“You know, I don’t mind pulling the wagon,” Holly said as Knock Knock hitched himself in. She looked at her potential boss, hoping to get in his good graces.
“Save your strength.” Knock Knock looked over at Toot Toot and then back at Holly. “How ya feel about climbing stairs?”
“I like stairs. Good cardio. I don’t like elevators.” Holly’s quick mind made a connection and she looked at the mustachioed unicorn. “Why do you ask?”
“The next test involves stairs," Toot Toot replied.
Looking into the wagon, Holly saw several pony shaped dummies made of heavy canvas. They looked limp. And heavy. Her eyes lingered upon them for a moment, and then she looked over at Knock Knock. He was hitched into the harness now.
Toot Toot trotted over to the garage door, hit a switch, and then the door began to slide open on well greased runners. It didn’t make so much as a single creak or a squeak. Holly suspected that something awful was about to happen, something involving a lot of exercise. She was glad she had eaten a big breakfast. She made ready to follow after the pair, wondering what was about to happen.
“Age before beauty,” Toot Toot said to Knock Knock as he gestured his friend through the door.
“Why I oughta…” The unicorn paused in the doorway and shook his hoof at the pegasus. “I should tell Holly to knock you down again.”
“Boss, there ain’t no need for that, just wait till she hits you.” The pegasus shook his head and then looked at Holly. “Ain’t nopony ever hit me that hard. Ever. I’m gonna be feeling that for weeks.”
“What if there is an emergency?” Holly asked.
“We have personal alarms,” the unicorn said. Knock Knock pulled out into the street and picked up his pace as Toot Toot hit the switch to lower the door. “We won’t be going far… just to the Grunderson Tower… and then maybe to the district two training substation depending on how our visit to Grunderson Tower goes.”
“No maybe about it, we’ll be going. I don’t know how to quit,” Holly said, grinning with confidence.
As the wagon pulled up in front of Grunderson Tower, Holly craned her head back to look up. She felt dizzy and a powerful sensation of vertigo made her legs wobble. She suffered the peculiar sensation that she could fall upwards at any moment, into the sky, where she would just drift away. She jerked her head down and gave it a shake.
“Thirty two floors,” Knock Knock said, watching as Holly gave her head a shake. He turned and looked at the earth pony standing at the doors. “Howdy Fescue, how is life treating you?”
“Fine, thanks for asking. New recruit?” Fescue replied.
“Yeah. We’re gonna send her up the stairs.” Toot Toot looked at the earth pony, grinning. “You don’t mind watching the wagon, do you?”
“Not at all,” Fescue replied.
The pegasus walked up to the earth pony and dropped a few bits into the pocket of the earth pony’s jacket. He patted the earth pony with his wing and then nodded. “We don’t know what we’d do without this place.”
“She don’t look like much,” Fescue said.
“Fescue, ever been body checked by a professional roller derby skater?” Toot Toot asked. He took a step back from the earth pony. “You should try it sometime. I highly recommend it.”
“I’d leave your jacket in the wagon,” Knock Knock said to Holly. “Or you could leave it on. But I’m trying to give you a fair chance. On the job, you’ll be wearing a jacket and lots of other gear.”
“Heavy gear.” Toot Toot walked over and then lept up into the wagon. He rolled a dummy over and began to pull out some straps.
Holly slipped off her coat and stood ready, not knowing what was going to happen next. The air was freezing cold and right away it bit into her now exposed skin that had been protected by her heavy woollen coat.
“Each one of these dummies is approximately the weight of one adult pony. They work on averages. Some are heavier, some are lighter, this is to give representation of mares and stallions. They are dead weight and filled with sand. We’re going to lash two of them to your back and then you’re going to up the stairs. Got that?” Knock Knock looked down at Holly.
“Got it.” Holly nodded.
Toot Toot grunted and lifted up the canvas dummy. He laid one over Holly’s back, watched her shift around, saw her legs flex, and then she nodded. The pegasus lifted another dummy out of the wagon and tossed it over Holly’s back. He watched as she distributed the load over her back and then she nodded again.
“Look, in case the two of you chowderheads missed it, I’m an earth pony.” Holly’s ears pinned back. “And I thought you’d said that I’d be wearing a bunch of gear? How does this simulate working conditions?”
Knock Knock’s mustache quivered and one bushy eyebrow raised.
“How much gear will I be wearing anyway?” Holly asked.
“All your gear will be about seventy to eighty pounds. You’ll have a coat, protective leggings, air tanks, a respirator mask, a maul, a halligan bar, a water supply, and other assorted gear,” Knock Knock replied. “Toots, give the little lady what she wants. Give her two more bodies.”
“Boss?”
“One body will weigh more than her gear, the second will be a good representation of carrying three waterlogged bodies on her back. Give the lady what she wants. If she can make it up the stairs, she’ll be fine. If she can’t, she fails.”
Toot Toot gave Holly a pleading look. “Hey, you don’t need to impress us, there is no need to show off.”
“I can do the same amount of work that any stallion could do. I’m not a little lady, I’m not weak, and I don’t need to be coddled!” Holly snapped.
The pegasus looked at the unicorn, shrugged, and then went to work pulling another dummy out of the wagon. With a grunt, he hoisted it up into air, and then dropped it down on Holly’s back. He pulled up another, lifted it, and with a great deal of care, placed it on top of the others. He pulled out some rope and handed it to Knock Knock.
Saying nothing, Knock Knock began to tie the rope around Holly, securing the four dummies to her back. He worked to secure the four bodies, gave a few tugs, and then he checked his knots.
“You know Holly, we don’t actually have any earth ponies that work for us, doing this sort of work.” Knock Knock came around and looked Holly in the eye.
“The wagon pullers?” Holly looked at the unicorn, confused.
“Never fight fires. They’re part of a different union. Those same ponies also pull garbage wagons and other heavy city wagons. It’s been a long time since we’ve had an earth pony doing this job, at least in our firehouse. I know there is an earth pony that works across town, but he’s near retirement and he manages the station out near the beach.”
“Us pegasi and the unicorns, we ain’t got the sort of strength you do. Most earth ponies don’t choose this sort of life… too dangerous. You ain’t got no wings to fly away from no skyscraper if things go wrong and you ain’t got no magic. All you got is guts, and you got plenty of guts from what I’ve seen.” Toot Toot patted Holly on the shoulder.
“And no unicorn with common sense takes this job. Too much hard work, too much danger.” Knock Knock pointed at the front door of the building. “We’re a brotherhood of idiots and madponies. We do this job because somepony has to do it.”
Encouraged, Holly nodded, bounced her knees to test her load, and then took off for the front door, ready to climb some stairs. She paced herself, took deep breaths, and was glad for her years of strength training as well as the hundreds of hours of cardio.
With each step, Holly left behind a puddle. Her whole pelt was soaked with sweat and her muscles spasmed. Her legs burned with all of the horrible agony of the damned down in Tartarus. She took a few more stairs, hit the landing, stood there for a moment, her mane plastered to her broad neck, sweat dripping down to the floor. Her sides were covered in a fine, sweaty lather. Her mouth was dry and it felt as though her tongue was going to split open. She turned her head and looked over at the floor marker.
Floor #9
Resigned to her fate, she stepped forwards and mounted the next flight of stairs. Hard concrete stairs with no give in them, no flexibility like there was with wood, nothing to absorb the shock. Each step sent spears of excruciating pain up her legs. Her spine cried out in protest from the weight and the angle that it was forced to bear the load under.
Almost in a stupour, she kept going, placing one hoof in front of the other, working her way up the stairs, hitting a landing, turning around, and then climbing more stairs. It was easier just to shut her brain off and rely upon her stubborn nature to carry her through.
Her mind drifted back to the very first roller derby training camp she had attended…
Stretching out her neck, Holly looked down at the heavy weights that had been strapped around her legs and anchored just above her roller skates. The weights made her legs heavy, it was difficult to lift them, it was hard to even move them. Her instructor had explained that living with the heavy weights on her legs would make her stronger. Once she learned how to skate with the heavy weights around her legs, she would be a better skater when she took them off.
Wobbling, Holly made her way forwards, trying to keep her balance and not fall over like everypony else was doing. She started rolling, kicked out her hind leg for a little more speed, and then went straight down to the floor, slamming her chin into the wooden floorboards. She saw stars in her vision. She flopped around, struggling to get up, which was much harder than she expected in both roller skates and what felt like several tons of extra weight. When she was almost on her hooves once more, she took another tumble, this time smashing her snoot into the floor. Hot blood dribbled from her nostrils and she heard hoofsteps approaching. An instructor was coming over.
Holly kicked a weighted leg in their direction to shoo them away. Gritting her teeth, ignoring her split lip and bloody nose, Holly struggled to get her hooves beneath her. She fought to rise up, trying to keep her balance on her skates. She stood, had a moment of elated triumph, and then went straight down, muzzle first, her snoot plowing into the wooden floor once more.
Floor #29
Gasping for air, Holly kept going. Rivers of sweat poured from her body now. She thought back to that fateful day that she had kept trying. It had taken over a dozen stitches in her face and an experienced trauma surgeon to make the bleeding stop.
Holly had learned though. She had learned how to use the weight to her advantage. With the weights on her legs, she had learned to rocket along at impossible speeds, breaking multiple speed records at a young age, in roller derby training camp, all while still wearing her weights.
She had figured out momentum and had used it to her advantage. She had been using it ever since. Holly gagged; it felt as though she had shards of broken glass and sand lodged in her throat. She kept going though.
“Holly? Oh cheese and crackers, Holly, you’re a mess!” Knock Knock looked down at the mare making her way up the last few stairs, but knew better than to offer help. “Toots, look after her. I’m gonna go get some water.” The unicorn darted off out the door and into the hallway, vanishing from sight.
“Come on Holly, I’ll help ya get that gear off, just a few more steps,” Toot Toot said to Holly as he waited at the top of the stairs. “I can’t believe you just climbed up thirty two floors, you’re some kind of crazy, you know that? Most ponies quit at floor twenty and we hire them because they’re good enough, nopony has ever made it to the top before, but Knocks said you’d make it up here. I called him a crazy fool who’s been huffing fumes for too long...”
Holly reached the final landing and then just stood there. “There are no more stairs,” she croaked, her voice dry and raspy. “That all you got?”