The Element of Concord

by Loyal Defender

The Flimflam Fluster

Once we got back to the castle, I explained my full report on the task at the farm.

"...and so, with that being said, Starlight and I have successfully completed our task. And, might I say, we made Applejack really happy." I said.

Twilight smiled. "Well, that's excellent to hear! I'm proud of you two!"

"I have to admit, I had a good feeling the lessons would start out efficient. And they indeed have. And, to add to the report...." I turned around, revealing Diamond STILL piggybacking. "A certain someone couldn't resist tagging along." I finished, laughing a bit.

Twilight giggled. "Well, she's been looking forward to seeing you."

"Heh, no kidding. But it's always nice to see her. Although, I kind of can't." I joked.

"You know, I never really asked....what was one of the craziest friendship issues you'd ever gone to solve, Twilight?"

"Well, there was this one time when Fluttershy and I went down to the Smokey Mountains to settle a feud between two families. Umm, a lot of pumpkins were thrown that day."

".....let me guess. The most insane literal food fight you could have experienced."

"There was a time when I couldn't tell if the sun was being blocked by clouds or the clouds of food flying between the two hills."

"...goodness. Well, surely everything worked out fine, I'm guessing. By the way, have you seen Chrysalis? She hasn't been around all morning. Normally, she'd leave a note saying if she left for an errand." I said. Sometimes, Chryssi tends to...wander.

"Actually, I haven't seen her in a while..."

Just then, a glob of some kind of green solquid dropped onto the table. We all looked up to see Chrysalis....on the ceiling. She was working on some kind of cocoon. There didn't seem to be anything inside. "Oh....hey, all!" She greeted.

"Err... Chrysalis.... what exactly are you doing...?"

"Remember how you said I could find a place to make myself at home, and if needed, I could make it out of the way? Well...that's what I'm doing." Chrysalis replied. "It's out of the way."

"I.... I didn't mean up there...."

Chrysalis used her magic (which was, thankfully, restored), to remove the cocoon from the ceiling. "Is it alright if at least *I* stay up here? It's such a nice view."

"Well, I suppose...."

Just then, the crystal door swung open, and Spike came running inside the room. "You....you guys gotta come see this!" He said.

"Huh? What's up, Spike?"

"The Flim Flam brothers are in town! And they're saying they...need help! They look seriously freaked out! I get this feeling they're not trying to scam."

"I think we should go help them!"

"Well... I suppose we should..."

As I went outside, Twilight and Starlight followed.

"Okay! You five have fun!" Chrysalis said waving with one hoof, before accidentally falling off the ceiling.

"......Ow."

We quickly headed into town, where, sure enough, two tall salesponies, supposedly the Flim Flam brothers, were in a panic.

"Somepony, please help us! We're in major trouble!" The one with a mustache said.

"This is the worst situation we could ever be in!" The one withOUT a mustache said.

"Huh, what do you know. It is them. I wonder what's going on?"

The pony without the mustache noticed Twilight. "Oh, Princess Twilight! Thank goodness you're here! My brother Flam and I were absolutely panicked! But it's a good thing you're here. Our machines have gone completely haywire! We can't even do BUSINESS because of that!"

"Most of our machines, the E-vaccum-ator, the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, AND Bob have all gone crazy!"

"...Bob."

"Our assistance robot...Bio-Organizer ‘Borg. Short for Cyborg."

"Please! You must help us! We'll do ANYTHING!"

"Err... We'll... see what we can do."

"Fantastic! Come! To the offices!" Flam said (I'm guessing the one with the mustache). He led us to a strange machine (I’d describe it, but...it’s so strange-looking, I don’t even know WHAT to describe), and pulled us onto it. Flam pressed a few colorful buttons and pulled some switches, and pushed a largely labeled ‘GO’ button. Within moments, the machine took off at a high speed, almost like a rollercoaster. ‘Thankfully, this machine wasn’t broken!’ Flim shouted over the screaming winds, holding onto his hat. ‘It’s convenient for travel....provided you get used to high-speed travel!’

I don’t know how fast we were moving or for how long, but the machine came to a screeching halt a bit later. ‘I hope this thing came with barf bags,’ I groaned, holding my stomach, trying not to toss my cookies. Before us stood a large series of factories and/or buildings, with typical smokestacks, and clanking sounds heard coming from inside.

"This is where most of our machines dwell. Impressive, is it not?"

"Wow. Well, I'll give you that."

"Unfortunately, Bob has sealed us outside. The doors are jammed with wooden planks, and not even our magic can open them."

I took this as a chance to be a bit heroic, and charged at the door, ramming it with my shoulder. What I slammed into wasn't wood...it felt like METAL. I leaned against the wall, rubbing my shoulder. "Who puts metal inside wood...?!"

"Ah, yes.....those aren't wooden planks. They're METAL wooden planks." Flam said.

"Metal wooden planks? What purpose does that serve?"

"So nopony breaks in that easily. You've no idea how valuable some of these machines are. Especially for scamming. Someone could use them on US."

"Oh, wait, I just remembered there's a secret entrance in the front...silly mind, doing its work at the wrong moment.." Flam said, smoothing his hooves across the wall, until one bumped into something. "Ah, yes, here it is!" He pressed some kind of secret button, which caused a chunk of the wall to slide down, revealing a secret entrance. Flim gestured to Twilight. "Alicorns first." He said.

"Oh, no, I insist, after you."

"Well...alright, then." Flim replied, before heading into the hall. Flam followed after. "You think they're trying to kidnap us?" I said to Star and Twi.

"No. I just have no idea what's down there and I would think even they'd know better than to send the princess in first."

Moments later, the main door opened, and Flam came out. "What do you know! The secret entrance lead to the entrance! Well...let's head on in!" He said, before we followed him in. Everything was shut down. No conveyor belts were moving....no machines were working...nothing was turned on.

"Anypony else getting a creepy feeling, or is it just me?"

"Something definitely gives off creepy vibes here. It's almost like this place is haunted or something."

"Welllllll....there MAAAAAY be a ghost or two here....possibly the ghosts of the ponies who lived here before they were crushed by a falling girder...?" Flam replied uneasily.

"What."

"Which miiiight explain why this factory was only 200 bits."

"But don't worry! Maybe they won't bother us.."

"And knowing my history with every mystery slash supernatural novel ever, the ghosts come out about.... now."

At that moment, the machines and everything turned back on, as if on cue. "D-does that count?" I asked.

"Machinery turning on on its own constitutes either a REALLY big power surge or a poltergeist, so yes, in all likelihood."

After walking into one room, bright lights suddenly turned on. A robotic voice filled the room. "WELCOME, MY GUESTS! I DO HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR VISIT TO FLIM AND FLAM'S FACTORY OF FABULOSITY!"

Out of the light came....a small robot, that looked exactly like a combination of Flim and Flam together.

"Uh, what the heck is THAT?"

"That's....Bob."

"...You made Bob.... look like you two."

"Yeah.....we felt like we needed....'another brother'".

“I think just you two dorks is enough..” I commented.

"I THOUGHT I KICKED YOU TWO OUT. FOR BREAKING THE RULES OF BREAKING AND ENTERING...YOU WILL BE ELIMINATED!" Bob said.

Then, several big tough metallic parts extended from his body. A laser eye...an energy cannon....and a giant hammer extended from within his body.

"....I forgot he does that." Flam said.

"Well. That's.... umm, interesting."

I stepped forward. "We're willing to help take him down."

Flim and Flam stood in our way. "No....it is US who must destroy what we created. You gave us enough courage to face the one thing we were afraid to stand up against..and only we know how to truly beat him...what can I say, when you’re panicked, you don’t really think about what you’re doing. So bringing you here....might have been just out of panick. And besides, chances are we’ll remember we can DO something about shutting him off...like how I remembered about the entrance, the, erm.....poltergeists, and now Bob having weaponry. Sure our adventure was short....but it was still worthwhile."

“So we just....leave.”

“If you don’t want to see what an explosion looks like up close, then yes.”

"Wait, wha-?"

"I know this might have seemed like a waste of time for you....but it wasn't. Knowing a Princess is around to protect everypony..even us...fills us with courage....with determination..."

"Thank you all..." Flam said.

"Wait, I don't understand!"

"You don't need to understand....you just need to live." Flim replied. "And we're not about to let you get hurt from one of our OWN creations."

Before we could do anything else....Flam quickly pushed us out of the room.

"What...just happened?" I asked.

"I... I don't know...."

"Well...we can't really think or do anything about it now. They're gonna sacrifice themselves trying to take down Bob."

"I'm not sure Applejack would be that concerned...."

Before I could say anything else about that comment, strangely, my mark started glowing. And Starlight's did, too. And so did Twilight's. Which could only mean one thing...

Author's Note:

This was one of those slightly random chapters, but I had to modify it a bit to make it less..random.