“Another day, another town wanting to stone us,” a weary voice sighed. The voice’s frustrated owner, a pale olive-grey male unicorn with moderate red and white mane and tail and dark green--colored eyes, then sighed and threw a few extra sticks onto the dwindling campfire. The fire illuminated the dusk night and two piles of clothes, each consisting of a vaudville-esque straw boater hat, black bowtie, blue and white striped waistcoat, and a white undershirt. “Ever since that failure In Ponyville, our luck has been in the gutter. Do you think we’ll get a lucky break soon, Flam?” he asked as he scratched his flank, which bore an image of a quarter of an apple.
“I hope so, Flim. We’re on the brink of having to sell our beloved Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 for scrap metal,” another voice said. This voice’s owner looked nearly identical to the owner of the first voice except with a red moustache. His flank markings resembled three-fourths of an apple.
“I pray it never comes to that, brother,” Flim sadly said as he glanced behind his back towards what appeared to be a red locomotive with various glass containers, a funnel, and other cider-making machinery built into it. Perched near the front of the vehicle was a gold podium with a microphone and wide red ribbon draped around the podium’s front and sides. A black couch was situated behind the podium.
“It won’t as long as we keep up at least two scams a month. The thing I worry about, though, is running out of potential suckers and ideas. It’s hard to effectively swindle now that that orange farmer’s extended family knows our tricks. Our parasprite repellent scam was a bust. Sure, we were able to sell the spa land we swindled from Flax Seed and Wheat Grass, but that only held us over for a few weeks. We spent all that money on making our Changeling detectors,” Flam said as Flim turned his attention back to his brother.
“We could sell fake elixirs that ‘promote’ the emergence of cutie marks and market them towards fillies with blank flanks. I remember we were so eager to have anything on out flanks. I’m sure some stupid kids would gladly fork over their lunch money for our product.”
“That’s a good idea on paper, but it wouldn’t take long for overprotective parents and child protection laws to red tape us out of business. We could work around this by labeling it as a health drink with positive side effects.”
“We could get the supplies and the ingredients from...,” Flim started just before his eyes grew wide and his gaze shifted slightly to the above right of his brother.
“What? What is it, brother?” Flam asked as he quickly turned around. Almost instantly, his gaze fell upon a glowing orange streak that seemed to be falling from the sky. The brothers stared, mouths now slightly open, as the streak disappeared behind the tall trees jutting from the forest’s horizon. A second later, there was a tremendous impact that launched a deafening crash that knocked both brothers off balance.
“What in Celestia’s name was that?” Flim shouted as he and his brother scrambled to their hooves, their ears ringing from the sound.
“Huh?” Flam shouted as the ringing started to die down.
“What was that thing?” Flim repeated, louder than what he intended.
“I’m guessing it was a meteorite. However, most of those are no bigger than half an apple. This one has got to be big in order to have made an impact like that,” Flam replied.
“Let’s find it and sell it to a museum or something,” Flim said excitedly as he used his levitation magic to pull on his clothes.
“Would anypony really believe that we conveniently found a meteorite worthy enough to sell? With our luck, the investigative team would just assume we’re trying to scam them,” Flam warned as he got dressed.
“So you would just sit here and miss out on a potential opportunity to make money?” Flim asked as he walked towards the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. “I’m going to find and sell that meteorite, with or without you,” he added as he hopped onto the vehicle.
“Wait,” Flam said as he snuffed out the campfire and then trotted up to his brother. “I’m in.”
“Then we’ll split the profits 50-50,” Flim stated as Flam hopped onto the vehicle.
“You’re getting ahead of yourself, brother. First, we need to find the meteorite,” Flam stated as he used his magic to start the vehicle. Pointing with a hoof as the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 rumbled to life, he added, “It landed about nine hundred feet that way.”
“How do you figure?” Flim asked as the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 maneuvered past the now dead campfire and towards the direction in which Flam was pointing.
“You took marketing and economics classes in college. I took calculus, horticulture, mechanical engineering, and other sciences. Trust me, brother, I know my vectors,” Flam answered, lowering his hoof.
“Alright, I’ll trust you. Your Masters degree hasn’t failed us yet,” Flam said. Shaking his head slightly, he grunted.
“Are you alright?” Flam said as the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 made its way deeper into the woods.
“Yeah… It’s just… I just had a quick mental image of myself surrounded by five-star meals,” Flim said, rubbing his eyes.
“Weird,” Flam commented. He then, opened his mouth to say something, but then shook his head.
“You just have it too?” Flim asked as he furrowed his brow.
“I just saw myself literally swimming in money,” Flam answered. “Let’s go to sleep after we confirm this thing is just a good-sized meteorite,” he suggested. “We’re both tired and on the verge of falling asleep.”
“What if it isn’t a meteorite? What if it’s something else?” Flim asked as he plopped down on the vehicle’s couch.
“What else could it be?” Flam asked as he took a seat as well.
“I read in the tabloids about an android that landed in Ponyville and healed a sick filly,” Flim said. “He might have returned and crash landed nearby.”
“What made him leave?”
“The article didn’t say. All it said was that the android healed a filly, did some stuff in Ponyville, then left. The source wished to remain anonymous,” Flim answered.
“Figures,” Flam snorted. Reclining back and pulling his hat over his eyes, he stated, “I’m going to take a power nap. Put her on autopilot and wake me up when we arrive at the impact site.”
“Will do,” Flim saluted, putting the vehicle on autopilot.