The late autumn sun shone brightly through the windows of Ponyville’s only wagon repair shop.
In a lot of ways the workshop inside was a metaphor of the stallion who ran it. It didn’t follow a conventional system but everything was where it needed to be.
Spare wagon wheels of various sizes stacked within reach of both the wagon jack and where a small pulley winch on the ceiling is able lift the wagons up completely. To one side was a small forge to make new pins and wheel hoops. To the other was a workbench with carpentry tools, all placed in order of what they were usually used in order to fix a wagon.
A half finished buckboard was propped up on blocks and the smell of sawdust and fresh paint filled the air. For anyone else, this set up would have been described as organised chaos. But to a bright orange stallion with a messy brown mane and a wagon wheel for a cutie mark, it was paradise.
Heavy Roller was making an early start on his work load. Even in a town as small as Ponyville when you are the only wagon repair shop there is always work to be done. He paused briefly as an orange blur sped past him, eager to make the most of the first day of school holidays.
"Bye Dad! Heading out to play with my friends."
"SCOOTALOO!" The young filly stopped at the sound of her father's voice. "Forget anything?"
"I remembered my helmet."
"Anything else?"
"Yes, I cleaned my room."
"Anything else?"
"Yes, I brushed my teeth."
In an act of fatherly patience, Heavy Roller gestured to his cheek.
"Oh." Scootaloo raced forward and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. "Love you dad."
"Love you too, have fun."
The filly raced out the door, past a photo of a beautiful pegasus mare trying her best to keep a much younger Scootaloo still for the photo. Heavy Roller gave a good natured roll of his eyes, her daughter was just as full of energy as her mother. If only she could have seen the fine young mare Scootaloo was turning into. With that thought he returned to his work.
That was until the bell above the door rang, signalling someone entering the wagon repair shop.
.
"Good morning," The repair stallion said cheerfully. "How can I ... help ... you..." His voice trailed off when he saw the type of ponies that had entered his store. In front was a stallion in an expensive three piece suit that had been tailored to accommodate the wings on his back. Behind him was a surprisingly burly looking unicorn.
"Good morning, Mr. Roller." The pegasus said as he pulled out a business card. "I am Stone Wall of Stone Wall Securities, this is my associate, Load Bearing."
"Well, welcome to my shop. So, what sort of wagon did you need worked on?"
Stone Wall gave Load Bearing a meaningful glance. The unicorn nodded and headed back outside.
"Is he fetching the wagon?"
"No." Stone Wall said. "He is simply ensuring that we are not interrupted."
Heavy Roller paused at this. "I'm starting to think that you've come to the wrong place."
"No, Mr Roller, I've come exactly the right place." Stone Wall said smugly. "Or would you prefer 'Mr Magic'?"
The earth stallion took a slight misstep that he quickly tried to cover up. "Why would I prefer a dumb name like that?"
"We both know why." Stone Wall replied. "Don't play dumb, you're not good at it."
"What do you want?" The repair pony said through grit teeth.
"I have some jobs that require a stallion of your talents."
“Well, unless those jobs involve busted up wagons then you've come to the wrong place."
Stone Wall didn't reply but simply pulled out a file. He dropped it onto a bench, letting it fall open, revealing documents as well as a picture of a younger looking Heavy Roller.
"Tell me Mr Roller. What do you think the ponies in this town would do if they knew how you spent your youth."
"They would congratulate me on having turned my life around." The earth pony replied as he defiantly closed the file. "My record has been cleared. I paid for all my crimes and became an honest citizen."
"The owner of the Moon Tear Necklace would say otherwise." Stone Wall retorted. "Tell me, do you think the state would let you keep your daughter if they had reason to believe you had reverted back to a life of crime?"
"I had nothing to do with that." Heavy Roller snapped, his anger rising.
"Well, this file tells a different story." Stone Wall replied. "And the best part is that you used your wife as an accomplice. To think that such an upstanding guard could be so corrupted is disheartening."
The business pony pulled out a train ticket and placed it on the counter. "What you have is two options, either you take that train to Manehatten in one week’s time and come to discuss the terms of our new partnership or the original file makes its way to the authorities and you never see your daughter again. Choose wisely."
It was late in the afternoon as Cheerilee stepped into the workshop. “Heavy Roller! Are you here?”
She stopped when she noticed the repair stallion at his workbench, staring intently at a ticket.
“Roller?” She inquisitively tapped the stallion on the shoulder.
“CHEERILEE!!” The stallion jumped into the air as he finally noticed the teacher’s presence. “What are you doing here?”
She raised an eyebrow. “We were supposed to have a parent teacher conference today. You didn’t show.”
Heavy Roller slapped his forehead in recollection. “Oh I’m sorry Cheerilee, I got bogged down with work and lost track of time. Can we reschedule?”
Cheerilee’s eyebrow stayed raised. Heavy Roller had never missed an interview and for someone who was ‘bogged down with work’ there were remarkably few wagons in the workshop. She then noticed the ticket he had been staring at.
“Heading to Manehatten?” She asked.
“Oh yeah.” He said a bit too quickly. “Just some business I need to take care of.”
He tried to reach for the ticket only for Cheerilee to abruptly slam her hoof over it.
“Funny thing about being a teacher,” She said in a level tone as she looked him in the eye. “You start being really good at telling when somepony is lying to you.”
“Cheerilee...” Heavy Roller pleaded. “It’s better you didn’t get involved.”
The teacher gave him a hard look before finally removing her hoof from the ticket.
“Come on.” She said as she started to head to the door. “Let’s go somewhere to talk.”
“I’m not really…”
“That wasn’t a request.”
Heavy followed Cheerilee to Berry Punch’s bar.
“Hey Berry Punch,” The teacher called as she arrived at the counter. “One order of Truth Serum and two glasses.”
“Coming up.” The bar mare called back.
“Truth Serum?”
Right on cue a couple of glasses and a full bottle of scotch slid into Cheerilee’s waiting hooves. She filled one glass and passed it to Heavy Roller.
“Now you either tell me what’s going on or else I make you down the whole bottle.”
Heavy stared at the the glass, realizing that Cheerilee was serious, before taking a long sip. He then started to explain the situation.
Including how he had spent his youth.
A wagon was travelling down a deserted back road. Pulling it were two stallions with a third one in the drivers seat
“I still don’t see why you’re not helping us pull this wagon.” Kickback grumbled.
“Because I’m the one who worked all night packing it.” Heavy Roller shot back. “Now quit complaining. We’re almost there.”
The trio arrived at a warehouse where a group of ponies in hoods and robes were waiting for them.
The wagon came to a stop as Heavy Roller jumped off to greet the buyers. “Well, hello there. Did somepony order a special delivery?”
The lead pony lowered her hood to reveal a mare.
“Are you Mr. Magic?”
Heavy Roller smile widened at the presence of a pretty face. “Indeed I am, and who might you be?”
“The buyer.” She replied as her associate opened a chest containing the bits that had been promised. “I trust you have the goods.”
“Oh somepony like you can definitely trust me.” The smuggler replied. “Now if your associates wouldn’t mind.”
The buyer’s associates made short work of getting the barrels off the wagon. They also gave the wagon a once over to make sure it was empty. All was going well until they opened the barrels.
“There’s nothing in these but nails.” One called out.
“Yeah those are mine.” Heavy Roller replied. “I passed a smithy on the way that offered me a good deal on them. You would not believe how many nails someone in my line of work goes through.” he then noticed the hard look the buyer was giving him. “Oh come on, you don’t think I would have made it through the three check points it took to get here by hiding the goods in barrels do you?”
“I don’t like having my time wasted.” The buyer said in a warning tone.
“I would never dream of wasting such a pretty mare’s time.” Heavy Roller said in his usual swagger. He then reached down between the wagon’s side and wheel hub and pushed a hidden button on the wagon. There was then a click and a hidden compartment built into the bed of the wagon swung open, revealing the slim packages of contraband he had been tasked with delivering.
“Impressive.” The buyer said in a tone that almost sounded like admiration.
“Well if you like I can show you a few more of my skills.” Heavy Roller said with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.
“Oh you’ve shown me quite enough.” The buyer opened her robe slightly to reveal the emblem of the Royal Guard. “You’re under arrest.”
Within 10 seconds, the smugglers were surrounded by formerly robe wearing guards, along with several more that had been in hiding. Heavy Roller let out a groan of frustration.
“Make sure the deal was legit.” He glared daggers at his compatriot. “You had one job, Lugnut! One job!”
“And that was how I met Nocturne.” Heavy Roller said wistfully. “Right from the start I thought she was the most beautiful mare I had ever seen. After we were caught she was also in charge of my interrogation. She offered me a deal. Apparently I was small potatoes. If I helped her take down my clients they would clear my record. I gave a counter offer: I help her take down my clients, she gets my record cleared and goes on a date with me. She punched me in the face and threatened to take any deal off the table but I knew she was interested.”
“Obviously.”
“Eventually I was able to wear her down and, once I had convinced her that I had honestly reformed she gave me a chance, then another, and another, and eventually we became an item.”
“And what is this about a ‘Moon Tear Necklace’?.”
“After we were married there was this function at some noble’s estate where the necklace was going to be put on display. Nocturne and I were still in that stage where we couldn’t keep our hooves off each other. She was part of the security detail there so I came to visit her. That night that necklace got stolen.”
“And you two would be blamed for it because...?”
“Because she wasn’t at her post when the Necklace was stolen. She managed to avoid an investigation by coming clean about what we were doing. It was a blow to her career but it was still better than being accused of theft. This file of his is full of lies but it’s compelling. If the case is reopened and I'm implicated, I may lose custody of Scootaloo." Heavy Roller looked at the teacher in dismay. “I’ve already lost my wife, I can’t lose my daughter too.”
“Could you report him?”
“It would be my word against his,” He countered. “and then once the file is released, Nocturne’s name would be worth mud and it would just look like I was trying to shift blame.”
"So are you going to work with this Stone Wall?"
"I may be out of the game but I still know how it's played." Heavy Roller said soberly. "The minute I do a job for him then he has me." He then banged his head against the table. “No matter what I do, I lose.”
The school teacher nodded thoughtfully, the gears in her head turning as she tried to assess the situation. Finally coming to a decision, she drained her glass before placing it on the counter.
"Come on."
The repair stallion did a double take. "Where are we going?"
"To get some help, if we're going to do this we will need more hooves on deck."
"Do what?" Roller asked. "What are you on about?"
"Ponies like Stone Wall... corporations like Stone Wall Securities, they have all the resources, they have all the power, and they use it to make ponies like you do what they want." Cheerilee explained. "Right now, you're suffering under an enormous weight. There's only one cure for that."
"Which is?"
"Leverage."