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// Prologue  
// Story: Nonpareil 
// by TheOriginalSS 
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Within the two small cradles of the Manehatten hospital, two young foals started to softly cry and squirm.

Both foals were a light tan, with a mix of red and white hair which clung to their bodies. Both had long legs for newborn foals, and had unicorn horns. They were twins, so the only difference between them was the patterns on their hair. However, they were wrapped up in blue blankets at the moment as they gently moaned and cried a bit.

They’d been born only three minute apart from the other, both passing smoothly and without incident. The doctors had left the room after they were safely wrapped up and in their cradles.

The mother, a light brown pony named Dusk Dancer, slowly picked one of them up. Dusk was a light brown pony with a small streak of light tan going down her back. Her hair was curled up into little braids, which was a dark black. She had sparkling yellow eyes, and upon her flank was a cutie mark of a pony dancing, which was, in fact, her special talent. She smiled with her motherly smile and lightly kissed the younger foal’s head, stroking his red and white mane.

The father, a pony named High Profit, smiled while he picked up the other. He was a soft maroon color with slightly gray hair, which he slicked backwards into a professional looking hairdo. He had three bits for a cutie mark, symbolizing his success as a business pony. He stroked the mane of the one he held, and then he looked to his wife.

“What should we name them, dear?” He asked, looking at the tan foal as he cried out.

The mother blinked and she looked at the small book of names they’d written down. However, their book had been based upon if they were two separate foals, who didn’t look similar. She wasn’t sure what to do since they’d come out twins.

Thinking, the mother decided she liked the idea of them being named similarly, so she looked over at her husband and she asked, “What if we named them after you?”

“What, High Profit?” He giggled and put the foal he was holding back down in Dusk Dancer’s hooves. He smiled and sat down by her, kissing her cheek gently, then the foal’s. His chest swelled with pride as he saw the little foals start to find the spot to suckle.

“No, I meant like based off the idea of profits,” She smiled, “What kind of name would suit them?”

The father thought about it slowly, turning around and looking down at the floor in thought. He thought about his business, his profits, everything he knew. He turned and looked at his three-bit cutie mark and started to try and imagine some names.

“Uh…Buyer and Seller?” He put forward, then he went red with how absurd that sounded.

Dusk Dancer laughed and she patted their heads, “Well maybe if they were going to be buiseness ponies! But I want them to have a name that, if you don’t look into it, than they can be anything they want to be!”

The father thought about words that the common pony wouldn’t know about buiseness. He imagined charts, diagrams, numbers, statistics, everything he could think of. The name just wouldn’t come to him and he started to give up when he suddenly thought of a possible solution.

“What about…Flim and flam?” He asked, taking their name from the term FlimFlam. 

The mother nodded and she tapped the youngest one, “He’s Flim,” She giggled, then looked to the older one, “He’s Flam.”

Flim gave a little baby yawn and cuddled his head into the mother’s belly. The pony giggeld and stroked his head as Flam wrapped his tiny hooves around Flim and cuddled him.

“Awh!” She gasped, smiling widely, “They’re already getting along!” She stroked their hair again, causing them to squirm closer together for warmth and comfort.

“They’ll be successful ponies if they work together.” The father smiled, “Just imagine how they’ll work in business if they work together!”

Dusk Dancer looked at him and she gave a slight ‘cluck’ of her tongue, “Now honey, we agreed we wouldn’t try to force them into anything! They have to find what they’re good at together!”

High Profit sighed and nodded, sitting down and kissing each foal gently before he pulled the blanket up to their forehooves and let them cuddle.

“We have the best foals ever.” Dusk Dancer declared with a smile, “One day they’ll be the best of brothers ever.”

“And one day,” High Profit kissed her head again, “They’ll be unequalled. As we say in our business, they’ll be nonpareil~”