It was a couple of days after the eventful night at the Wall Flower Theatre.
Load Bearing, wearing a business suit, stepped out of the Stone Wall Building and crossed the road. He arrived at the cafe to see the five earth ponies he was scheduled to meet sitting at table,waiting for him.
“Didn’t expect you all to be sticking around,” He commented.
“We wanted to make sure Stone Wall was dealt with,” Notary replied. “After all the effort we put into this we didn’t want the worm to somehow slither out of trouble.”
“Trust me that ain’t happening.” Load Bearing assured her. “He will be facing the full wrath of the Equestrian Legal system.”
“I also hear the Board has placed you as CEO,” the white mare replied. “Congrats on the promotion.”
“Thanks, the board thought it would help repair the company’s image if they made the pony who took down Stone Wall the new face of the company.” The unicorn explained. “It’s only for the interim while we clean up his mess.”
“Well for what it’s worth, you’re miles ahead of the last guy,” Filthy Rich stated.
“Thanks though I realise that isn’t much of an accomplishment,” Load Bearing replied. “You know, your entire plan hinged on you being able to convince me to help you, what would you have done if I hadn’t?”
“We would have switched to another variation of the plan,” Cheerilee responded.
“Variation?”
“There were about 16 variations to the plan you witnessed at the theatre,” Notary explained. “Only about six of those variations relied on you helping us.”
“One of those variations involved me actually reassembling the ballista inside the boat prop and firing it,” Heavy added.
“I had been hoping for that one,” Big Mac stated, then noticed the looks he was getting. “What? It seemed wasteful to go through all the effort of stealing the darn thing and not fire it at least once.”
“Yeah speaking of the ballista, what did you do with it?” Loading Bearing asked. “It is technically still Stone Wall Security property and Trigger Happy has been kinda antsy about getting it back.”
“Don’t worry, the day after the show we did the responsible thing and sent the authorities an anonymous tip for where to find it.”
Sweets Cannoli and the remaining members of the Cannoli family were filing into Al Dente’s restaurant. He was looking rather sombre from having found out what had happened to his brother.
“Set up a meeting with the Clarinet family.” He ordered his lieutenant. “Don’t come across as desperate but make it clear we’d be open to a partnership.”
“Will do boss,” Stromboli answered.
They stopped when they noticed something strange in the middle of the restaurant.
“What’s with the overgrown crossbow?”
The door banged open to the sound of blaring whistles.
“FREEZE! THIS IS THE GUARD! PUT YOUR HOOVES IN THE AIR!!”
“I’m sure once the police are done processing it you will get it back.”
“Good to know. There’s one last thing to take care of.” The unicorn pulled out a cheque and gave it to the cartwright. “Mr Roller, I can’t apologise enough for the trouble my former boss caused you.” “It’s not much, all things considered but hopefully it should cover the expenses for this trip and have some left over for your troubles.”
Heavy looked down at the cheque and his eyebrows rose a bit at the number of zeroes on it. “I’ll make sure it’s put to good use. Thank you.”
“Well I better get back to work,” Load Bearing stated. “Hopefully next time we meet, it will be under better circumstances.”
As the unicorn left, Heavy looked down at the cheque one last time before holding it out to Filthy. “You were actually the one that covered most of the costs for this adventure.”
“And I consider every bit of it well spent,” Filthy replied. “You were the reason we’re all here so you deserve that money.”
The cartwright looked around and saw the other three ponies nodding in agreement. Finally, he pocketed the cheque.
“Listen. I can’t thank you all enough for what you did.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Big Mac replied.
“I mean it, if there’s anything I can…”
“Seriously, don’t worry about it,” Notary interjected. “Big Mac made a massive payday collecting the bounty on Gelato and his crew, Filthy Rich was able to buy the Wall Flower Theatre for a song, no pun intended, and I managed to gain enough dirt on a few corrupt officials that it has made this trip more than worthwhile.”
“Sort of cheapening the moment, aren’t you?” Filthy asked.
“Would you rather he feel needlessly indebted to you?” Notary shot back.
“Point taken.”
“Wait,” Heavy cut in. “You bought the Wall Flower Theatre?!”
“Yes I did,” Filthy replied. “When I had been pretending to be Subtle Service, I slipped the theatre manager a card of the ‘client’ that had been looking to buy a theatre. With Load Bearing trying to unload wasteful assets, they got in touch and made me an offer.”
“What exactly are you going to do with it?” Cheerilee asked.
“It’s a theatre on Bridle Way. So long as it’s managed properly it will pay for itself in no time.” Filthy replied. “Though I was thinking of changing the name. Tell me, how does ‘Nocturne Theater’ sound?”
Heavy stared at Filthy. “You want to name the theatre after my wife?”
“Only if it’s alright with you.”
Heavy was silent for a moment. “Oh she would have hated that idea. She would say that a Royal Guard doesn’t do it for the recognition or glory and that if she was doing her job right, no pony should notice what she had done.” He paused for a moment. “If you change the name, could you also put up one of those commemorative plaques?”
“Of course,” Filthy said sincerely.
“Then I would be honored,” Heavy replied.
“Excellent, I’ll go take care of the necessary steps for the name change...and maybe go pick up a few gifts to take home. It was a pleasure working with you Miss Notary. The rest of you I’ll see back at Ponyville.”
At that the business stallion took his leave.
Heavy returned his attention to the remaining ponies.
“I know you want to downplay this, but I am really grateful for what you did. Especially you, Notary, you didn’t even know me and you still put your neck on the line.”
Notary shrugged.
“Even at my worst I still believed in making Equestria a better place. This trip feels like it was a step in the right direction.” She then developed a grin. “Though why are you still here? I have it on good authority you have a date to go get ready for.”
That piqued Cheerilee and Big Mac’s interest.
“Really?”
“It’s nothing,” Heavy said dismissively. “Turns out that Trigger Happy is a fan of my ‘Mr Magic’ days so when she found out who I was she offered to take me to dinner so we could discuss some of my alleged work. It’s nothing serious.”
“Well good for you,” Cheerilee said. “After all this you deserve a little fun.”
“Thanks,” Heavy noticed the time on a nearby clock. “Though Notary’s right. I should go get ready. Take care.”
With one last wave, Heavy Roller walked off.
“Think she’s gonna offer to take him out to breakfast too?” Cheerilee asked.
“Eeyup.”
Notary cleared her throat.
“Listen, while we started off on shaky ground I will admit that you were a critical part in the success of this mission.” She held out a hoof to the red stallion. “It was a pleasure working with you.”
Big Mac looked at the outstretched hoof. “Oh come here.” He pull the white mare in for a big hug. “We just took down a scumbag together, that makes us almost as good as family.” He released a somewhat stiff Notary when realisation struck. “Speaking of family, Aunt and Uncle Orange would skin me alive if they found out I came to Manehatten and didn’t stop by to say hello. Y’all have a safe trip back home.”
“Thanks,” the dazed mare replied. “You too.”
As Big Mac left and the shock wore off, Notary turned to Cheerilee.
“You certainly do keep some interesting friends.”
“The funny thing is that out of my friends, Big Mac is probably the least interesting,” the teacher replied. “So what’s this about you finding some dirt on some corrupt officials?”
“Turns out that Stone Wall was paying off some officials to look the other way,” Notary explained. “I found the names and financials to prove it.”
“And what do you plan to do with it?”
“Nothing, it was in the file Bear gave to the authorities,” Notary explained. “I’m out of the blackmailing game but the Princess wants the nobles to clean up their act, it’s only right that other officials also be held to the same standard.”
“Fair enough.”
After a moment of comfortable silence Notary let out an uncharacteristic chuckle.
“I have to admit, in hindsight this adventure was actually a lot of fun.”
“More fun than Niegh Orleans?” Cheerilee asked.
“Well I’ll actually remember this adventure,” Notary replied. “And this time I didn’t end up married to you.”
“See? That attitude is exactly why our marriage didn’t work out.”
The two mares burst into a fit of giggles.
Finally Notary spoke again. “You know, Stone Wall was bad but he’s not the only scumbag out there. The nobles are playing nice right now but there are still rich and powerful ponies that take whatever they want.”
“So what? You think we should assemble another team and go out into the world, conning the scumbags and helping the little guy?” Cheerilee asked, when Notary only gave a half shrug the teacher replied. “You know, the younger me would have jumped at the idea but the older me knows that we all have lives to get back to. Besides, a pony can only act dishonest for so long before they actually become dishonest.”
Notary sighed. “That’s true. I suppose I was wrapped up in the romance of it all, a group of loveable rogues using their talents to make the world a better place."
Cheerilee gave her a hug. "Oh Notary, there are a million ways a pony can make the world a better place. They don't need to be rogues to do it."
"That is true."
"And right now what would make my world a better place is if a friend would come join me for a quiet drink at this Jazz bar I’ve heard so much about."
Notary rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Alright but only one."
The late autumn sun shone brightly through the windows of Ponyville’s only wagon repair shop. It didn’t follow a conventional organization system but everything was where it needed to be.
Spare wagon wheels of various sizes are 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.
Two wagons, both in need of some tender loving care, took up the main floor space. A third one, lacking wheels, was winched up in order to get at the springs.
And to the cartwright, the workshop never looked better.
Heavy Roller was busy preparing his tools for the day ahead when Scootaloo came racing in. “Hey Dad, I know you have a busy day today but could you take a look at my scooter? The back wheel is wobbling again.”
Heavy gave a small chuckle. Busy was an understatement. Funny things happen when the town’s only cartwright goes away for a week unexpectedly. He tends to come back with a pile of jobs waiting for him. The three wagons that were in the shop were just the ones that had been dropped in last night. He was expected at least another three to be dropped in today. Still, there was no way in Tartarus he was going to let his daughter loose on the town with a wobbly scooter.
“Sure I can. Park it up here and we’ll take a look.”
Scootaloo lifted up her scooter with a quick “thanks dad,” and Heavy got to work inspecting the scooter and making adjustments. Scootaloo at first was content watching her dad work until she noticed something. It was a photo that had fallen on the ground. She picked it up to have a closer look.
“Hey dad, is this you?”
Heavy looked up from the scooter and saw Scootaloo was holding a picture of Heavy back from his smuggling days. It was must have fallen out of the file Stone Wall had brought.
“Yeah,” Heavy admitted. “A long time ago.”
“I can’t believe you wore your mane like that.”
The cartwright raised an eyebrow. “This coming from the mare that hasn’t willingly gone near a brush in over two years.”
“Hey I brush my mane,” Scootaloo said defensively. “It just gets messed when I’m riding.”
Heavy just rolled his eyes as he took a closer look at the photo. He had never been ashamed of his Mr Magic days per se but as he got older he grew amazed at how dumb his younger self had been. Dumb name, dumb fashion sense, dumb attitude. He was a cocky little moron who thought that he was somehow smarter than the rest of the world and that he would never get caught. So out of touch with reality that it’s a miracle he hadn’t been caught sooner.
Still, when he looked down at the eager little filly standing beside him, he had to admit that maybe the moron had managed to get a few things right.
“Hey Scoots, did I ever tell you about how I met your mom?”