Chapter 13
The winter day was sunny, almost dazzling, and the air was cold enough to almost make one’s lungs ache with each breath. Puddles in the street were frozen solid. The sun, just now rising off in the east, came up over the edge of the ocean.
The past few days had been busy, boring days. Alfredo had moved into a spare bedroom, a top floor bedroom with a large closet. The house continued its transformation, each day becoming a nicer and nicer place to live. Life in the firehouse was becoming routine. Still no major emergencies had struck while Holly was on shift. The morning hours seemed to be a quiet time and Holly supposed that disaster struck at night.
Having another pony in the house helped it not feel so empty. Alfredo was the quiet sort and so far, he kept to himself during his off hours. Holly had woken up to breakfast this morning though, which was surprising and nice.
“Extra! Extra! Town council member indicted in insurance fraud case! Facing five years hard time if convicted!” a paper colt shouted as Holly passed.
Holly shook her head, wondering if the council member had burned something down.
Sitting in the spotter’s nest, Holly stared through the binoculars, keeping an eye on everything. She didn’t mind this job at all. She liked sitting up here and watching everything. She liked pony watching and catching little scenes of life playing out as she kept watch.
Sitting up here allowed Holly to think, to reflect upon her life. Her successes, her failures, the major change of lifestyle that she was going through. Her cutie mark made her out to be a roller skater. She was good at what she did. She could keep going in the roller derby, but to what end? The life she lived felt empty. Each day, a new town, a new place, same old kayfabe drama.
She thought of the bitterness when she had to throw matches that she knew that she could win. She was fast, she was strong, and everypony knew it. So when Holly lost to some young up and comer that needed a bit of limelight, it always felt somehow like she was cheating the audience. Or when Holly had to lose to a known heel in order to continue a storyline.
The problem with being one of the biggest, strongest, and fastest… it made it very difficult to lose to some heel that was smaller, weaker, and slower. The writers always found a way though. A sabotaged skate. A crash. A gang up. Holly always wondered how much the fans knew, how much they understood, if they knew this was all a sham and they went along with it, or if they really believed in the manufactured drama.
Lowering her binoculars, Holly sighed. Her cutie mark was a roller skate, but that did not doom her to a life as a skater. She had found more satisfaction and self worth in the job she was currently doing than during her entire career as a roller derby star.
Turning her head, Holly saw a long pillar of smoke rising up into the sky. She stared at it for a moment, not quite believing it, and then she reacted. She slammed her hoof down upon the alarm button, let out a fierce, crowing cry of challenge, and then lept from the spotter’s nest, making the twenty foot drop with ease.
Running, Holly bounded over the rooftop, hit the door, lept down the stairs, went thundering over the floor, and then hit a brass pole to go down. Lots of other ponies were doing the same. The volume of the bell was almost painful in Holly’s ears, and she had trouble containing her excitement.
On the ground floor, Holly hit the rack room, running for a rack that had the word ‘Homewrecker’ scribbled over a sheet of cardboard with a black marker. She made a well practiced leap, soared through the air as majestically as an earth pony could, and landed inside of her suit with a clatter. She began strapping on everything, securing everything just as she had practiced over and over.
Holly cleared the rack room while others were still getting suited up. She saw Knock Knock sitting on the wagon, waving at her. She lept, climbing up on the wagon. The firefighters didn’t run, they rode, saving their strength for the fire. She sat down beside Knock Knock, her heart racing in her barrel. A moment later, Toot Toot landed on the wagon, folded his wings, and then whacked Holly on the helmet with his hoof.
It was a gesture of affection, making certain that another firefighter’s gear was secure.
The wagon careened through the streets, pulled by strong earth ponies, the siren blaring. Holly’s respirator mask fogged up just a bit from her own heavy breathing. The air was not turned on, not yet, and the valve had been left open for breathing normal air.
Lifting her head, Holly could see flames coming off the roof of a twenty something story building. The flames weren’t too bad yet, but were growing worse with every passing second. Several airships approached, one of them smaller, probably full of reporters hoping for a story. Two big tanker ships drifted closer to the burning building. Flying pegasi circled around the disaster and a crowd was gathering on the streets.
Holly was spoiling for a good fight.
“Gas leak!” Knock Knock shouted. “We have a burning gas leak! We have a hot situation! The building is being emptied out, but there is smoke on the upper floors. Holly, I want you to make certain that floor twenty three has been cleared! The fire is on floor twenty four and above.”
“Yeah, I can do that!” Holly barked in reply.
“This is a routine job Holly… just make certain that the floor is cleared! If you find somepony, and you might, you lead them through the smoke, keep them calm and safe, and you get them down the stairs before the fire spreads down from the top floors!” Knock Knock said, shouting above the noise all around him.
“Okay Boss!” Holly went stomping off for the stairs.
“Oh, and Holly…”
“Yeah Boss?” Holly paused and looked over her shoulder.
“Don’t do anything stupid. You see the Beast and you run. Got me? I don’t want you getting killed on your first fight… if you see the Beast, you run, Holly, you run!”
“Gotcha Boss!” Holly barked as she exited through the door to the stairs.
Floor twenty three. Holly pushed open the door and stepped into the hallway. It was dark, almost pitch black, and the hall was filled with thick black smoke. Holly flipped on her respirator. Aside from the alarm klaxxon, there was an odd, eerie sound; a dull roaring in the background, Holly didn’t know what it was, but it scared her. She could feel the hair on her back standing up beneath her heavy protective gear. The sound of her own breathing was almost deafening in her ears, the mechanical whine of her respirator almost, but not quite, drowning out the spooky roaring sound.
Holly banged on the first door she came to. “Hello?” She banged again, hammering on the door hard enough to make it rattle. There was no reply. She banged again but moved on to the next door. “HELLO?” Holly shouted, hoping her voice could be heard through her respirator. The hallway was filling with more black smoke.
Four doors later and nothing. Holly moved down the hall, shouting, banging on doors, being as loud and as obnoxious as possible. She thumped and kicked with wild abandon. There was no good reason to hold back and be polite. There was no reason to be civil.
“HELLO?” Holly shouted.
After Holly passed by a door, she felt the floor beneath her shudder and then there was a deafening roar. Behind her, the door exploded from its hinges and flames rushed into the hallway. Holly was almost knocked from her hooves by the concussive blast and she felt the heat wash over her body. Flames erupted from the doorway. She turned around, now face to face with the Beast, horrible and terrible in all of its majestic glory. It loomed over Holly, dwarfing her, flaring up all around while threatening to devour her.
Frozen in place, staring, her nethers clenching, Holly Heartwood screamed in panic. The ceiling was on fire already. The paint blistered and peeled. The carpeted floor burned, the polyester and nylon forming liquid flaming puddles as the flames melted the synthetic fibres.
Holly heard more screaming behind her. Whirling back around, surrounded by black smoke and fire, she could just barely make out a unicorn standing in an open doorway at the end of the hall. Holly realised that her escape was cut off. There was no way to reach the stairs and the hallway was filling with flames.
Retreating towards the door, Holly shoved the unicorn back into the apartment and then slammed the door. She didn’t know what to do. She turned and looked at the unicorn mare. Her eyes were red from the smoke and her nose was running.
“What are you still doing up here?” Holly shouted, unable to believe that anypony would stay in a burning building while the alarms were going off.
“I was in the shower when the alarms went off!” the mare replied, shaking her head. “The alarms go off every day. Every day somepony burns their dinner and sets off the smoke detectors and the alarm goes off and it is has become so commonplace that nopony pays attention to it!”
The mare’s words made Holly feel as though she had been kicked.
“I thought it was yet another false alarm… but then I saw the smoke and there was the explosion and then I heard you screaming,” the mare said, her breathing now heavy and frantic.
“Mama, I’m scared!”
Holly, her heart in her throat, angled her head to look at a tiny earth pony colt. Gritting her teeth, Holly held back a scream. The stairs were cut off, the hallway was blazing, and Holly didn’t know what to do.
She began to look around, taking stock of her situation. She crossed the room, to the window, and looked down. Twenty three floors up. She looked up. There was no way an airship could reach them here. The top of the building was on fire and the wind was whipping all of the flames over to this side of the building.
She went back to the front door, closed her eyes, steeled her nerve, opened her eyes, and opened the door just a bit, enough to peek out. Flames roared just a few feet away from the door. She slammed it shut and then looked around.
“We need to cover up the bottom of the door!” Holly commanded. “Get a wet towel down there! The Beast is sucking wind through the bottom of the door!” Holly’s mind raced as she began to remember all the miscellaneous survival facts that Toot Toot and Knock Knock had been stuffing her head with. “The Beast goes where it has air to breathe!”
“Okay!” the mare replied as she hurried off.
Holly returned to the window and looked out. There was a building across the narrow alley way that ran between buildings. It was shorter. Holly wasn’t certain how much lower, or how much the drop was. There was also several long yards of space between the buildings.
Holly had an idea. Holly had a crazy, terrible, horrifying idea.
“Mama!”
The windows ran from floor to ceiling. Holly looked around, saw a desk and then acted, asking no questions, getting no permissions. She kicked the desk with her hind legs, sending it scooting over the polished hardwood floor, it struck the window, causing the window to shatter into a million glittering pieces. The mare screamed and the apartment filled with strong wind. The desk plummeted down twenty three stories to the alley way down below.
Holly began clearing a runway, shoving couches and tables out of the way with fierce kicks. Meanwhile, the mare was trying to comfort her colt, who had collapsed into wracking, heaving sobs. Looking over, Holly could see the paint on inside of the door beginning to blister. The Beast was just outside, and it wanted in. With the wind blowing through the apartment, the fire would blaze in a spectacular manner once it had fresh air.
Holly realised that she was wearing too much dead weight. She began stripping out of her suicide suit, peeling everything off, undoing buckles and straps. She ripped off her helmet and respirator, tossing it all away. She was going to have to leave her gear behind. She hoped that she wouldn’t get in trouble.
“What are you doing?” the mare asked.
“Saving you,” Holly replied. She looked around the apartment and her gaze fell upon the drapes billowing in the wind. She lifted her hoof and pointed at the thick, rope-like cords used to tie back the drapes. “Get those cords. Use your magic. I want you to tie yourself to my back—”
“ARE YOU CRAZY?” the mare shrieked when she realised what it was that Holly was going to do.
“I dunno, but I don’t want to die just yet!” Holly snapped. Holly watched as the mare yanked down the heavy cords. “You may be right… I may be crazy! I’m Holly Homewrecker, former roller derby star and now, professional big damn hero.”
Ignoring the colt’s crying protests, the mare sat the colt upon Holly’s back, wrapped the cord around the colt and Holly’s barrel a few times, lashing him in place, and then tied what she hoped was a secure knot. She then climbed on Holly’s back and began wrapping the cord around herself and Holly. She wrapped her legs tight around the earth pony beneath her, trusting in Holly’s strength.
The front door was warping now, bending and flexing. Holly licked her lips and looked at the window. It was probably best not to think about what was going to happen next too much.
She backed up against the wall, lowered her head, pawed the floor, and then took off lickety split, trying to run as fast as possible. Her hooves clattered over the wooden floor as she ran at breakneck speeds towards the open window. Holly could hear the screams of her passengers. When Holly ran out of floor, she kicked away from the window’s edge using her hind hooves, shoving herself with as much of her earth pony strength as she could muster.
Flames roared up above her, whipped around by the wind, the entire top of the building had been consumed by flames now. Holly could feel the odd contrasts of the heat of the flames and the coldness of the air around her.
Not a pegasus, Holly flew. She looked down at the roof that was rushing up to greet her and heard another explosion behind her. She had no idea what it was and part of her didn’t want to know.
Bracing her legs, Holly knew this was going to be a rough landing. She leveled herself out, flexed her knees, gritted her teeth, and plunged through the air, dropping straight down. The sound of screaming filled her ears.
A second later, Holly crashed into the roof. She stumbled around, her momentum almost causing her to pitch forwards onto her face, and the pain in her legs was terrible. It started in her hooves, a blinding, agonising pain, and shot up her legs. Holly felt something pop in her right hind knee and as she stumbled around, she realised she couldn’t put any weight on it.
A long stream of profanity streamed out of Holly’s mouth as she put weight down upon her right rear hoof as she tried to keep from falling over and hurting her passengers. Holly found her balance, steadied herself, and stood on three legs.
“Untie yourself,” Holly commanded. “It’s cold up here, we’ll need to get inside.”
“I’ll help you,” the unicorn mare replied. “I gotta admit, I didn’t think you were going to make it… that was amazing.”
“Are both of you okay?” Holly felt the cords being pulled away. She craned her head around and looked up behind her. Flames were now billowing out of the broken window that she had just lept from. While looking up, Holly realised that she had made almost a forty foot drop. The pain in her right rear leg made her woozy.
“Yeah, we’re good. I think little Mason is a bit shook up though,” the mare replied. “When we get inside, you find some place to sit down and get comfortable. I’ll go get help for you.”
“Thank you, that would be appreciated,” Holly said, her voice gritty with pain. She glanced up at the window again, wondering what she had been thinking. Flames wooshed and blew in the strong wind.
“Thanks again, that was amazing…”
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it just may be a lunatic they were looking for.
6335942
I appreciate that the first fire involves Holly wrecking the interior of a home for Reasons.
I'm pretty sure K and T are going to have words with Holly... equal parts 'good job' and 'dumb shite'.
And, as far as the whole scene... it was pretty good. I'm not sure what you're worried about. The unrealistic 40 foot fall? I admit I'm not familiar with the interior of a burning building, but I did appreciate you rarely actually showed the fire, but clearly showed the effects of the fire, the peeling and blistering paint, and such.
6336032
Holly makes a good twenty foot drop several times in the story, leaping from the spotter's nest. She's an earth pony, solid, and I wanted to reflect that. But she is not invulnerable. Hence, injury.
6336042
Yeah, that's what I figured the reason why the 40 foot drop was justified.
This was awesome!
Little Colt: "What´s your name, miss ?"
Holly: "Holly, Holly Homewrecker, little fella."
LC: "Why you´re called Homewrecker ?"
*several very expensive special effects later*
LC: "Ooooooh, that´s why !"
Minor nit.
The colt is placed on Hollys back, and then the mother on the back also.
While Holly may be larger than the mother, jumping would seem to be likely to squish.
6336307
The colt is more forward, over Holly's barrel, and up against her neck.
Mom's a bit further back.
6336030 'no way to reach the stairs' - unless she was given lots more instruction about how to clear the floor - which she violated - she doesn't seem to have done anything wrong at all.
6336314
No argument, but that won't stop them. It's a common reaction, especially since she left her gear. Logical? No. It's an emotional reaction, if the do bust her chops, they'll apologize later.
Damn! That was exciting! Great story telling!
She bloody jumped. I think that's exactly the kind of batshit-insane pony the fire department needed.
(stares at what just happened in shocked and amazed awe) . . . . . . . . . wow. . . . . . . . J-just wow. . . . . . . . . .
She just jumped, forty feet down, with two ponies on her back...
Promotion? Give that mare a medal!
Jeebus cripes man, Holly is all kinds of batshit insane... but the good kind!
And the earth pony flew. WEEEEEEEEEEE
You're welcome.
I can just picture Knock Knock saying, "When I told you to run away from the Beast, Holly, I didn't expect you to go running off no building!"