//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Flim, Flam and the Master Plan 
// by Broken Kindle 
//------------------------------//

   Flam repositioned the nozzle of the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy so that it sheltered his sleeping brother from the rain. The machine had taken a good few beatings and no longer worked in the way its creator had intended, but it made for better shelter than their straw hats or cardboard boxes. He had taken first watch again, sleep evading him in much the way they had evaded the projectiles thrown at them in whichever town they stumbled into. That had been before they had decided that living off the land surrounding towns and villages might be a better option, before they had discovered just how cruel other ponies could be. He cast a glance over to where his brother slept. Flim still walked with a limp in his right foreleg.
He folded one foreleg over the other as he looked back out at the surrounding wood and farmland, watching warily for possible dangers. Camping out like this in the middle of zap apple season had to be the worst idea they’d had yet, but there was simply no way Flim could walk the distance with his injured leg, and with his weakened body and magic Flam would have little hope of carrying him. They would just have to make do and hope the timberwolves didn’t get to them. The brothers had narrowly avoided them last time and Flam did not want a repeat performance.
Since the Ponyville incident things had been getting steadily worse. Sweet Celestia, Ponyville. It seemed like such a long time ago now. Flam understood why the Apples had objected so vehemently to him and Flim coming along with the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy. The family had been living and working there for generations, and the brothers were only there to make profit, after all. But a pony had to make a living somehow, and Flam couldn’t help but feel some resentment towards the residents of Ponyville for shunning them and spreading the news of what had happened. They had long since lost their trademark shirts and bowties, but ponies in the towns and villages still recognised the Flim Flam brothers and pushed them away.
Flam sighed. How had it all come to this?