Ditzy woke up to the sweet smell of baking blueberry muffins. “Mmmmm!” She sighed appreciatively while stretching the sleepiness out of her limbs. She sat up and looked toward the kitchen almost giddy with anticipation. “Muffins!” She exclaimed in a voice that seemed to belong to a much younger filly. She threw off the quilt and bounced up to the breakfast bar.
“It doesn’t take much to get you to rise and shine.” Abacus chuckled at her antics, happy that she was in a good mood.
“Nope! You know muffins put me in my happy place.” Ditzy beamed.
“Why is that?” He was suddenly curious and couldn’t help but ask.
Ditzy bit her bottom lip and her left eye went straight up while her right eye seemed to point at her nose. Abacus recognized this as her thinking face. “I think it’s because I was always happy when my mom made them when I was a filly.”
“Okay, why did they make you happy whenever your mom made them?”
Ditzy made her thinking face. “They made the house smell good, they seemed to put mom in a good mood, and I knew I was going to have something to eat at home for two or three days.”
Abacus was stunned. “You didn’t always have something to eat at home?”
“Well, there was always grass at school and at the park.”
“Yeah, except in winter.”
“That must be why she made muffins more in the winter!” Ditzy smiled like she was proud of herself for making the connection.
Abacus was horrified. He knew the common turf found at schools and parks didn’t have enough nutritional value. Ponies, especially yearlings, needed oats, grains, and flowering grasses like alfalfa or clover. And here she was telling him she had often made a meal of grass out of necessity.
“Ditzy, I want to help you try to find another job here in Manehattan. Do you want to start brainstorming about your strengths and talents and what jobs might fit you before I have to leave for my class?
Ditzy giggled, “Brainstorm! That word is funny!” She snorted. “Sure, I mean, what else am I going to do?”
“Okay, great!” Abacus said, trying to keep the positive energy going. He magically picked up a pen. “What do you think is your best quality?
“Ummm, I like ponies?”
“Okay, you are saying you are outgoing and friendly.” Abacus interpreted. “What else?”
Ditzy was thinking again. “I don’t get hurt easily?”
“Hmm… We’ll put…ability to handle physically demanding work?”
Ditzy nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah!”
“What next?”
Ditzy looked positively stumped. “Ummm… What do you think?”
Abacus felt uneasy. He really wanted her to do this with as little influence from him as possible. “I don’t think I should answer for you.” Ditzy’s expression fell.
“I have an idea, why don’t you tell me how you earned your cutie mark?”
Ditzy’s flat appearance didn’t change.
“You don’t remember what you did to earn your cutie mark?”
Ditzy shook her head.
“Do you remember the day you earned your cutie mark?”
Another head shake.
“Who first noticed that you had your cutie mark?”
“One of my mom’s friends.”
“Really?” Abacus said in shocked disbelief.
“Mmm hmm, she said something like, I had the mark she should’ve had: champagne bubbles.”
Abacus stared at her, speechless.
Ditzy continued on. “I think I was the first in my class to get my mark. That kind’a made it hard ‘cause I didn’t know what I had done to get it, so it became something of a game for the other colts and fillies to make up what my ‘special talent’ must be.” Then her eyes seemed to focus on something far beyond the kitchen wall, and her voice went dark.
“They didn’t make up very nice talents. They guessed falling into ponds, staring at floating bubbles… ‘cause, you know, my eyes could follow two different paths at a time. They guessed farting in the bathtub… that one got a lot of laughs… Ditzy chuckled hollowly, the type of ironic laugh that exists only to keep one from weeping or cursing.
They also guessed cleaning.” Ditzy’s unblinking eyes began to visibly water. “They’d say, ‘Oh, Ditzy makes so many messes, her special talent is cleaning now ‘cause of all the practice she gets with soap’, and oh, how I hated that!” Ditzy’s face twisted and her voice came to life, seething with anger. “I hated that one more than any other!” Just as quickly as it had arrived, the anger left, and her voice became mournful.
“It’s kind’a funny… That’s the one you would think is the least hurtful, but, that’s the one I hated the most. You see, my mom told me the same thing.”
A tear formed and began its slow, halting descent. “She…she told me; ‘I’m so glad you got a soap bubble cutie mark, ‘cause now I know you can clean up after yourself’. And after she said that, I always did. It didn’t matter if it was a broken pickle jar with sharp slivers of glass everywhere, or if it was a pitcher of apple juice, or if it was a jar of paint. I could clean it all up by myself, because that was my talent. And the next day it better not stink, or be sticky, or leave a stain, ‘cause I have the special talent of cleaning. Whenever I spilt something from then on, she’d just throw a towel at me and tell me to use my talent.”
Ditzy blinked. Then her eyelids fluttered with a little shake of her head like she was waking up from a daydream or a short nap. She wiped her face with a hoof and stared at the wetness on her hoof like its origin was a mystery. Then she just wiped it away on her thigh. “So, I guess you can put down that I can clean.”
Abacus didn’t know what to say. He had always known Ditzy had an unpleasant home life, but revelations like this never ceased to shock him. His understanding of her would always be as one who tries to plumb the depths of a pool by looking down from the edge. “I…I think the muffins are done.”
Goldie had been excited to come to work. She couldn’t wait to tell Ditzy’s story to the members of the firm. She was so certain that somepony would want to take the case, but all she had heard were negatives. Some said too little money was involved. Others claimed they had too big of a caseload. Some wanted publicity, and this had not enough exposure. The list went on, and her hope was getting dim.
So now, she was standing in front of the office door to the founding member of this firm: Mr. Coldwing. He was her last chance to find a lawyer here where she worked. Mr. Coldwing was a griffin, a hardened attorney, and had a reputation for never taking a case pro bono. Nevertheless, just before lunch, she resolutely walked to his office so she could honestly say she did everything she could have possibly done. After breathing a heavy sigh, she knocked on his door.
“Come in.”
His voice was deep and foreboding, and hearing it she nearly lost her nerve. She forced a pleasant smile and walked in to see Mr. Coldwing already looking impatient and tapping a talon on his desk. “Good morning!” She managed, hoping she sounded pleasant and not terrified. “My name is Golden Sweet, and I work in the...”
“You are one of the legal aides.” He interrupted her. “You started last year.”
Goldie was unsettled by his abrupt manner and stammered. “Y…Yes, that’s true…Uh, I mean, that’s correct. I…”
“I hear your work is competent.” He interrupted her again, “I’m glad you are employed with us, but I will not write a recommendation for you.”
“Huh?… A recommendation? No, I wanted to see if...”
“I said your work was competent, what makes you think that you deserve a raise.”
“Umm, No…I…I’m not here to ask for a raise either.” Her response caused Mr. Coldwing’s gaze to rise a hoof-span and his eyes to widen by a hair, but somehow, it seemed that he was now finally looking at her.
“Mr. Coldwing,” Goldie began, feeling emboldened by his silence. “I am here to ask you to take my friend’s case against her former landlord. She was unjustly denied her security deposit and I want her to be represented."
Mr. Coldwing blinked. There was enough of a pause to make Goldie feel the pinpricks of sweat on her brow. “How much is her security deposit?” He asked at last and pulled out a sheet of official letterhead.
Goldie swallowed. “200 bits.”
She had thought he would take offense. His one hour consultations were about that much. To her amazement, He didn’t bat an eye, but just scribbled a short note, folded the paper in half, and held it out. “Take this to my secretary, she will write you a check for that amount.”
Goldie took the note and slowly unfolded it with her hooves.
“Are you doubting me, Miss Sweet?”
“No.”
“Then what is the problem?” He was tapping a talon on his desk again.
Goldie felt a contradiction within her. She felt as though she should just give Ditzy the bits. She needed them after all. But it didn’t feel right within her being, her soul. An image of her holding Ditzy as she wept went through her mind. Then she remembered her promise to Ditzy. I swear to you now, I will do my best to see that she regrets saying that to you!
Goldie sighed. “With all due respect, Mr. Coldwing, I don’t want your bits.”
“Then what do you want, Miss Sweet? My time is worth more than this case. That is why I am willing to settle with you. What difference does it make to your friend if she is recompensed by me or her landlord?”
Goldie hoped she didn’t sound preachy. “The difference is in principle. If I take this from you, the offending party is has felt no repercussions for their wrongdoing and will feel free to molest other tenants in like manner.”
“So you want to punish the landlord?”
“No, I want justice for my friend.”
“Are you hiring me to pursue punitive damages against the landlord?”
“No, I am asking you to take this case pro bono.”
Mr. Coldwing blinked. “Who told you I would take a case pro bono?”
“Nopony told me you would. Quite the contrary, in fact. Everypony here insisted you would not now, nor have you ever taken a case pro bono.”
“Do you believe them, Miss Sweet?”
Truthfully, she did then, but now…now some new insight or intuition whispered into her consciousness. “I believe you have not taken a case pro bono since you started this firm. However, I also believe you did love the ideal of justice in your youth, and that drove you to become a lawyer. I believe that as a young attorney, you did pro bono work when your heart guided your case load and that you worked, and sacrificed, for the satisfaction of seeing the strong fail and the right prevail.”
“You are a hopeless idealist, Miss Sweet.” Mr. Coldwing said with derision. “You better just take that note and go. You won’t get a better deal.”
Goldie lay the note down on his desk and looked straight into his eagle eyes. “I will not get a better deal anywhere else, but I will get more justice than you are offering my friend here.” With her hoof she slid the paper toward him, and turned to leave.
“What is driving you to reject this offer, Miss Sweet?”
Goldie looked at him. “Yesterday, my friend Ditzy lost her job. She immediately went and moved out of her apartment because she knew she would not be able to afford the next month’s rent. She was trying to do what was right, and her landlady, Mrs. Nagneigh, should have been grateful. Instead, she took advantage of Ditzy. She insulted her and withheld her deposit. She treated her worse than a degenerate or a squatter and laughed at her as she left.”
Goldie held her fore hooves in front of her like she was cradling an infant. “I held the emotional wreck of a pony that was my friend. I listened to her recount her humiliation. I handed her the tissues and rocked her as she cried. I swore I would seek justice for her. I knew I would have to do it, because she doesn’t think herself worthy of anything good. Ditzy has had a hard life. Her mother was abusive to her. If that wasn’t enough, she also is walleyed and has suffered all kinds of maltreatment because...”
“Did you say she is cross-eyed?” Mr. Coldwing interrupted again, but this time he sounded curious.
“No, I said she is walleyed.”
“From an accident?”
Goldie thought a moment. “No, I believe it is a congenital condition. Ditzy has always remembered being walleyed.”
“Your friend, Miss Ditzy, is it?”
“Miss Doo. Her name is Ditzy Doo.”
“Is she a unicorn?”
“No, she is a pegasus.”
“A walleyed pegasus…” Mr. Coldwing stood up and paced behind his desk. “There may be more to this case than I thought.” He mused. “Bring your friend, Miss Doo, to my office tomorrow. I want to speak with her directly.”
“I recorded all relevant information right here.” Goldie magically conjured the legal folder she made from her notes and guided it over to him. “She doesn’t need to come in.”
Mr. Coldwing took the notebook with a claw and began scanning its pages. “Have her come in to my office at nine in the morning. Sharp. I will decide then if I will take her case.”
Goldie stood still in disbelief.
Mr. Coldwing glanced up at her. “Good day, Miss Sweet.”
“Y…Yes, Thank you…Good day.” She left his office in a daze. Something…something was…strange. She went through their conversation in her mind. Nothing seemed amiss. She shook her head. She had better things to worry about than the reason why the firm’s tough-as-nails top attorney had a sudden change of heart. She had work to catch up on while she was running about trying to get Ditzy a lawyer. And, now she had to drop by Abacus’ apartment to tell Ditzy the news. Tomorrow at nine, sharp. Hopefully, he will remain curious take the case.
“Okay, just hold still.” Abacus told Ditzy as he climbed up the ladder behind her. He had bought an electric ceiling fan with lights to install in his apartment to replace the lonely light fixture. A secondary motive was to test Ditzy’s mechanical aptitude for a possible career in construction. However, he was feeling quite out of his element, and it was taking much longer than he thought. She had taken the light down, and was now holding the ceiling fan for him to wire in. It was embarrassing to admit, but it was too heavy for him to lift with his magic, and he couldn’t twist the wires together either.
“How are you doing, Ditzy?” He whispered in her ear as he leaned forward against her back, his head right by hers.
“I’m fine” Ditzy answered. In truth, she was much better than fine. This was so much fun! She had taken the old light down and despite Abacus’ constant yelps for her to be careful, she hadn’t dropped anything or shocked herself. Now, she was easily holding up the motor assembly that he had struggled with, and he was stretched out against her back, pressing her against the ladder, trying to twist the wires together using both his hooves and magic. Ditzy was already smiling, but now she felt a subtle change in how she smiled. She felt so warm and safe. Like she did when she had freshly baked muffins, or when he hugged her. She felt every movement of his body against hers as he struggled with the wires above them. Ditzy closed her eyes. This felt so good! She wished that this project could last forever!
“Ah!” Abacus slipped and grabbed Ditzy’s shoulders to steady himself. “Sorry!” He apologized nervously.
“It’s okay.” Ditzy answered dreamily. It was like he was hugging her again, and his hugs made her feel safe, and as warm as muffins.
Fifteen more minutes later, Abacus breathed a frustrated sigh. “I can’t get it. I’m stretched too far over your back.” He stepped down and off the ladder.
Ditzy sighed too, in disappointment. He wasn't leaning on her anymore.
"I don’t know how we are going to get this.”
“What if I hold it up without the ladder?”
Abacus tried to keep from rolling his eyes. “Um… how would you do that? You aren’t tall enough.”
Ditzy giggled. “I’m a pegasus, remember?”
“Yeah, but how can you hover in here while holding the fan in place?” He stated skeptically more than he asked.
“Like this!” Ditzy’s wings started beating and she pushed the ladder over to Abacus with her hooves.
“Whoa!” Abacus caught the ladder. “Ditzy, what are you doing?!”
Ditzy knew what she was doing. It was easy. she lifted her hind legs up and hovered her body under the fan; smiling the whole time.
“Ditzy, you’re inverted!”
“Huh?”
“YOU’RE FLYING UPSIDE-DOWN!”
Ditzy giggled. “Of course I am! Do you think I didn’t know?”
Abacus stared incredulously. He was certain he was witnessing the impossible.
“Well, are you going to get up here and wire this?” Ditzy asked to stir Abacus into action.
“Oh! Right.” Abacus set the ladder back up and climbed, easily reaching the electrical box and wires now without Ditzy on the ladder. A few twists, and the electrical wires were connected. The grounding wire was more troublesome, as it required a screw and screwdriver, but it made far simpler now that his vision was unobstructed and he could use his magic.
Ditzy was having no problem holding the motor steady. Flying upside down was fun! It made the world look funny. She watched Abacus as he worked. He was directly in front of her. So close, she was sure she could tickle his neck with her tongue. She breathed in deeply and caught his scent. He smelled like textbooks and summer afternoons. And of course, the spicy fragrance of magic. Her eyes closed and she inhaled deeply again. She could smell his musk now. He was nervous and straining, but to her he still smelled delicious!
“Done!” Abacus announced triumphantly and stepped off the ladder. “Can you hang it from here?” He asked as he pulled the ladder away.
“Sure.” Ditzy answered confidently, albeit a little disappointed. She wished this project could last forever! She maneuvered the motor by feel until it made a solid connection. Gingerly, she released her hold. The motor stayed put, securely in its cradle.
“Great job!” Abacus said as he was rubbing his shoulders. “Do you want to land and use the ladder now?”
“Why?”
“I thought you might be more comfortable on your hooves.”
“No, I’m fine.” Ditzy turned to face him, still hovering inverted, and held out her fore hooves. “Just hand me what I need for the next step.”
There was a knock on the door as he was handing her the last fan blade and screws.
“Come in!” Abacus said.
The door opened and Goldie walked in. “Hey good…” She stopped and stared at the gray pegasus still hovering upside-down under the fan base while she screwed in the last fan blade. “Ditzy?” She asked warily as she walked around to see Ditzy’s face, which had one eye closed and her tongue poking out the side of her mouth in concentration.
Goldie looked over to Abacus. “How…?” She inquired, too stunned to finish her question.
Abacus was still staring at Ditzy as well and shaking his head. “I don’t know, but I’m not going to ask questions until she’s finished.” He walked over and gave her a quick kiss. “Good news?” he whispered.
“I think so.” She whispered back. “I’ll tell you in a minute.” And she kissed him back with soft, unhurried, motions that remind you of waves rolling on a beach.
“Done!” Ditzy announced proudly, as she tucked a wing and rolled in the air to land on her hooves. “Oh,” Ditzy caught them mid-kiss and blushed. “I um…” She started to look for a way out.
Goldie pulled away. “Oh, good! That looks wonderful!” She immediately remarked on the ceiling fan to lessen Ditzy’s discomfort at her seeing them kissing. “Did you do this all by yourself?”
“No,” said Ditzy.
“Yes, said Abacus. Goldie glanced between them. “Essentially she did it all.” He went on to explain. “She removed the old fixture, and if I could have lifted the fan’s motor magically, she would have done it all. She may just have a future in construction.”
“Oh!” Goldie looked genuinely pleased. “Now I know what pony to call if I need help at my place.” Ditzy beamed.
“Of course,” Abacus conceded easily. “So what did you find out at work?”
“I think it's good news.” Goldie said like she was treading thin ice. “One of the attorneys is interested in your case, Ditzy.”
“Really?” Ditzy’s smile seemed impossibly wide.
“Yes, but he hasn’t agreed to take it yet.”
Ditzy’s face knotted in puzzlement. “So… What’s that mean?”
“He wants to meet you tomorrow, in his office, at nine o’clock, sharp.” Goldie emphatically stressed each requirement. “So dress nice, and be at my work early tomorrow morning.”
Ditzy nodded, with obvious concern about the importance Goldie placed on the expectations she had to meet. “I… I will!”
“So who is the attorney?” Abacus asked, also sensitive to the anxiety Goldie was experiencing.
“Mr. Thaddeus P. Coldwing the third, esquire.”
Abacus eyes widened. “The griffin? The head of the firm?”
Goldie felt her flanks tighten, she hadn’t realized till now how truly nervous she was. She nodded her head to answer. She didn’t trust her voice.
“Wow,” Ditzy said feeling terribly uncertain about the whole affair, “are you sure about this?”
Goldie suddenly felt an urgent need to use the restroom. “Yes, absolutely.” She forced out a cheery affirmation from her constrained lungs. She even managed to smile while she did it. “Now if you will excuse me.” Goldie disappeared into the bathroom.
Ditzy looked worried. “I don’t know about this Abacus. I don’t want to put her on the spot.”
“Then look nice, and don’t be late.” Abacus replied. “He wants to meet you, and the only way to keep Goldie’s reputation is to follow through.”
Ditzy looked over to the bathroom door. “I hope she’s done soon.”