The Dazzlings' Shrines

by HorsesandMOARGaloar

Arrival

Today was a horrible day for the Flim Flam Brothers: since somepony at Dodge City had exposed to the other townsponies about another of their flimsy schemes, an angry mob of ex-customers chased them towards their Super Speedy Cider 6000 - they modified it earlier, using their ill-gotten wealth, into a flying caravan for their wandering performance skits. All around their machine the townsponies pelted it with stones and whatever they could get their hooves on, and some pried open the trailer to snatch anything and everything inside. Not even the towns' constable and her forces would help them, but leave them to the cruel frontier justice typical of that region. And not even Celestia would send her guards to interfere, preferring to let her subjects manage themselves rather than forego defensive and ceremonial duties for tons of unnecessary paperwork, and a land under the not-so-stern watch of an otherwise-inattentive military force.

Flim, the energetic brother, kept on slamming the buttons, as the SSC only sputtered in the chaos around them. "Another day, another disaster!" he yelped. He looked back at several ponies prying open every box and container behind them. A grey pegasus, noticing them, threw a watermelon at the hind window. "How would we survive without all our cash and supplies suddenly lost -- "

"Quiet, brother!" Flam, that usually calm brother with a mustache, bit back. "Just forget the profits, and work on the engine without damaging the control panel!"

"But what about our business?-"

"Better to save our own hides for another chance!" He continued pressing some more buttons and pulling a lever for a few more times. "Come on, come on, come on!" he muttered, with each repeat more furious than the last.

Flim angrily gave the dashboard a kick. As if it was being fed up with their panicked shenanigans, the engine roared to life, and the vehicle shot up into the sky, scattering a colourful drizzle of upset lost ponies. It made several rabid loops, twirls and turns over the whole land, before it crashed, right into a vast mountain cave in the northeast, near a maze-like suburb that walled around two rows of apartments.

Fortunately, they survived, though Flam threw up just after he got on his feet.

Flim took a while to ponder at the smoking ruin of their vehicle: their home, their transport, their last means of support, without which they would have to be thieving beggars for perhaps the rest of their lives. He broke into tears and went down on his hind legs. "What are we supposed to do now, brother," he sobbed, "no longer having to enjoy our past comforts, but to fend for ourselves like the urchins we were in our colt years?!"

"Like I said, there will always be another chance," Flam replied. "Just keep your mouth shut, or some bat or beast might find us to eat."

They were stopped by a white stallion in a white cloak. On its train and sleeves silver angles glimmered by the setting sunlight behind them, as if in an incantation in some arcane tongue from the libraries of Canterlot.

"Flim and Flam, why are you here?", he cried. "How were you two doin' all that while? Another tale of cheating?"

The mustached pony groaned. "Then somepony will tell the authorities, and we'll spend another three years te be sentenced to toil for the Diamond Dogs," he muttered.

"We had some trouble out there at Dodge City- " Flim spurted. He was cut off by his brother slapping his withers.

"Err ... We happen to be lost, and we would like to find a place to ... stay for the night." He examined the pony's robes. "Saaay, you look like you're from the Canterlot Sun Temple. Are you some prophet or something?"

"Neither."

Flim looked further towards his features. "You look familiar, like that skiing superstar who ran off from the XVth Applewood Film Festiva-" The stallion then quickly hushed him, as though somepony might be listening.

"I am that stallion!" he hushed. "Just ... follow me."

He led them to what would be the most ridiculous spectacle they had ever stumbled upon.

"That ... is your shrine?" Flim chuckled. "A simple ball pit and an offering table full of cider mugs?"

"I'm not a priest, but just an actor for some film." He pointed to the "shrine". "All of that is my scene, and you'll be playing some roles with me."

"So where's the director, and who's filming it?!" Flam asked. Everything seems to be getting weirder for the two brothers, and it annoyed Flam very much.

"That's a secret for now. If you want a place to rest, just do as I say."

Author's Note:

This was inspired by some game of G-MOD I played with.