The apple was gone in seconds and Forelle missed it dearly once it had departed. The day slinked by with nary another word in her direction, let alone a sale. Ponies trotted throughout the market going about their day around her, apparently unaware of her existence. Still, she’d managed to make eight bits, that was eight more than she’d had when she’d left this morning and that gave her a little solace that it was not a wasted day. As the sun began to set below the hills to the west, she collected her basket, got up onto her hooves and dusted herself off. She still needed visit the post office to mail the letter she had written to her family that morning. So, a bit weary, she headed towards the town’s center, passing mares and stallions as she went. Because she was tiny, no matter which direction she seemed to go she felt as though she were trying to go upstream. There was much ducking and weaving to avoid distracted ponies as they went about their daily business. As she passed a peculiar grey stallion she tripped over a loose cobblestone, sending her toppling into his side. She apologized, though he barely seemed to register she was there, his eyes intently focused on the local preserves shop. When he was gone she noticed her mane was now a bit sticky, and smelled slightly of blueberry jelly for some reason. Forelle shrugged it off and continued on her way. There would be time to wash up later.
Eventually the crowd thinned out and she came upon the small, modest building that was the post office. She opened the door and took a step inside.
“Well look at what we got here brother of mine,” said a voice from behind her.
Forelle whipped around to see who was speaking but found the street empty of anyone who might have addressed her. She shrugged and opened the door again, only to trip over herself stumbling backwards from the lanky smiling stallion who now stood in the doorway.
“I say that is a peculiar sight, brother of mine!”
Forelle almost bumped into a nearly identical stallion standing behind her, except this one had a mustache. She jumped in surprise, losing her balance again and falling to the ground, the contents of her saddlebag spilling onto the street. She saw a flash of gold as her eight bits went spinning onto the cobbles.
Before she even realized it she was hunkered over them protectively, teeth bared at the strange stallions.
“Oh dear, Flim, I think this one believes we mean to rob her.” The stallion on the left pouted slightly.
“Why Flam, I know we haven’t been back to Ponyville in a while.” The stallion put a hoof to his heart. “But surely our reputations have not gotten that bad! I am wounded!”
“It just hits you right here doesn’t it?”
“Cuts me deep, brother! Very deep!”
“Right to the bone!”
“Right to the soul!”
The two flailed their hooves about dramatically, groaning and moaning as though they had suffered some grievous injury. They fell in perfect synchronization next to Forelle on the ground.
"That such a lovely mare would be driven to treat us like scoundrels at the very sight of us!” lamented the mustachioed one.
“That she would go so far as to bare her teeth at us like we were some wild game to be prayed upon! Oh woe is me!” his twin wailed. “Woe is you?”
“Oh so woe!”
Forelle tried to look at both of them at once and got a bit of a headache, her cheeks warming just a bit at being called a ‘Lovely mare’. She suddenly felt a bit bad for assuming the worst, but not bad enough to move away from her bits.
“Who are you two?...” she asked warily.
They both froze utterly still.
“She doesn’t know?” said one.
“She doesn’t know,” said the other.
They were both back on their hooves before she even had time to register they were moving, large, brilliantly white smiles plastered on their faces.
“Why I’m Flim.”
“I’m Flam, and together we’re...”
They both removed the odd hats they were wearing and waved them about enthusiastically.
“The world famous Flim Flam Brothers!”
Forelle tilted her head. “World famous?”
“That’s right,” said Flim.”
“World Famous,” said Flam.
Forelle looked from one to the other, still wary. “Then why have I never heard of you, in either ponyville or my homeland?”
Flim and Flam shared a look.
“We’re working on the details,” they said in unison.
Forelle lifted herself slightly, quickly collecting her bits in her hat and sitting it firmly atop her head in one swift motion. “And why is it that you have stopped me on this day?”
Flam pranced a bit closer settling to her left, his smile took on a slightly wolfish quality as he lidded his eyes. “Why is it a crime to say hello to a pretty filly on a fall evening?”
Flim took up the space to her right. “Why no brother I think it isn’t.”
Forell’s face quickly flushed red again at their proximity, she jumped back, shaking away the blush. She gave them the best glare she could manage. “If you are interested in me I must decline. I do not share that interest.”
Flim and Flam shrugged in unison. “Just a compliment.”
Forelle huffed with an angry glance. “I do not need your kind of complements. State your business and please be on your way if you would be so kind.”
“Ah! She wants to talk business!”
“Now, this is where it gets interesting.” Flim took his hat off and placed it over his heart. “I have to be honest, it was more than your looks that caused us to stop you today.”
Flam removed his hat as well. “Indeed it was, indeed it was. You see we have a proposition for you.”
Forelle raised an eyebrow. “A...proposition?”
Flim nodded. “We’ve been in town for a little while now, crossing through on our way to Manehatten. We were here in Ponyville once before you see.”
“Terrible stuff, gross misunderstanding and all that.” Flam shook his head.
“But now that we’re back, we’d like like to mend old bridges while we’re here, show these ponies the good we can do, and we’ve heard that you have something nopony else in this town has.”
“And...where did you hear that?” Forelle said still wary, though she felt a small pang of sadness. “Nopony even knows who I am...”
Flim tisked. “Not true, not true, what you mean to say is.” He sidled a bit closer, placing a consoling hoof around her. “No one has realized who you are yet.”
Forelle blinked, looking up at him. “What is it that you mean?”
Flam came up at her other side smiling softly. “What he means is, they don’t know just what you’re going to be and we do. We’d like to get in on the ground floor. Right now apples are the main thing in Ponyville, but they’re getting old.”
“Downright stale,” Flim nodded.
“Old hat really,” Flam continued. “My brother and I believe that it’s time for a new food to take the stage!”
“Something with novelty!”
“Pizzaz!”
“Chutzpah!”
Flim paused and looked at his brother “...Chutzpah?”
Flam nodded. “Chutzpah.”
They looped their armed together and waved their forelegs with a flourish. “Chutzpah!”
Forelle tilted her head, trying to figure out what was happening. “And...”
Flim pointed to the small basket of pears that had fallen earlier. “And we think, you have it.”
Forelle tilted her head. “I have....Chutzpah?”
“See! She agrees!” Forelle felt a hoof slap her heartilly on the back as Flam looked on in approval. “Chutzpah! Now, I’m happy to have your agreement, we’ll get started post hate, we’ll need your basket of pears to start and th-”
“What!? I agreed to no such thing! And my pears will stay where they are, unless you are willing to make payment for them!”
The brothers shared a look, before Flam’s smile snaked back across his face. “Why that’s exactly what we plan to do. But my dear have you never been to a business meeting before?”
“Business meeting?”
“Why yes, that’s what this is, is it not?”
“We are in front of a post office.”
Flam looked around for a moment, before stabbing a hoof in the air. “Business can happen anywhere! And it does! What I mean to say is, the pears are an...investment in us, so that we may make an investment in you.”
Forelle frowned. “I am...not sure I understand.”
Flim chimed in at her left. “What he means to say is, your pears are not selling well correct?”
Forelle didn’t say anything for a moment, then simply nodded.
“Well, we are salesponies.”
“Not just any salesponines,” Flam chimed in.
“The best salesponies,” Flim added.
“Why you could say, nonpareil!” They said at once.
“And,” Flam continued. “If your pears aren’t selling well, we’re the ponies you want to have on your side!”
Flim nodded. “Just takes a little trust.”
Flam nudged her side. “A little good faith.”
Flim nudged the other. “At most you’ve lost a few pears you can regrow. They’ll be bad in a few days anyway right?”
“And that’d be a shame.” Flam shook his head.
“Dead shame.” Flim agreed.
Forelle attempted to catch up for a moment. She looked back on the past few weeks. She’d seen many a basket of pears slowly waste away on her dresser. She tried not to eat them in case they could be sold later. She always hoped that someone would come by and buy them before they turned brown and mushy...but thinking back it was nearly every week that the only thing she had to eat were the mushy pears that nopony wanted.
Forelle sighed, looking at her hooves.
Flim tisked and wrapped a hoof around her. “Now, now, none of that frowning. Just give us the pears and we can turn that frown upside down.”
Flam’s hoof wrapped around the opposite side. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
Forelle looked up at the pair of them. Today had been a strange day, it had been quite a while since anypony had really given her the time of day. Yet today she’d not only met the ponies she’s secretly loathed and had them turn out to be not only kind, but customers, now she was faced with two strange stallions who promised to help her.
She looked down at her little basket of pears. She knew it was silly, but she felt as though they didn’t want go. They wanted to be sold, to be enjoyed by ponies for all her hard work, not given to suspicious strangers.
Forell’s stomach growled. She suddenly felt the weight of the letter in her saddlebag, of her family back home. She thought of her sister and brother, were their stomachs growling like that? If she did this...could she send them more bits? Perhaps afford a bit of food for herself? Pay her rent? What if things didn’t improve, could she really forgive herself if she didn’t at least try?
Forelle cast an apologetic glance at her basket, before grasping it gently between her teeth, and handing it to the pair of brothers.
The two of them were in front of her holding the basket before she could blink.
“You’ve made the right choice there miss!”
“Oh most certainly, you won’t regret it!”
They bowed, holding their hats out to the left.
“I...I hope I will not...if the two of you turn out to be...what is the word...con artists...then I...I will.” She started looking for something to threaten them with.
Flam tilted his head raising an eyebrow. “Now, now, we are indeed con artists.”
Flim nodded looking up proudly. “Best in Equestria!”
Forel blinked. “Uh...I am...lost again.”
Flam patted her shoulder. “Quite understandable, not your first language and all that. But do you know what con artist is short for?”
Forelle frowned. “Short...for?”
Flim swung a hoof up into the sky. “Why yes! Every word has a root young lady, and con artist is the same. Here in Equestria, and across the world.”
Flam’s hoof joined his brothers. “Confidence artists. And that’s what we are, because you my lovely mare, need a bit of confidence!”
Flim smiled widely. “And we are artists in confidence. So if you hear anyone call us such it’s a compliment!”
“Oh the very highest!” Flam nodded.
Forelle looked at her basket of pears, suddenly very worried.
The brothers caught the look and she found herself being pushed into the post office.
“Now, now, don’t you worry, just meet us in the market first thing tomorrow and we’ll start turning your luck around! Bring some more pears and we’ll get you started being the hot new thing in Ponyville!” Flam said at her left.
“Yep! Not a thing to worry about, now go about your business, don’t give it another thought.” Flim said at her right.
With a final push she was through the doors, she looked back as they closed to see the pair of them smiling at her.
“Bye!” They said simply, and before she could say another word, they were gone.
Forelle was left alone in the office, staring at the space where they used to be. She took a deep breath, suddenly feeling as though she’d either done something terribly wrong, or terribly right. She had the feeling those two often made that impression, but she hoped her choice was the latter. She reached into her saddlebag grabbing her letter between her teeth. She felt the meager bits she’d enclosed inside jingling as she placed it in the mail slot. She closed her eyes and released it.
As it fell into the dark she made a little wish. It was an old habit, from her days as a filly watching ponies throw coins into the fountains of Rome. As the bits rattled at the bottom of the shoot, she wished things would get better. Today had been strange...but a good kind of strange. She’d made some money, and had a bit of hope for the deal she’d made...even if she worried Discord might be in the details. She wished that tomorrow could be better than today, that her family would be well and that she’d see them soon and with a small whisper in her home tongue she opened her eyes.
For the moment, she was still in the post office, still terribly poor, and now quite pearless. But tomorrow was a new day, with it she hoped for new things. She turned and headed back to the boarding house, working her way through the crowds of ponies.
None of them noticed her stomach growling.
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Comments very much appreciated
-Squeak