raises an eyebrow "So it don't smell the ones that went and gone off on the inside. I suppose you can only get so much done havin' a robot doin' yer quality assurance."
Flim, who hadn't even realized that scent detection might be a problem, hastily pours a mug from the machine.
"W-well, I'd say the quality speaks for itself, assuredly! Then we can get right along to the part where we make our generous offer!" he says, offering it to the discerning Apple Family Elder.
After a sip, the crowd waits with baited breath for the matron's approval, going silent.
"You boys don't know what cider is, do ya?"
Flim and Flam turn red.
"Now just what its that supposed to mean?!" the moustached Flam barks out.
Granny shrugs. "It's tasty and all, but this ain't cider. It's sparklin apple juice. You do know the difference, right?"
"Wh-b" Flim stutters.
"I thought it was a mite strange for unicorn magic to make cider that quick, but I figured I seen stranger things, and iffin a mare weren't in possession of discernin' tastes, she might not tell the difference. Let's get those ponies their juice and we'll talk bits after, hmm?" she quickly said, allowing the crowd to distract the two brothers who suddenly had more immediate concerns in managing a large and thirsty crowd lacking in her "discerning tastes".
Applebloom's jaw was dropped as Granny Smith returned to their own stall.
"That was something else, granny! Where'd you learn all that?!"
Granny Smith waved a hoof. "T'ain't nothing. I seen a dozen of their kind come through Sweet Apple Acres and you'll see a dozen more by the time you get to be my age. Always some newfangled gadget or other. Every once in a while somepony comes by with something worth havin, so we gotta hear em out. Last time I didn't, the abacus done passed me by, and by gosh is that a handy little tool to have," she exclaimed as the two brothers stalked over, pasting on their winning smiles to cover up the minor magical exhaustion.
They hadn't exactly planned on actually supplying the whole crowd with cider until they had cozied up to the local apple farm, but they had no choice when the alternative was looking like a bunch of cons. (ideally, they wouldn't look like cons until the very end, of course.)
"So...! On to business, I'm sure we'd be delighted to make and sell cider-" Flam began.
"-Sparkling Apple Juice," Flim interjected, reading the room correctly for once.
"...Sparkling Apple Juice, and at a generous 75/25 split on the profits! We provide our unicorn magic to run the machinery, and you provide the apples!"
Granny immediately responded. "25's too high. We'll give you 20."
Before the two could splutter about how they were meant to get the 75, she continued.
"It'll be a novelty outside of cider season, we'll have to check the apples before you use em until your kit's up to par, visual inspection ain't good enough, and ponies could get sick if any bad apples get in, so we'd still be doing half the work. On top of that we'll get a hit to price without the Magic-Free Label until Applejack's done with her business up in Canterlot, and even on top of that, ah got some other concerns about that contraption of yers' that ain't completely settled yet."
"That's highway robbery! At those prices, we'd be better off as competitors than cooperators! Perhaps we should try our hooves at it, and see how your tune changes when we're out-selling your cider. There's plenty of apples in Equestria, after all!" Flam finally managed, Flim nodding with shock in agreement.
"You're right, I suppose. Couple a' proud young entrepreneurs, tryin' ta run the old fogies outta business, you might make a livin' that way, but then, if it were an honest livin' you were after, you'd take my offer. Though, I ain't so proud that I wouldn't have turned my nose up iffin' you were smart enough to make a counteroffer. I had a few little treats to sweeten the pot if you held out a bit more before threatening our livelyhood," she shrugged.
With that, she leaned in, and the two traveling salesponies leaned back, taken off guard at her open admission. "You two are right prideful of that thing, ain'tcha? If you were smart, you wouldn't have been offering to work that doohickey for us, you'd be up in Canterlot or Manehattan with a patent in hoof and the whole thing pawned off to some goons who'd do the selling for ya."
Flim and Flam looked uncomfortable at the familiarity of the statement, down to the towns they had tried to start their business in.
Granny nodded. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but that didn't rightly work out for you two younguns, now did it? Fruit market ain't kind to unicorns here lately, and you two just plain reek of 'inventors seeking capital'." she commented, knowing full well that when it came to produce, an Earth Pony is an Earth Pony, and everypony else was just about out of luck unless they had an awfully good gimmick.
Flam drew himself up. "Well, so what if we are a bit prideful? We're offering a fine service, and a finer machine, more than a match for any hoof-made cider! How about a wager, then-" he attempted, trying to take control of the negotiations.
Granny, of course, immediately took it back with a dismissive wave that deflated the unicorn's bluster. "Too old for gamblin' sonny. Now listen, and listen good. I'm an old mare-"
The two ponies looked confused at the mare who was visibly younger than they were, and Granny sighed.
"-Well I am, dang it, now listen, I'm an old mare, and that means I've sold apples since you two were in diapers. The way I see it, a couple of bruised apples are still fit for cider."
She leaned in further, tapping the wooden table. "You two want to make it big? Here's what you do, you sign up with Sweet Apple Acres now, while you can. There's about to be a storm comin' and agriculture's about to flip on its head. I can't promise you yer 75/25 split, that'll run us out of business," she admitted.
With a gesture, she pointed out towards Ponyville. "You know what I can promise you though? In about a month, every unicorn from here to Hayleyville's going to be rushing into the apple business as fast as they can, and you don't want to be going it alone when that happens. You work with us, we'll treat you fair, we'll treat you right, and you'll sell more cider than you can even make," she said firmly.
Applebloom interjected against Big Mac's silent warnings "Well, it ain't about the bits, granny-"
"Shush Applebloom, course' it ain't, but these boys came here for a deal, so either they get it or they'll go, and 'Magic-free' is about to be a dee-funct label, so we might as well get while the getting's good. These boys got a quality product, and ponies who ain't as nice as I am'll turn them into applesauce if they pull this stunt anywhere that ain't half as strange as Ponyville" she drawled.
At her statement about the Magic-Free Label, the two unicorns were suddenly very interested in what she had to say.
"...Ok, we're listening," Flim said, as the voice of reason.
It didn't take long for a proper deal to be struck, and as the two unicorn entrepreneurs half-stumbled out of the Apple Family home after being brought there to have its details hashed out and written up, Granny Smith shot Big Mac and Applebloom a look, plonking down into her rocking chair with a smug expression.
"So, you tell me, I lost my touch yet?"
Brother and sister shared a look before shaking their heads frantically. "Nope!"
Applejack smiled and laughed a bit to herself at the idea of someone trying to pull someone over on a young Granny Smith. "Oh yeah, the farm'll do juuust fine, Twi, don't you worry."