Chapter 2
A new mattress was needed. The bed had sagged down in the middle and the mattress was filled with creaky, certain to be broken springs. Holly flexed her back, trying to be rid of the crick lodged in her spine, and looked out the window.
The house was freezing and the windows were covered in a layer of frost. It was so cold that Holly could see her own breath. She regretted getting out from beneath the blankets. The bed might have been uncomfortable, but it was warm. It was too cold to shower or to do much of anything.
She realised that she was going to have to brave the spider infested basement to light the furnace. The very idea of such a thing made her shiver harder than the cold did. She put on her heavy winter coat, glad for its reassuring weight and thickness.
The first order of business was breakfast.
“Mallory Moo’s Automat.” Holly looked up at the minotaur mascot and then peered through the window. There were ponies inside eating, but there appeared to be no kitchen. Just a row after row of windows with food behind them. She watched as a pegasus slipped a few coins into a slot, opened a window, pulled out a plate, which he held in his teeth, and then trotted off to sit at a plastic table that sat low to the floor. There were no chairs, no benches, no seating of any kind.
“Oh, so it’s an automated vending machine sort of place,” Holly said to herself. She opened the door and went inside.
Vending machine served food or no, it smelled fantastic in here. Holly trotted over to the wall of windows and began to peer inside. Half of the wall was hot meals, the other half cold. There were full meals on plates, side items like fresh fruit or muffins, and peering through the window, she could see a kitchen behind the display wall. Somepony was back there making fresh food to be placed in the displays.
More ponies, many of them bleary eyed, were coming in out of the cold. Not wanting to be in the way, Holly made a quick choice on food. The super deluxe hot plate. Using her hoof, she fished around in her jacket pocket and began pulling out a few bits. It took three silver bits to purchase the plate, which seemed a little expensive, but the food looked and smelled good.
She deposited three silver bits into the coin slot and the window opened. The plate had a little handle on the edge of it, a perfect bite grip. She lifted the plate, stepped backwards, and then headed for a table. She set her plate down and realised she wanted coffee. And maybe some juice. She looked around. Other ponies had left their plates sitting on tables and nopony else was disturbing them.
She returned to the display and had a look around. She saw the morning combo, a two for one special that had different types of juice along with a carton of chocolate milk. One copper bit. She fished out a coin, dropped it in the slot, and pulled out the two items, which had been held together with twine. Grape juice and chocolate milk. She dropped them into her large coat pocket and then went looking for coffee.
The cups for coffee were all too small. Frowning, she kept looking, hoping there would be a better option. A little higher up, above the common pony’s eye level, she saw a sign that said, “The Rump Shaker: 96 ounces of fun.” It was a giant cardboard and paper cup filled with coffee. Three copper bits later, Holly was standing on her hind hooves and pulling the massive cup of coffee out with her teeth on the side handle. She dropped down and walked over to the little coffee preperation counter. There was non dairy creamer, real cream, sugar, and a number of other things that ponies liked in their coffee or tea. Holly popped off the lid and added heavy cream, the only thing she liked in her coffee. She put the lid back on, grabbed the cup by the handle once more with her teeth, and then returned to her breakfast.
Making a note for next time, Holly would buy drinks first and then breakfast, so it wouldn’t get cold. She placed her coffee beside her breakfast, sat down, and then pulled the drinks in her pocket out. She placed them beside her plate and with a tug, she undid the bow that tied them together.
Four waffles, golden brown and crispy. Four fried eggs, soft. A large blueberry muffin in somewhat greasy looking paper. Four large compressed potato hash brown patties. After staring at her plate for a few moments, Holly realised she wasn’t done. She looked up and looked around. She saw another counter with little bins of complimentary items. Syrup and butter. She stepped away from her breakfast, chalked up her blunder to a learning experience, and went to fetch what she needed.
The food was much better than Holly had expected. The waffles were devoured, the eggs were gobbled, the muffin was scarfed, and now Holly was working on the last of her potato patty hash browns. Sipping chocolate milk from a waxy paper carton, she had felt as though she was back in school again, eating lunch in the cafeteria.
Mallory Moo’s was packed and Holly understood why. The food was great, the price was fair, and convenience was top notch. No need to wait on a waiter or waitress. What you wanted when you wanted it. The last bite of the crispy crunchy potato patty disappeared.
Holly slugged down the last of her chocolate milk, belched, looked at her empty grape juice carton, felt a little thirsty, and considered buying more juice. She shrugged and began to slug down her ginormous cup of coffee. Holly considered the possibility that she might never cook at home again. This place could serve her needs quite well. Holly looked over at some of the other customers and found ponies from all walks of life here. There was a nice looking business pony in an expensive looking suit jacket. At the table next to him was a punk pony with a big rainbow mohawk. Not far away was a pony that just had to be some kind of model, her beauty was devastating. A unicorn, she had a brilliant white coat and a mane that Holly could not decide if it was purple or blue. There were three diamonds on her rump. She was having breakfast with a somewhat plain looking cream coloured earth pony that had a hat for a cutie mark.
Holly realised that she was staring. A pretty mare was just as distracting as a handsome stallion. Blushing, she looked down at her empty plate and continued to drink her coffee.
As Holly walked around, she realised that she now lived in what had to be one of the oldest neighborhoods in Manehatten. The street lights were an odd mix of electric and gas. The buildings were old, but many of them were well maintained. She hadn’t noticed it before when she had been walking around looking for the old row house. There was something about the neighborhood though. Something… something like a sense of pride. There was a mix of wealthy and poor, there were apartment buildings here, but not slums or poor quality tenements. Almost all of the buildings were brick, the same rusty red brick, and Holly guessed that almost all of these buildings were made with bricks that had come from the same brick factory.
She walked past an old narrow factory that had been turned into a community theatre on the bottom floors and an art gallery on the top floors. A great deal of care had gone into the restoration of the building, that much was obvious just by looking at it.
Holly realised that she needed to get her own place fixed up and looking better. The broken front window was unacceptable. She felt a little guilty, even a little ashamed, and she could not say why.
The earth pony mare stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at the airship docked at the top of a tall, narrow brick building. The building was immaculate, six stories tall, and had a large garage door on the ground floor. Looking around, Holly saw a sign.
“District #1 Firehouse. The first city sponsored firehouse built in the city of Manehatten. Always watching,” Holly read aloud. She looked at the building again. Holly liked danger. She liked adventure and excitement. She liked cheap thrills. She looked at the sign and then back at the building. She thought about her rubbernecking yesterday.
Smiling, Holly made her way to the door.
Inside, Holly was met by a middle aged pegasus and a somewhat older looking unicorn. The unicorn was tall, thin, and had a bushy mustache. His mane was short, black, and stuck out in all directions. The pegasus was a bit shorter, solid looking, and his face had a bit of a crinkle to it from old scar tissue. He had been burned.
“Hello… can we help you?” the unicorn asked.
“I’d like a job,” Holly replied.
“What? You think you just walk in off of the street and you get hired?” The unicorn began to chuckle. “Nope.”
“Well, how else do you hire ponies?” Holly’s face contorted into a spectacular frown. She drew herself up to her full height and her ears perked forwards.
“We could use an earth pony to pull the wagon, but she don’t look very strong to me, boss,” the pegasus said.
“I didn’t come here to be a wagon puller, I’d like to try my hoof at fire fighting.” Holly took a step forward and her tail began to twitch.
“We could use a cook,” the pegasus said to the unicorn. He looked at Holly and laughed. “Tell you what… you go home and you bake us a batch of cookies, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll think about hiring you as cook and a wagon puller if we like the cookies. How’s that sound to ya, eh beautiful?”
Holly’s voice dropped into a low growl. “How about I break your legs?”
“Oh eh! We gots ourselves a feisty filly… she thinks she’s tough,” the pegasus said. “Go home and bake some brownies or something, we ain’t got time for this nonsense.”
“You know, I have half a mind to kick your ass.” Holly pawed the floor with her hoof and snorted.
“Dame, you got half a mind period. Go home and get back in the kitchen.”
“Why I oughta—”
“Kick his ass?” The unicorn looked down at Holly. “I’ll tell you what. You knock this sexist jerk over and maybe, just maybe, we’ll talk about a job. But you got to knock him off of his hooves. Do you think you can knock the big, mean, chauvinist pegasus off of his mare-hating hooves?”
Holly did not reply. She dropped lower to the floor, all four legs flexing, and then launched herself forwards, her hind legs fully extending out behind her. She lept, landed, and sprung away from the floor. With bone jarring force, she slammed into the pegasus, delivering a perfect Holly Homewrecker Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’am, and she did it without roller skates. The pegasus flew backwards with a grunt, was tossed several feet through the air, and slammed into the brick wall with tooth chipping force. He slid down to the floor with a groan.
“Damnit, I think you done killed Toot Toot,” the unicorn said. “Toot, get your lazy half dead ass up off of the floor.”
Holly snorted as she whirled around to face the taller unicorn. “Now, about that job. No more dicking me around. I’m a mare, but I’m not weak. I’m not helpless. I’m a hard worker. Now are you gonna hire me or do you want to end up like your friend over there?”
Toot Toot groaned but did not get up.
“Woah, calm down there,” the unicorn said as he backed away from Holly. “Just a little entrance test, nothing personal. Ponies will give you all kinds of flack on the job. We get all kinds of ponies coming in here and asking for a job. We have to have a means to filter out the unfit ones.” He looked over at the pegasus. “Toot Toot, joke’s over, get up.”
“Knock Knock, I can’t feel my legs. She hits like a runaway wagon coming down the ninth street hill. Next time, you take the crazy broad coming in off of the street asking for a job. I’m getting too old for this crap.”
The unicorn’s mustache quivered. “Damn, I think you wrecked Toot Toot.” He reached up a hoof and scratched his head. “We’re not sexist jerks, really… but on the job, you’re going to run into ponies who are and they’re not going to want to be saved by a mare.”
Still angry, Holly began to calm herself down.
“My name is Knock Knock and that’s Toot Toot. I’m the fire captain. You are?”
“My name is Holly Heartwood.”
“And what did you do up to this point?”
“Roller derby. I skated under the name ‘Holly Homewrecker’ and now I’d like a real career. Skating is fun but it doesn’t pay the bills.”
“Look, lady, this job, it don’t pay no kinds of bills,” Toot Toot said from where he lay on the floor. “We get paid in pocket lint from the city.”
“But don’t let that discourage ya!” Knock Knock grinned.
Stats
Page generated in 0.037 seconds
Total duration
796 users online
1,514,254 hits today, 2,139,894 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Unless we're talking eggo waffles that's a huge breakfast.
6190163 Remember when she was talking to herself and how she viewed herself as "Curvy" But others said "Chubby" or "Fat"
6190163
Pony.
6190170
I did not want to point this out. I did not want Holly boding checking me.
That's it? No physical test, no medical examination or psychology survey, just knock out a guy and you are qualified to the job? I wish this kind of job application would be accepted around here too
. But then you couldnt find out who is not suitable for a certain type of job, and find out someone have a faulty respiratory system too late 
So far this story is quite promising, and I'm looking forward for seeing more. Can't say more yet, because I feel like its not fully started, and need a few more chapter to get a real catch of the characters.
6190545
That's the start. Check author's note.
I can just see all of the potential spewing from the two chapters. If this is anywhere near as descriptive as the chase, then this story is going to be amazing. fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/073/0/0/clapping_pony_icon___twiscepter_by_comeha-d6ymjpx.gif
I'm having trouble visualising the "Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’am" though it sounds pretty awesome, and I love the name.
I wonder if she would ever be roller skating on the job, she could could be the first on the scene, and I can imagine her grinding down the handrails of the stairs of a burning building with an unconscious pony on her back, that would be pushing the very limits of badass-ery
its official, I like Holly, she's awesome. I love that attitude she's got!
Haha!
Nice job!
This was fun! I loved the depiction of the lunch counter. Very cool! I always wanted to eat at one. The closet I came was a cafeteria at a hospital which was set up that way with the little doors and coin slots. Very cool.
*adds to favorites immediately
I hope we're at least as civilized as the Islands in the chase
6191833
You ever play Super Smash Bros? Princess Peach's forward special? I'm thinking it's something like that.
7287641
Ah, Princess Peach. I do so love her special. Now all Holly needs is to do it with a smile on her face and maybe a pretty dress...
I can't believe I had to read through 4 whole fics to find a coffee drinking hooligan protagonist. I love Holly already! :^)