Flim and Flam

Flim and Flam, collectively known as the Flim Flam Brothers, are twin salespony unicorn brothers who first appear as antagonists in The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 and return or are mentioned in later episodes, animated shorts, IDW comics, and chapter books. Flim is called Flim Skim in some merchandise.

Development
Their names are a play on a flimflam, a confidence trick or a scam. "Skim" has various definitions and meanings.

In The Elements of Harmony guidebook, show writer M. A. Larson states, "I particularly enjoyed writing Flim and Flam. They are villains, but they are designed to be charming and disorienting. They speak very quickly. They finish each other's sentences. They're in constant motion. Everything they do is designed to dazzle and confuse people, so they can shake your hand while they're stealing your wallet. You can see their charm in action when the song ends and Apple Bloom is 100 percent ready to take their deal. This is the reaction the brothers are used to. In the midst of the song, one of the brothers confuses Applejack enough that she agrees to give them some apples for their demonstration. And when you're writing characters like that, their energy and optimism infuses the actual writing. I wrote that episode very quickly because their dialogue flew through my head as fast as it appears on-screen."

On Twitter in mid-December 2015, IDW comics writer Jeremy Whitley was asked, "Was there meant to be more done with Flim, Flam, Iron Will, and Lightning Dust that got cut? They just kinda...disappeared.", and replied, "I'd actually like to do a ff [sic] with LD and IW. I stand by Flim and Flam as unrepentant opportunists".

According to M. A. Larson, Lauren Faust came up with Flim and Flam's names.

Season two
Flim and Flam first appear in The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 on their cider-making contraption of the same name and introduce themselves through song and dance. With Ponyville's citizens faced with the dilemma of a limited quantity of manually pressed cider, they turn to Flim and Flam and their automated cider production. The brothers attempt to broker a deal with the Apple family to allow themselves business in Ponyville, calling for a 75-25 split in profits in their favor. When the Apples deny the offer, Flim declares that he and his brother will drive Sweet Apple Acres out of business.

The brothers return the next day and provoke the family into a cider-making competition to garner the rest of the town's favor, declaring that whoever produces the most barrels will be the winner. The Apple family uses manual labor to contend with the brothers, but Flim and Flam's technology overpowers them. Applejack's friends offer their help to the Apple family, which the brothers permit, calling the Apples' tactics a lost cause. The additional help allows the family to produce barrels much faster and endanger the brothers' lead. In a panic, the brothers enhance their machine's suction and turn off its quality control setting, causing it to suck up whole trees, and pulping and mixing the apples with rocks and branches.

At the end of the competition, Flim and Flam have produced the most barrels and are declared the winners. However, their tactics have caused their cider to taste horrible, and all the ponies refuse to drink it. Realizing nobody in Ponyville wants to buy their product, Flim and Flam decide to try the next town over and beat a hasty retreat.

Season four
The brothers return in Leap of Faith, this time selling a product called the "Flim Flam Miracle Curative Tonic", using a musical number to hype it as a panacea able to cure any ailment and injury, and even restore youth, among other outrageous claims. The tonic appears to work on a crutch-wielding volunteer in the audience, who casts off his crutches after drinking it; and later on Granny Smith, who overcomes her crippling fear of swimming.

Suspicious of Flim and Flam, Applejack visits the brothers' tent that night and discovers that the volunteer pony, Silver Shill, is part of the brothers' act to promote the tonic. When confronted by Applejack, the two partially admit that their tonic is a useless mixture of apple juice and beet leaves. However, they point out that Granny Smith's blissful ignorance of the tonic's true nature is allowing her to relive her youth as an aquapony, and guile Applejack into silence by suggesting that she would be denying her grandmother that happiness if the truth is revealed.

The next day, Flim and Flam sell their entire stock of tonic to Granny Smith for her to perform at the Ponyville Swim Meet, while Applejack unwittingly approves of its apparent beneficial effects, boosting their credibility. They set up shop at the swimming competition, promoting Silver Shill to help sell their tonic. However, Applejack realizes the bad example her dishonesty is setting for others and, after stopping Granny Smith from performing a dangerous high diving stunt, reveals that the tonic is fake. The brothers try to save face by endorsing the tonic's placebo effects, but Silver Shill, inspired by Applejack's honesty, intervenes and further confirms the brothers' schemes. Defeated again, Flim and Flam hastily flee Ponyville before anyone notices their absence.

The brothers appear in a flashback from this episode in Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1.

Season five
In The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2, in one of the altered versions of the timeline, Flim and Flam change Equestria for their benefit.

Season six
In Viva Las Pegasus, Flim and Flam appear as employees at Gladmane's resort in Las Pegasus. However, the two opposingly sell performance tickets to ponies and frequently argue. When Applejack and Fluttershy are sent to Las Pegasus by the Cutie Map and find the two arguing, Fluttershy believes they were sent to help the two settle their differences, but Applejack refuses to help due to her past history with the brothers.

Through their individual investigations, Applejack and Fluttershy discover that resort owner Gladmane is intentionally causing arguments between the two brothers, as well as other resort employees, in order to keep them working for him. They inform Flim and Flam of Gladmane's trickery, and Flim and Flam help them expose his lies. After Gladmane is publicly disgraced and driven out of management, Flim and Flam take over ownership of the resort.

Season seven
In A Royal Problem, Flim and Flam appear in a large pile of bits in a dream bubble as Princess Celestia views the dreams of everyone in Equestria.

Season eight
In Grannies Gone Wild, the brothers' images are emblazoned all over the hotel formerly known as Gladmane's.

In Friendship University, Flim and Flam appear as the founders of the titular school. With the university, the two make promises of teaching friendship in half the time as Twilight's School of Friendship. However, the university is eventually revealed to be a front to fund the expansion of their Las Pegasus resort, forcing them to close the school and refund its students after Twilight exposes their scam.

Best Gift Ever
In the holiday special My Little Pony Best Gift Ever, Flim and Flam appear in disguise selling cheap Hearth's Warming dolls in Rainbow Falls, once again attempting to fund an expansion of their resort. Applejack and Fluttershy foil their scheme by convincing their customers to put more time and effort into their Hearth's Warming gifts. Flim and Flam are later run out of Rainbow Falls by their angered customers, and they are last seen riding the Friendship Express during The True Gift of Gifting.

Depiction in Equestria Girls
The human counterparts of Flim and Flam appear in the Rainbow Rocks short A Case for the Bass, where they run a pawn shop called "The Flim Flam Brothers' Everything-Under-The-Sun Emporium". The brothers try to swindle Applejack when she comes to retrieve her bass guitar that Granny Smith had accidentally sold them at a garage sale for two dollars. When Applejack proves her ownership of the bass, the two compromise her into working as their costumed spokesperson to pay off the instrument.

In My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rollercoaster of Friendship, Flim and Flam appear operating a ring toss game booth at Equestria Land which Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer waste all their park tickets unsuccessfully trying to play. At one point, they offer a free stuffed parakeet as a consolation prize, but Sunset refuses it. They later appear operating a bottle knock-down game which Rainbow Dash easily wins during Photo Booth.

Depiction in comics
Flim and Flam are mentioned in IDW comics', having swindled characters Flax Seed and Wheat Grass into surrendering the land their spa is built on.

They also appear in, selling parasprite repellent.

Flim and Flam appear again in, shown to have swindled Flax Seed and Wheat Grass out of their cart and another pony out of her sheep's wool. Princess Luna has Flim and Flam return the goods to all the ponies they had conned.

On page 12, alternate versions of Flim and Flam appear in a stained glass window labeled "Fairness". They are depicted wearing robes with a judge's gavel and the scales of justice.

In, Flim and Flam have a heated falling-out due to their fighting over a mare in Dodge Junction. At Apple Con 45, they promote their products separately. Granny Smith, initially suspicious of the brothers' motives, helps them reconcile because to her there's nothing more important or valuable than family.

In, Flim and Flam are recruited by Radiant Hope to orchestrate an attack on the Crystal Empire, using their Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 as a Trojan horse to smuggle changelings in. Over the course of the following issues, they are captured by the Mane Six and freed by King Sombra. By, they begin to have second thoughts about their role in the invasion.

Flim and Flam also appear in the My Little Pony Holiday Special 2017 comic swindling the ponies of Ponyville into buying "Windy the Windigo" merchandise. They even claim to have Twilight Sparkle's "princess endorsement"; Twilight uses this against them by claiming that, in keeping with the spirit of kindness and generosity that the holidays foster, all their merchandise will be given away for free. Knowing that the money they already conned out of the ponies is barely more than the cost of making the merchandise, Flim and Flam claim to have run out, and skip town immediately.

In, Flim and Flam sell hybrid plupearpples in Ponyville, using spring water stolen from the Ponyville Day Spa to water their plupearpple tree and casting blame on the Apple family for stealing the water. The Cutie Mark Crusaders expose their scheme and drive them out of town.

On page 12, Flim and Flam appear in Princess Eris' casino.

Merchandise
Flim Skim and Flam mini-figure toys and collector cards are included in the eighth wave of mystery packs, which feature the brothers on their packaging; the Flim Skim toy was displayed at the 2013 New York Toy Fair. According to Flim Skim's collector card, "FLIM SKIM of the Flim Flam Brothers loves to sing!" And according to Flam's collector card, "FLAM of the Flim Flam Brothers loves apple cider!"

In the Friendship is Magic Collection of toy sets, a mini-figure toy of Flam is packaged in one of six Story Packs, and a mini-figure toy of Flim is packaged with the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000.

Chapter books
In Fluttershy and the Fine Furry Friends Fair, Flim and Flam run the "Farnum and Failey's Top Hat Bunny Cabaret".

In Lyra and Bon Bon and the Mares from S.M.I.L.E., it is mentioned that Flim and Flam were briefly S.M.I.L.E. agents, but because they kept erasing each other's memories with their Reflection Deflections, they were dismissed from the agency.

HubNetwork.com description
''Flim and his mustachioed brother Flam ride into town on their Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. Doing a song and dance, these fast-talking salesponies challenge the Apple family to a cider-making contest. They win, but when everypony wises up to these Unicorns' wily ways -- the cider tastes awful! -- Flim and Flam hightail it out of town… perhaps to return again one day.''

My Little Pony mobile game description

 * Flim:
 * The brother of fellow salespony Flam, Flim sings and dances his way into Ponyville and attempts to sell low-quality cider, among other things!
 * Flam:
 * A traveling salespony, Flam has a mustache and can be found running the Balloon Pop Stand with his brother Flim.

According to the mobile game, Flim and Flam live in the cider machine. A promotional image posted by the official Facebook page of the game on May 27, 2014 uses fanart of the two Flim Flam Brothers, an edited version of the Flim part of which is to be used in the game itself.

The Elements of Harmony guidebook
''The FLIM FLAM BROTHERS are a pair of salespony tricksters who travel from town to town, using song and dance to trick ponies into buying their wares. But it's all just a sham—the Unicorn duo are often run right out of town when their faulty products and shady tricks are revealed!''

Volume II guidebook
''THE FLIM FLAM BROTHERS are sellin'! Which ponies are buyin'? Let's see those hooves! That was a trick to make sure all the smart ponies were paying attention. Flim and Flam are total shams! Run 'em out of town if ya see 'em!''

Quotes
"Don't worry, everypony, there are plenty of apples in Equestria. We'll find some others and make more cider than all of Ponyville can drink!"

- Flim, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

"With our machine, we can make enough cider in one hour to satisfy this entire town!"

- Flam, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

"Congratulations, Granny Smith! You just made the purchase of a lifetime!"

- Flim talking to Granny Smith, Leap of Faith

"Buy it now while supplies last."

- Flam, Leap of Faith

"That could mean anything."

- Human Flam, A Case for the Bass

"Likely story!"

- Human Flim and Flam, A Case for the Bass

"I'm two minutes older than you – don't you forget that, brother of mine!"

- Flam, Viva Las Pegasus

"I'm never speaking to that pony again!"

- Flim and Flam, Viva Las Pegasus

"I can't watch!"

- Human Flim, My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rollercoaster of Friendship

"Hundredth time's the charm."

- Human Flam, My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rollercoaster of Friendship

"I can see the headline now! 'Princess of Jealousy! Twilight Sparkle Bent on Ruining Her Competition!'"

- Flim, Friendship University

"Don't let the curtain hit ya on the way out."

- Flim, My Little Pony Best Gift Ever

"Buy one, get one free?!"

- Flim and Flam, My Little Pony Best Gift Ever

"Is there anywhere in Equestria two honest conmen can set up a scam without a member of the Apple Family showing up and ruining it?"

- Flim, page 2

"Drumroll, please!"

- Flam, page 15

"Flim Flam's Miracle Curative Tonic! Buy it now, while supplies last."

- Enterplay collectible card game α #155 U card of Flim