Chapter 1

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Looking up at the door, Holly Heartwood let out a disappointed groan of disappointment. The dirty brass numbers on the door said 211 ½, which meant that this was the place she was looking for. She looked up at the tall, thin brick building and let out another groan. There were broken windows and the place looked rather old. The front window was boarded over. She pulled the key from her coat, put it into the door, and then had to fight with the key to get it to turn. After a bit of a struggle, she got the stuck key to turn and then kicked open the door.

Her great aunt, now departed, had been kind enough to leave Holly a ‘prime piece of Manehatten real estate.’ Holly stared into the entryway of the narrow building was greeted by cobwebs. The entire row house could not be more than nine feet wide and it was five stories tall. Off to the right, she saw some rickety looking narrow stairs. She entered the house, her nostrils crinkling from the scent of mildew, and then looked around. The wainscotting was faded grey wood and the wallpaper had turned grey as well. The stairs appeared to be under a yard in width, which meant that the entry room was about six to seven feet in width. Holly’s cousin had described it as ‘cosy’ while Holly, now that she had seen it, could only describe it as ‘cramped.’ Holly closed the door behind her.

She looked around for a light switch and found a brass knob. She had no idea what it did, but it sat on a wall panel that looked sort of like a light switch. Reaching up with her hoof, she turned the knob. There was a hissing sound, followed by a few clicks, and then there was light. Flickering flames ignited inside of filthy, sooty glass globes and Holly realised that this place did not have electricity, it had gas lights. She turned the knob a bit more and illuminated the entry room. There was an old dusty couch that appeared to be two hundred years out of date. The fabric was faded, but in rather good condition for its age. It was a dull purple colour paisley print. There was a bookshelf made of greying wood filled with old, dusty books. There was a sitting chair that matched the couch.

The room was freezing cold. Unable to help herself, Holly grinned. At least the building should be easy to heat. That was the purpose of such a narrow home. Heat rose, and the narrowness meant that the heat had nowhere to go but up. She figured that she would need to find the furnace, which she guessed was down in the basement. She saw a narrow door at the back of the front room. The kitchen had a bit of natural light coming in through one narrow window that was above the sink.

Still grinning, she made her way to the door and pushed it open. It was on omnidirectional hinges, meaning that it could swing either way. Holly found herself in the kitchen next. She saw a fridge with a large dome shaped contraption on the top and she had a vague memory of her foalhood and seeing a gas powered fridge. Beside it was a narrow two burner gas powered range that had no oven. She looked around the kitchen, saw a tiny table and two wooden chairs. It was dusty but in good condition. There were counters, some cupboards, a door, and a recessed pantry that had been sealed off with cobwebs.

Turning around, Holly saw an oven built into a brick shaft. She suspected that down below the oven, at the base of the shaft, she would find the furnace. She also saw what she knew was a dumbwaiter, a device that no longer existed in modern homes. She walked through the small kitchen to the door and pushed it open. She saw stairs leading down into total darkness. Creepy, horrible, spooky darkness. Holly shivered and thought about walking down into the darkness, the feeling of cobwebs trailing over her skin, and who knew what sort of horrors lurked down in the basement. She shut the door and backed away. The furnace would have to be started later. She decided she could live with the cold.

Holly realised that the house couldn’t be more than thirty feet in depth. She looked around the kitchen once more. No more than three yards wide, thirty feet in depth, and five stories tall. That was a fair amount of living space… it was just… stacked, she reasoned to herself. Plus the creepy basement. Her aunt, Cara Cara Orange, and her uncle, Sumac Heartwood, had raised a family here, a family of seven foals. Holly could not imagine such a large family in such cramped quarters, but they had done it. This house had history.

Holly returned to the living room and noticed two paper envelopes upon the bookshelf that she hadn’t noticed before. She walked over, grabbed them both, held them in her lips, grimacing at the dust, and then sat down in the dusty chair.

She set the envelopes down upon the arms of the chair and then picked one of them up. She tore open the envelope with her teeth and then tilted her body towards one of the dirty gas lamps on the wall so she could see.

Dearest Holly,

Sorry the place is still a mess. Things were hectic after the funeral and there was a lot to do. I hired some maids, a group of them will be by within a few days to give the place a good cleaning, and then a maid will show up once a week to keep the place looking nice. You don’t need to worry about paying him or her, it is included as part of your inheritance.

An exterminator will be by soonish to deal with the infestation of spiders in the basement and the sub basement. The kitchen appliances are all in good repair and are quite functional, if a little quaint. The oven cooks twenty degrees hotter than the knob says, so keep that in mind. If you are wondering where the bathroom is, don’t worry, one exists. It is on the third floor, the middle of the house. It is the only bathroom. Cara had the opportunity to have another bathroom built, but at that point, Sumac was gone and her foals had moved out, so she didn’t see the need to do so. The water heater is heated by gas and I must warn you, the water is hot, so look out. I know from experience and staying with great grammy Cara that turning on the hot water knob a smidgen and turning on the cold water knob full blast will produce one very hot shower or bath.

The house might not seem like much when you first enter, but there is a nice dining room and a full sized sitting room on the second floor. It really is quite lovely, or it was, before it became somewhat neglected.

I sincerely hope that you will decide to keep the house. Great grammy Cara wanted you to have it. I had to go home to Las Pegasus to deal with a few things, but I will be returning to Manehatten soon to visit you.

Love, Roble.

Misty eyed, Holly folded up the letter and thought about her cousin. They had been as close as siblings when they were foals, but then, life had happened. Roble was the ambitious sort, always chasing a deal, always working, always trying to make money. After getting her cutie mark, a roller skate of all things, Holly had joined the roller derby circuit, working under the pseudonym ‘Holly Homewrecker.’ The roller derby was fun, but always moving from city to city was tiring, the pay was lousy, and as Holly was now maturing into a full grown mare, she could see that such an endeavour was fruitless. Many of the older skaters on the circuit were horrible, jaded, cynical, bitter sorts, most of them alcoholics, and none of them had chased down the elusive big payout, the cushy life promised by promoters if they could just get noticed, get sponsored, and start getting commercial endorsements.

Holly was glad that she was out.

She lifted up the second envelope and tore it open. She pulled out the paper inside, which had been spritzed with perfume.

Dear Hot headed Cuss,

I know that you didn’t know me very well, but Sumac and I were very fond of you, proud of you for being such a feisty little scrapper. I only met you a few times, but you left an impression on me. I kept tabs on you and I watched you as you progressed in your career. I knew at some point that you’d grow up and you’d reach the point where you are now, ready to settle down and make a real life for yourself.

Out of all my relatives, I felt that you were the one most deserving of the house. The others, they have all they need, they have money, nice homes, and good careers. Your mother was a proud mare and she refused to take any help and she raised you on her own, something I respect a great deal. You turned out fine, but you don’t have much.

I was once like you. I was dirt poor and didn’t have anything. I met a nice colt named Sumac. He was the shy, quiet sort and we fell in love. He took a job in the furniture factory and after a few paychecks, he made a down payment on the house that you are sitting in right now, and he did it without telling me about it. It was quite a surprise. I adored the house almost as much as I adored him. I took on every odd job I could find and he worked two shifts a day to keep up with the house payments. We raised seven foals in this house. For a time, our oldest, Lilac, she lived here with her husband, Chestnut. Lilac gave birth to her twins in this house. Those were such joyous times and I remember them fondly. Lilac’s colt, Parson Brown, when he was all grown up, he lived here with his wife, a lovely mare named Sandy Shores. She gave birth to twins, Roble and Mosley. It was Roble and Mosley’s little sister that caused that big fuss by going off and marrying into the Apple family. She was a hot headed cuss as well, and your cousin, a mare named Applejack, she’s also a hot headed cuss, and stubborn too, as well.

We have a fair number of hot headed cusses in the family and quite a few of them have lived in this house.

Since you’re reading this, it means I’m dead now. The doctors told me I was dying, I didn’t care much for their opinions and I didn’t believe them. Of course, they told me I was dying ten years ago, so I guess time and old age has saved them from being liars. But I knew my end was coming soon, so I had this wrote down for me.

You have always been a plucky little hot headed cuss. Don’t you go changing that. Manehatten is a tough city. It takes a tough mare to live here. Of course, the wealthy sorts living up at the top of their towers don’t know nothing about the problems us common ponies face down here, but you don’t pay them no nevermind. There is adventure to be had in this city. I’m certain that you will find something that suits you. I don’t think you’re ready to settle down just yet, so go out and take whatever you can from the city and live each day to the fullest.

Sorry darling, I need to cut this short. I feel powerful tired and I need to rest my head.

Love and smushy hugs, aunt Cara Cara.

Reaching up, Holly wiped her eyes with her fetlock. She looked around the house. She had felt disappointed upon first seeing it, but now she felt a newfound sense of pride. She looked down at the letter once more and as she was looking down, a few water spots appeared, darkening the paper. With a great deal of care, she folded up the paper and placed it back inside of the envelope.

The house was not a house, but a neglected family member. Holly decided then and there that it was time to grow up and maybe become a little more responsible. She had her inheritance money and she knew that if she looked, she could find work, even if it was just pulling a cab.

Sniffling, Holly decided to have a look upstairs…

The wooden planks creaked beneath her hooves as Holly climbed the stairs. It was dark at the top of the stairs, but not too dark. It seemed some light was coming in through the filth encrusted windows. At the top of the stairs there was a dusty painted portrait of Princess Celestia wearing jewel encrusted golden armor, standing in a heroic pose with the sun behind her. The words “The Sun Shines Eternal” were etched into the frame of the painting.

Turning around, Holly took it all in. In the back of the large room there was a spiral staircase leading up. There was furniture covered in dusty slipcovers. She saw the dumbwaiter against the wall and there was a dining table with a chair on each end and three chairs on each side, eight chairs in total.

This room was open, it ran the full width of the house and the depth. An old hoof cranked hi-fi was in the corner opposite the spiral staircase. Dusty old photos in brass and wood frames adorned the walls. Soot encrusted gas lamps stood out from the walls and a large gas lamp chandelier hung over the dining table. The chandelier had glass globes and brass horseshoes.

Holly took note that many of the fixtures in the house were brass.

She made her way to the spiral staircase and prodded the stairs with her hoof. The stairs were black iron, and not dark wood as she had first thought. As she climbed, the wrought iron staircase made a cacophony of sound as her hooves thumped upon each stair.

The third floor had a landing and three doors. The only light was a tiny bit of winter sun shining through the narrow window by the stairs. The first door led to a small bedroom. It was empty and some of the wallpaper was peeling off of the walls. The second door opened into a bathroom.

Reaching out with her hoof, Holly turned the brass knob. It took a moment, there was a hiss, and then the gas lamp flickered on. The bathroom was small and the bathtub was enormous. It was a big claw footed tub, deep, wide, and covered in pale, mint green enamel. Holly looked around and saw a pony staring at her, which startled her. She looked at herself in the mirror. She was, for the most part, an unremarkable earth pony. She was not a bright, garish colour, like some earth ponies. She was more of an unnoticeable, muted shade of burnt orange that might be mistaken for brown under certain types of light. Her pale lime coloured mane was spiky, stuck out in all directions, and needed a good combing.

Her looks had not helped her on the roller derby circuit. She did not have exciting colours, nor was she considered ‘sexy’ by the promoters. It always led to bottom billing, right down at the lowest point on the list with the drunks and the washed up hasbeens. Her only defining characteristic was the rollerskate on her backside, and as far as talents went, this one hadn’t done her a lot of good, but it had been fun. She could skate like it was nopony’s business.

She puckered up her lips and blew some of the dust off the mirror. It too, was trimmed in brass and wood. It was cold enough to see her breath. Turning her head, she looked at the toilet. It was old. The toilet was an actual bowl upon the floor. Above it was a brass water tank and brass pipes led down to the toilet basin. There was no toilet seat over the bowl, oh no, this toilet was too old for that. This model of pony toilet was ancient, the old drop and squat, where a pony held their backside over the bowl while they did their business, whatever their business was. The basin was low to the floor, just a little above fetlock height, and was a pale green that matched the tub.

Backing out the bathroom, Holly checked the last door. She tapped the brass handle and pushed it open. This bedroom faced the front of the house and had three narrow windows that allowed the sun to stream in. There was a large brass and wood trimmed bed. The mattress was covered in a plastic slip to keep the dust off. The room, though small, was beautiful. The wood wainscotting was grey, but old style craftponyship shone through. There was no wallpaper, but old, faded blue velvet lined the walls above the wainscotting.

From what little Holly knew, Cara Cara had died in her room, and Holly suspected this was the place she had met her end. The golden light from the windows left a sunny patch upon the bed.

If she was going to sleep here tonight, there were things that needed to be done.

Trotting along the streets of Manehatten, wearing her heavy winter coat, Holly Heartwood was enjoying herself, as was evident by her smile. The winter day was cold, it made the lungs sting, but the cold was invigourating. Overhead, a few pegasi flew and the streets were crowded with earth ponies.

Manehatten was considered by many to be an earth pony city. It was a city of practical technology. Electric lights. Gas lights. Electric elevators. Steam elevators. There were factories here dedicated to practical earth pony endeavours. For the longest time, Manehatten had been a poor city, but that had changed over time. Now, it was full of new money, glittering high rise banks and financial districts were replacing the old factories. There was a booming fashion industry along with a theatre culture that rivaled Canterlot. The old row houses, brownstones, and townhouses were being torn down and replaced with high rise apartments. Neon signs blazed, even during the day time. Advertising was everywhere, even on the backs of pony drawn cabs.

There was even a new underground steam powered train called a subway that promised to whisk riders across the town in mere minutes; Holly had seen the signs and the stairs leading down to the subway tunnels down below.

Steam rose from vents on the sidewalks and the air was filled with a million smells. The scent of laundry. The smell of popcorn. The smell of tofu hotdogs, which Holly thought were disgusting. Some ponies liked hotdogs, but she wasn’t one of them. She found them revolting. There were ponies, a few griffons, and even a few dragons selling food from carts.

The population of Manehatten claimed to be over one million strong and growing.

Emerging from Plunkett’s Housewares for Housewives and Hardware for Househusbands, Holly decided then and there that she could not and would not work in a department store. Not long after entering, she had been assailed from all sides with suggestions for cosmetics, hair dyes, mane dyes, tail wraps, exfoliating mud rubs for the whole body, all of it horrible, smelly, and disgusting. There was no way she could peddle that kind of crap to other ponies. Wearing makeup and being a pretty pony was not her thing. She liked violence, full contact body checks, and going fast. The last thing she wanted was to feel softer and smell pleasant. She sneered up at the sign as she hurried away, her shopping bags slung over her back, connected with a carry strap that turned the shopping bags into saddlebags.

After a bit of a walk, Holly stopped to rubberneck at an accident. Two wagons had collided and now a police pony was directing traffic, waving with his hooves while blowing a whistle so the accident could be cleaned up in safety. Police work might be interesting, but Holly wasn’t certain she was cut out for it. She was the rebellious sort who resisted authority.

Still, body checking bag snatchers and muggers had a certain appeal to it. The Holly Homewrecker Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’am was a real crowd pleaser for a reason. Holly, who was a voluptuous earth pony, had a body full of dangerous curves. Those that called her a chubby earth pony got body checked. Once, during a match, she had been called ‘fat.’ The mare responsible for that little quip had been carted off in a wagon. Holly had a preference for the term created by the ponies of Germaney; and that word was ‘zaftig.’ She felt as though it was a fair and accurate description.

She had sheets, fresh bedding, a few things for the bathroom, and now, Holly was stumped. She knew she needed food, but she wasn’t certain there were any plates, or even anything to cook with. Owning a home was more complicated than she thought it was going to be.

As Holly headed home, she heard the howling of a steam whistle and saw a fire wagon being pulled by a few stout earth ponies. Pegasi flew along beside the wagon. Holly watched as the fire ponies went racing off to battle the flames.

Long after the wagon was gone, Holly remained, staring, her expression almost vacant. Lifting her head high, Holly had the most wonderful of ideas…

Chapter 2

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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.

Chapter 3

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“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?”

Chapter 4

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Shivering inside of her dark green woollen overcoat, Holly took little sips of water. Her legs ached, her back muscles spasmed, and her haunches were sore from using her hind legs to push both her body and the heavy load she had carried up the stairs. It was not the worst pain Holly had endured, however.

Toot Toot, Knock Knock, and Holly all sat in a cramped cafe. There were five seats at the counter and two booths. The trio sat in one of the booths, the second booth was empty, and all five seats at the counter were full. Toot Toot, never one to miss a chance to unwind a little, was reading the funny pages in the newspaper while Holly drank water.

Knock Knock was enjoying coffee and a danish. He leaned over his plate and looked at Holly. “I don’t know how you did it.”

Looking up from her glass of water, one corner of Holly’s mouth turned up in a sneering, lopsided smile. “I was a professional athlete. We did all kinds of crazy strength training regimens, like pulling wagons loaded with rocks up steep hills.”

“I think if I did that at my age, I’d give myself a hernia,” Toot Toot said from behind his paper.

“Toots, at your age, getting your lazy ass out of bed could give you a hernia.” Knock Knock’s grin was hidden behind his mustache.

“Screw you, you pole sliding schlub.” Toot Toot looked over his paper at Holly. “I think you’re done for today. But you should come to the firehouse bright and early tomorrow. There are a few more tests to do, but those are a formality at this point, I think. Eh, Knock Knock?”

“Yeah… I’m gonna have to say that you probably have a job. A few more tests to see what you can do, what you’re good at, and then we’re going to train you.” Holding up his coffee cup, the unicorn smiled at Holly.

“I gotta know… what’s up with the names?” Holly asked.

“Simple repetitive names help in a stressful situation.” Knock Knock glanced over at his pegasus companion. “When Toots was a rookie, he was put in charge of the steam whistle. He was happier than a colt discovering his pecker for the first time.”

Laughing, Holly brushed her mane out of her eyes. She was starting to feel warmer. “And why do they call you Knock Knock?”

“Cause I’m a public face, being a captain and all. When I do investigations, I go ask questions and pay ponies a visit. I show up at the door and go ‘knock knock.’ Let me tell you, a lot of ponies aren’t happy to see me when I show up on their stoop. There is a lot of arson in this city.”

“I guess the big city is a rough place.” Holly lifted up her glass of water and took a sip.

“Holly, you have no idea,” Toot Toot said to the earth pony sitting across the table from him. He set down his paper. “Real estate is a big deal in this city. And when ponies don’t sell, sometimes, accidents happen. Or somepony gets a little desperate for cash and an accident happens. They get a little insurance money.”

“This is a serious problem?” Holly set down her glass.

“I spend more time investigating arson than I do fighting fires.” Knock Knock frowned and it made his mustache bristle. “Plus, right now it is looking like we have some crackpot pyromaniac that is burning stuff down for kicks and giggles.”

Holly said three words that would change her life. “Tell me more…”

When Holly came home, she found that her house was full of maids. Three mares and one stallion were busy cleaning in the front room. The front room itself was almost unrecognisable; the grey wood had some colour now, and life was being rubbed back into it with copious amounts of wood polish. One of the maids was using magic to revive the wallpaper. Stacked in the front room were two large wooden trunks, it seemed that Holly’s few possessions had been delivered a day early and the maids had brought them in.

Best of all, the house was warm. One of the maids had braved the spider infested basement and had turned on the furnace. With the front room looking better and a little heat, the house was starting to feel a lot more like home.

“Miss Heartwood?”

Holly, standing in the doorway, nodded. “I am she.”

“My name is Alfredo Noodle. We will have your home in order in a short time. Is there anything you need? Is there anything I can assist with?” The unicorn stallion, a dignified looking fellow, lifted his head high as he addressed Holly.

“I don’t know… I guess just the cleaning. I’ve never had a maid before.” Holly looked at Alfredo and smiled.

“We can do so much more. Madam, might I suggest a new bed? One of us could procure you a new set of mattresses, arrange for a time of delivery, and be here for you to accept the delivery.”

“Oh… oh hey, that’s a great idea,” Holly said as her eyes opened wide. “I guess I just give you money?”

“Madam, your coin is not required. You have an account with a substantial amount of funding in place to help you renovate the house. All you have to do is ask, and we do your bidding. You merely set the budget.”

“Oh.” Holly, surprised, went over to the overstuffed chair and sat down. “I’ve never actually bought a mattress before. I don’t even know what to look for.”

“Never bought a mattress?” Alfredo’s left eyebrow drifted northwards on his face.

“I was always on the road, going from town to town. Roller derby.” Holly squirmed, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

Alfredo smiled a kind smile. “Be at ease. Your circumstance makes it seem very reasonable. I meant no disrespect.”

A smile brightened Holly’s face, like the sun shining through the grey winter clouds. Alfredo was quite a charming fellow, quite the perfect pony for this job, he even had a tuxedoed pelt; dark charcoal grey with a white stripe running along his belly and up his throat. Each of his legs had white socks. His mane was a light silvery blue. And then, Holly saw his cutie mark. It took every ounce of will that she had to keep from laughing. There was a feather duster on his backside, crossed with a plunger to form an ‘X’.

“So, when sleeping, does madam prefer it to be soft, firm, or hard?”

Holly used this as an excuse to chuckle. She covered her mouth with her hoof. One of the other maids giggled as she vanished into the kitchen. Unable to answer, every time Holly opened her mouth, more laughter spilled out and she snorted a few times.

Standing rigid, Alfredo Noodle the maid, waited for a reply.

“I had a back injury a while back… I had to go to a therapy camp to get better. At the camp, there were these buckwheat hull mattresses.” Holly tried to stifle her giggles so she could speak better. “Best sleep I ever had. The buckwheat was kept in little sections in the mattress so it wouldn’t get pushed off to the sides or one end.”

“I know of what you speak. Would you like for me to procure one?” Alfredo stood there, stony faced, awaiting an answer.

“Yes, if you don’t mind, that would be great.” Holly nodded her head to show some enthusiasm.

“Fantastic, madam. If you do not mind, I shall now take this opportunity to feed myself to the spiders in the basement so I do not have to deal with the embarrassment of my social faux pas.”

“Did you get the furnace going?” Holly asked.

“Yes, I was the one who got the furnace fired up once more,” Alfredo replied.

“Thank you, it feels wonderful in here. I was kinda worried that the house might be drafty.” Holly looked over at the front window, and just as she started to say something, she heard Alfredo begin to speak.

“Madam, the window will be replaced later today. I was under the instructions to do so from Mister Roble Orange. Roble left behind a list of things that must get done.”

“Okay.” Holly felt and heard her stomach gurgle. Embarrassed, she grinned. All those stairs had burned away her breakfast. She was tired, sore, and now she was hungry. She didn’t feel like walking anywhere, and started to wonder what she would do.

“Pretty Posey!” Alfredo called out. He waited, his ears pitched forwards and his posture rigid.

A yellow pegasus appeared upon the stairs. She came halfway down and looked down into the front room. Her wings were dusty and she was covered in cobwebs. “Yes, Mister Noodle?”

“Miss Heartwood is hungry and the kitchen is empty. Would you please be so kind as to go to the market and return with some simple provisions?” Alfredo looked up at the pegasus with an expectant expression.

The cobwebby yellow pegasus smiled. “I would love to take a break from dusting. Is there anything specific that I should get?”

“I like grilled cheese sandwiches and red wine.” Holly’s stomach growled at the mention of food and she reached inside of her coat to rub it. “Is there anything to cook with?”

“Yes madam, there are things to cook with. Once Miss Pretty Posey returns, I shall prepare for you a plate full of sandwiches,” Alfredo replied.

“Um, for future reference, I really like grilled cheese sandwiches with good creamy pepper gravy for dunking. I even learned how to cook everything myself, I like it so much.” As she spoke, she saw Alfredo shiver and was forced to repress a laugh once more.

“Miss Pretty Posey, please, make certain you bring home extra butter, I have a feeling that we shall have need of it,” Alfredo instructed. He turned and bowed his head. “I have a great many things to still get done. I do not want the mares I work with calling me a lazybones… I must keep their respect. If you will excuse me.”

“Wait, don’t I need to pay for groceries?” Holly asked.

Alfredo Noodle lifted his head. “There is a small account with the nearby market to get you started. At some point in the very near future, you might wish to add some funding to this account.” Alfredo eyed Holly’s full figure, his eyes never once breaking eye contact with Holly’s eyes. The funding would not last very long. “Madam looks very fatigued. Would you like for me to draw you a bath so you can soak while you wait? The tub is immaculate, I cleaned it myself.”

“Oh that would be wonderful,” Holly replied. “I climbed up thirty two floors worth of stairs today to get a job with the fire department. I was carrying several hundred pounds of stuff. I’m pooped.”

Nope, Alfredo thought to himself. The grocery budget is not long for this world. “Very good madam. I shall draw you a bath at once while Miss Pretty Posey goes to the market.”

“One last question.”

“And that is?”

“The maid service that comes with this house… how does that work?”

Alfredo straightened his neck. “Madam, a one time payment was made. A substantial sum of money. A contract was signed and we agreed to serve you, until the time of your death or when you choose to end our service.”

Holly’s muzzle crinkled as she became contemplative. “But things cost more over time. Wages go up. Things change. How is this fair to you, this one time agreed price?”

Clearing his throat, Alfredo responded in a cultured voice. “Madam, the prices are agreed upon in the current market. In the future, when new contracts are secured, prices are raised ever so slightly to take in the funds needed for adjustment. We are the oldest service house in the city. Our customers come to us because of the extraordinary value we offer. An entire lifetime of service locked into the current prices, with only a minor increase to help fund new contracts. We actually have a very long waiting list. Our agency served Cara Cara.” Alfredo blinked a few times. “Cara Cara’s maid grew quite old. Cara Cara took her in and she stayed here for a time, doing light duty work.”

“What happened? This place is a mess.”

“Miss Duck Pond took ill. Pneumonia. She died in the bedroom just above the master bedroom on the third floor. Many ponies feel it is what contributed to Cara Cara’s decline. She was so grief stricken that she didn’t want to see another maid doing Miss Pond’s duties. Both of them were very close.”

“Oh… that’s terrible.”

“Indeed, madam.”

“That’s so sad… I feel like crying.”

“Miss Pretty Posey, please make sure that boxes of tissues are purchased at some point very soon, thank you.”

“I think I’d like that bath now… and I am positive that Pretty Posey is raring to go.”

Chapter 5

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Soaking in the tub was wonderful. The bathroom, now immaculate, was clean, warm, and filled with fragrant steam. Alfredo had added something to the water, something that smelled a bit like camphor, or mint, Holly wasn’t certain what it was. The tub was long enough to lay down in and there was just enough room for a second pony, if both ponies didn’t mind being pressed together, side by side.

As she lay in the water, Holly realised that never once did she ask how much she might get paid for her work. She sighed, filling her lungs with the strange, almost minty steam, and thought to herself that it didn’t matter. She liked adventure and excitement, and she was certain that the pay couldn’t be as bad as Knock Knock and Toot Toot complained about.

At least she didn’t have to worry about house payments or rent. She just needed to make enough to feed herself and keep the house in order. She contemplated her need for a maid. She was bound to be busy and having a maid would make things easier, she supposed. It did feel weird having a maid though, as Holly believed that maids were for the wealthy. Holly understood herself a bit too well though, and knew that she hated cleaning. This house was old and dignified. It deserved to be looked after, and Holly knew that if left to her own devices, the house would soon see neglect.

She lifted her right hind leg out of the water, reached down, and began to rub her thigh with both of her front hooves, trying to knead away the soreness. She hoped that lunch would be sooner rather than later, and Holly’s stomach let out a loud rumble of protest. She had skipped her midday meal, the meal between breakfast and lunch. It was now well past noon.

One of Holly’s front hooves fell away from her hind leg and she clutched her stomach. It felt like she had been suckerpunched right in the gut. She was empty. If she waited any longer, it would no longer be lunch time, but time for the mid-afternoon meal, the meal Holly had to have to hold her over until supper.

Holly rubbed the heavy, dense muscles of her stomach. She might have been soft and she might have a little bit of jiggle-wiggle on the surface; Holly liked to think that she was squeezable and cushioned in a pleasant way, but beneath the soft cushioned layer were slabs of rock hard muscles.

Muscles that ached after Holly had done her punishing walk up the stairs carrying several hundred pounds upon her back. Holly’s spine was starting to loosen up as she soaked, and whatever Alfredo had poured into the bath made her skin feel tingly and cool even as she soaked in the steaming hot water. It was almost like the cool sensation from eating a cucumber.

“Ugh, I have myself a bad case of swamp plot,” Holly said as she wiggled and squirmed in the bath, trying to make certain that the hot bath water got into hard to reach places. She could feel the sting of hot water as it soaked into delicate places that needed a good soaking.

“I hope there’s food when I get out…”

“Oh dear… madam…” Alfredo cleared his throat as Holly’s damp mane and tail dripped on the floor. “Hmm… madam is no doubt hungry. A lunch has been laid out on the table. I hope it is to your liking.” Alfredo raised an eyebrow as Holly walked through the living room and dining area that was the entirety of the second floor. She was sniffing and moving right for the food in a way that was alarming to witness.

The well mannered unicorn hurried to the table, pulled out a well polished chair, allowed Holly to sit down, and then struggled to push her chair in. The mare weighed a ton, heavy and solid even by earth pony standards. It took every bit of magic that Alfredo had to force her chair over the floor.

“Grilled cheese!” Holly cried as she pulled the cover off of the stack of sandwiches, of which there were six in total. Using her hoof, she picked one up and crammed the whole thing into her mouth. She began chewing with gusto, slurping and smacking her lips.

“Madam is happy. I am pleased,” Alfredo said in a sincere tone. “There is also red wine and a creamy tomato soup, garnished with basil.” As Alfredo watched, another whole sandwich was crammed into Holly’s maw. It was almost fascinating to watch her eat.

“How’d you keep it so hot?” Holly asked after she swallowed. “This is great!”

“Magic. I used a little magic to keep the food at ideal temperature, and to keep the bread from going soggy as it sat under the cover.” Alfredo felt a private sense of satisfaction. He was good at what he did, domestic magics were his speciality, and it was nice to have somepony appreciate them. Even if she was taking down whole sandwiches in one bite.

As Alfredo stood beside the table, he also polished the brass vents where heat came out, as well as polishing the banister rail along the stairs that went down to the bottom floor.

“So, Alfredo, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you get this job anyway? Did you sign up for it?” Holly asked after she had swallowed one sandwich and was now picking up another.

“I was interviewed by Cara Cara herself and chosen by her. There was a long list of candidates. This was just before she died. I was very glad to get the job. I had grown weary of being a temp cleaner and wanted something with permanence,” Alfredo replied.

“You’re more like a butler,” Holly said after she swallowed. She lifted up the goblet of wine, stared at it, sniffed, and then gulped down half of the glass.

“Madam, if you please, never use that word again. Mind you, this is my own opinion, but I cannot stand butlers, having worked for several. Standing around all day, lollygagging, telling others what to do, how to do it, and doing none of the actual work. I cannot stand them.”

“I’m sorry… I didn’t know.” Holly set her glass down. “That’s not bad wine. I like mine a little sweeter though, but this isn’t bad at all.”

“Noted, madam. Sweet red it will be from now on.” Alfredo’s eyebrow arched. He grimaced as he tried to remove the crusted on layer of filth from the brass vents. “Also, I have moved your trunks upstairs to your room. I shall unpack them at some point tomorrow, if you would like.”

“Thanks, that’d be great. I hate unpacking.” Holly sniffed her bowl of tomato soup. There were little green leaves sprinkled over the top, which was weird. It smelled good though. She grabbed the bowl between her front hooves, lifted it, and then began to pour it down her throat.

Watching as Holly gulped down the soup, Alfredo lamented the effort he had spent in making certain that the spoon had been polished to an immaculate, mirror finish. Holly was unburdened by sophistication or complication. At least she would be easy to please. The stallion heaved an internal sigh that did not show on the outside.

After letting lunch sit for a while, Holly became rather antsy. There wasn’t much to do in the house and she didn’t want to be in the way. Even though she was sore, she felt as though she needed her some exercise; or at least she needed some fun exercise after the death march up the stairs this morning.

In her room, she rummaged around in her trunk, found her skates, slung them over her back, went down stairs, and then began strapping her skates on to her hooves. In no time at all, she was out the front door, down the steps, and zipping off down the sidewalk to have a bit of fun.

Weaving in and out of traffic, Holly decided that skating was the best way to get around Manehatten. She was faster than the cabs and the wagons. She could weave in and out from in between them with ease. The paved roads were smooth and ideal for skating.

She moved with what appeared to be effortless ease. She did have a roller skate as a cutie mark, even if it could not be seen at the moment because of her heavy woollen coat. Speed was Holly’s friend; even only average roller derby skaters were faster than the fastest race runners. And Holly was considered fast. Holly was one of the few that could move along at a mile a minute on her skates. She was no pegasus, but flying was cheating.

Holly’s muscles ached in a good way. She was feeling the burn now, that deep ache that went down into the bone. She lived for this feeling, knowing that she was pushing her body to its very limits. It spoke to something deep inside of her, some great earth pony ideal that Holly could not express in words.

Zipping through the shopping district, Holly saw an athletic store, a modern building made of glass, steel, and concrete. It was large, eye catching, and one corner of the building was a smoothie bar.

Already, Holly was feeling peckish. She slowed to a slow roll and checked the place out. She hopped the curb, maneuvered over the sidewalk at sane speeds, mindful of other ponies, and went inside the temple dedicated to athletic excess.

Coasting along the smooth tile floor, Holly found herself amongst familiar gear. There were pads for roller polo, hockey, and the roller derby. There were helmets, new helmets, helmets of a design she had never seen before. Intriguing designs. New ultra-light pads and body armor.

As she rolled along, she admired the new designs, how sleek they were, how light they appeared, and some of the new designs looked like they could absorb quite an impact. Canvas filled with fluff was giving away to shaped foam and sleek plastics.

And then, Holly saw something that made her stop. There was a strange pair of skates on display. The wheels were all in a straight line, making them almost like ice skates. Holly eyed the skates, almost mesmerised. The wheels were larger than her roller skate wheels and appeared to be made out of a different material.

“Inline skates,” a salespony said as he approached Holly. “You look familiar…”

Holly peeled her eyes away from the newfangled skates to look at the salespony, a young pegasus stallion. “Roller derby fan?”

“Yes.” The pegasus nodded his head.

“I’m Holly Homewrecker—”

“OH MY GOSH I KNEW IT!” The stallion’s voice rose an octave, turning into an excited coltish squeal. He bounced up and down, his eyes wide with excitement. “Do you like the skates? My father, he owns this store, and a lot of the gear we sell is his own design!”

“Are they fast?” Holly asked.

The pegasus looked at Holly, his glee almost uncontained. “Are they fast?” The young stallion blinked. “Nopony has ever been brave enough to push these skates to their limits. Dad is still trying to convince ponies that these are a better design.” The pegasus’ face went from gleeful to shrewd in the span of a single second. “You’re a mile per minute skater and you are considered one of the most graceful skaters on the circuit.”

“Was. I was. I’ve quit. Time to settle down and get a real job.” Holly looked at the skates again, her green eyes wide with lust.

“Was eh?” The stallion’s eyes narrowed. “Holly Homewrecker, how would you like to make some money?”

“Hey, if you are asking what I think you’re asking, you’re about to lose a whole lotta teeth, Bucko.” Holly glanced at the stallion. She had been propositioned many times before. She wondered how many things she would have to break before this one understood that ‘no’ meant ‘no,’ as in ‘never.’

“Oh no no… you misunderstand…” The young pegasus blinked. “My name is Polo, yes, my dad named me after his favourite sport. How would you feel about endorsing these skates? You will be paid… and we’ll even give you a set of skates.” The pegasus pointed at the wall and gestured at the large posters of ponies wearing various types of sports gear.

“I’m retired though,” Holly said as she looked at the different posters.

“Doesn’t matter. You’re a household name. You’ve been on a cereal box!” Polo replied.

“I have?” Holly shook her head. She didn’t remember being on a cereal box. It must have happened without Holly’s knowledge or consent.

“Yes… I still have that cereal box.” Polo looked away, embarrassed. He reached up and smoothed back his mane. “If you endorse these skates and let us take pictures of you wearing them, we can pay you and we’ll give you a set of skates. My dad is very fair in his contracts and doesn’t believe in small print. He might ask you to pose in some pads or body armor too.”

“Hmm.” Holly needed money. She hadn’t counted on this happening. She looked over on the wall and saw some familiar faces. Spitfire and Soarin from the Wonderbolts stared down at her. Both were wearing sleek, streamlined goggles. “Is your dad here?”

“He’s in the back. I can go get him,” Polo offered.

“You go and you get him. I can’t promise nothing, but we can talk,” Holly said.

“Neat!” Polo, grinning, took off at a run.

Chapter 6

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Rolling along at a good clip, Holly thought about her meeting with Bronco Wisewithers, and his son, Palomino Polo. The meeting, which was pleasant, had a few unpleasant undertones. Holly supposed that on some level she was aware of the fact that she had been taken advantage of, but being shown that she had been taken advantage of was a whole nother issue.

It seemed that Holly had been wise to leave. At least she had been allowed to leave. Bronco Wisewithers had spoken to her about skaters being forced to skate long past their prime through shady dealings. Bronco, at least, seemed on the level. His contracts were simple, plain word affairs, no legalese, no fine print, what you see is what you get, sign and get a hearty hoof bump.

Holly of course, had signed. She had nothing to lose, and the situation seemed win win for her. A sizeable payment up front, some new skates, smaller payments every month for as long as her poster graced the sporting goods store. A potential for extra payments and contract expansion if Bronco wanted billboards.

The new skates would be delivered to her home once the contract cleared.

With a snort, Holly awoke and contemplated the complete and utter destruction of her alarm clock. She had dug it out of her trunk for a reason, and that reason was foggy and hard to remember at the moment. Not yet awake, Holly’s brain began to recall various details of the previous day.

She needed to show up at the firehouse for testing. She had to flop around to get out of the sagging bed. After much grunting, kicking, and fighting, she stood on the floor of her bedroom, her eyes closed, almost asleep on her hooves. It was still dark outside.

At least the house wasn’t cold. The bedroom was quite warm. She had kicked off the extra blankets at some point in the night and she had flipped over the pillows several times to keep the cool sides up.

In a daze, Holly shuffled through her house and began to get ready. She still needed breakfast, and planned to head over to Mallory Moo’s Automat. She bumped into walls, smacked into doors, not at all accustomed to the layout of the house yet.

District #1 Firehouse was well lit and gave off a hazy glow in the freezing fog that left everything glazed with ice. The airship that had been docked there was gone, perhaps it was docked someplace else, Holly didn’t know.

Wrapped in her heavy overcoat, Holly shivered and made her way to the door. She pushed it open, felt a blast of heat that almost knocked her from her hooves, and then made her way inside.

The inside of the firehouse smelled like breakfast, old smoke, and sweaty stallions. Holly sniffed, quite taken with the smell.

“You Holly?”

Turning her head, Holly found herself eye to eye with a small drake. He was a short, lithe sort, had a serpentine body, bright orange eyes, and was covered in shimmering electric blue scales with yellow spines.

Holly nodded.

“Heya Holly. My name is Fizz Fizz. Toots and the Knocker will be with you in a bit.” The drake smiled, revealing multiple rows of razor sharp ridges that passed for teeth.

“Fizz Fizz?” The corner’s of Holly’s mouth turned upwards, causing little wrinkles to appear in the corners of her eyes.

“I’m a steamer, not a firebreather. When I huff, and I puff, and I blow the fire out, it makes a fizzy sound, okay? The naming committee are a bunch of brain dead fire jockeys, not speech professors.” The drake’s tail swished from side to side and his bright eyes studied Holly.

“I’ve never seen a dragon up close,” Holly said.

Flattered, Fizz Fizz pulled himself up to his full height. “Not all dragons are large and terrifying. Some of us are small, magnificent specimens, and we have to make a living just like everypony else.” He waggled his brow ridges. “I am uniquely suited for this job. I can’t be burned.”

“Must be nice.”

“Oh, you have no idea.” Fizz Fizz puffed out his scrawny body and his frills protruded.

“Hey, you crazy lizard, get up here!”

Fizz Fizz grinned at Holly. “I gotta go. Just… stay right here and Toots and Knocker will be with you in just a few minutes.”

Spotting a chair, Holly settled in to wait while the drake slithered off up the pole, vanishing from view.

When Knock Knock came into view, Holly felt bad for him. He looked tired, weary, and he smelled of smoke. His pelt was sooty and smudged. His eyes, reddened by irritants, looked heavy and tired. A moment later, Toot Toot came into view, still damp, but clean.

“Long night?” Holly asked.

“Yeah,” Knock Knock replied.

“Don’t you ever go home?” Holly asked.

“Knock Knock and I… we’re lifers. We live here in the firehouse and we’re always on call.” Toot Toot brushed his damp mane out of his face. “We’re a special kind of stupid.”

“Oh, wow, that’s dedication.” Holly looked up at the two ponies.

“Naw, we just can’t afford rent in this city.” Knock Knock flashed Holly an exhausted grin. “Come on, let’s get going. We’re off to district two training substation. I think you’re going to do well in the physical tests. Let’s see what you can do, Holly.”

The mare popped out of her chair, landed on her hooves, and then bounced in place, excited. “This is gonna be great.”

“How do you think she’ll do?” Toot Toot looked at Knock Knock, his face serious.

“She knows what needs to be done… let’s see what she does.” Knock Knock watched through the safety window as Holly studied the door.

The average Manehatten apartment door was a fortress of locks, and this one was no different. Several deadbolts were installed, and a bracing bar went from the middle of the door down into a little hole in the floor. The bracing bar, thick, and made of brass, made it almost impossible to push the door open from the outside. There was also a chain lock with a heavy brass chain.

“Think she’ll get the door open?” Toot Toot asked in a nervous voice.

“Toots, nopony gets the door open on their first try. She’ll probably bust herself up real good slamming into the door. She might break the doorframe a bit and she might loosen it from the hinges. She just might do more damage to it than any other pony I’ve known.” Knock Knock glanced at his companion.

“She’s gonna get the door open,” Toot Toot insisted.

“Toots, you’re brain damaged from all that smoke and fire killer foam.” Knock Knock shook his head.

“Boss, you ain’t been hit by that mare. If she got in a fight with the subway, she’d win.” Toot Toot watched as Holly rapped on the door with her hoof. He could see the look of disappointment upon her face when she discovered that it was solid wood.

“There she goes… she’s getting distance from the door… she’s gonna plow into it. Toots, get the first aid kit ready, this is gonna be a bloody mess—wait, what is she doing?”

The two stallions watched as Holly approached the tool wrack. She rose up on her hind hooves, well balanced, and pulled a Halligan bar down from its hooks. She had it gripped in her front fetlocks. She hefted it, testing it for balance, held it in one fetlock for a moment, tossed it up into the air, flipped it, caught it, and then gripped it with both fetlocks once more.

“She’s a scary broad,” Toot Toot said in a breathless whisper. “That’s a long steel handled Halligan bar… that’s what, fifteen pounds? Did you see her toss it?”

“I saw, Toots, I saw, now shut up.” Knock Knock gave the pegasus beside him a shove to silence him. He said nothing about the fact that Toot Toot was wrong, the long steel handled Halligan bar was a hair over twenty pounds. He watched, almost holding his breath as Holly stomped forwards, balanced on her hind hooves. She was a big mare but she moved like a ballerina.

With a terrifying roar, Holly rammed the Halligan bar into the side of the door where the hinges were located. The stabbing end sank in between the wood of the doorframe and the wooden door, going deep.

“She went for the hinges!”

“Shut up, Toots!”

The two stallions watched as Holly pushed forwards on the bar, getting it to wiggle, and then she jammed it in even deeper. She braced one hind hoof against the wooden doorframe, the other hind hoof was flat on the ground, and she hooked both front fetlocks around the handle. Baring her teeth, Holly jerked her body backwards.

There was a screech of metal and wood. The bar moved a few inches. Every muscle on Holly’s body bulged beneath her plush cushioning. The mare closed her eyes. She heaved backwards, her body began to glisten with sweat, and her nostrils flared as she began sucking in air.

“Boss, that door ain’t gonna make it,” Toot Toot said in a scared voice.

The bar jerked back another inch as Holly tossed all of her weight backwards. There was the sound of wood shattering and fatigued metal groaned. Holly slammed her body forwards into the bar, and then jerked backwards again. Twisting metal screamed and squealed as the top hinge of the door shattered, sending shrapnel flying.

Sweat ran off of Holly’s body like rivers and pooled upon the cement floor. The broad muscles in her back quivered, and corded muscles in her neck rippled like writhing serpents. Ninety two seconds had passed. Tossing her head around, Holly gave another fearsome yank on the Halligan bar. There were more sounds of metal dying. The middle hinge warped and bowed.

Screaming, Holly yanked the Halligan bar free from its wedged in position, whirled it around, lifted it up over her head, and came down on the top of the door with an overhead chop. The door shuddered and the top half of the middle hinge sheared off.

Holly reared back, took a step back, raised the bar high over her head, and then tossed herself forward, bringing the Halligan down in another overhead chop. The middle hinge disintegrated, shattering into tiny fragments. The door was now held together by the bottom hinge, the deadbolts, and the bracing bar. The top half of the door was askew, hanging away from the door frame.

The Halligan bar fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Holly dropped down to all fours, turned around, looked over her shoulder, and then with a blood chilling scream, she bucked the door with her hind hooves. The first kick did nothing, but the second kick caused the door to topple. It fell away from the doorframe with the sounds of metal being ripped apart.

“I told you so!” Toot Toot shouted.

“Shut up, Toots!”

“Sorry I took so long… I guess I would have burned up or something,” Holly said as she wiped sweat from her face. “I can try and do better next time, I promise.”

“Holly, there won’t be a next time.” Knock Knock shook his head. Holly started to protest, but he cut her off. “That door wasn’t meant to be opened. At least, not on your first try. Or your second. But you went for the hinges just like a seasoned pro. I don’t know how you knew how to do that, but you’re a smart mare, Holly Heartwood.” He saw Holly look confused for a moment, and a smile graced her face.

“There were only three door hinges on the left side, but a whole bunch of deadbolts and locks on the right side. It seemed weaker,” Holly said, explaining her reasoning.

“Most rookies run up and kick the door, or slam their body into it.” Knock Knock, who had a sheepish grin, looked Holly in the eye. “To be honest, I thought you’d do the same.”

“I thought about it, but then I saw the tools. I figured I’d have the tools with me if I was on the job. So I thought I’d have myself a go at the door with that big prybar—”

“The Halligan bar.” Toot Toot flew into the room, his wings flapping as he halted and remained in a hover. “I brought you some water.” He held out a plastic tumbler filled with water and ice to Holly, and smiled when she took it.

“So, what is the next test?” Holly asked after she had a drink.

“Holly, you were supposed to spend all morning trying to get the door open… to be honest, I’m not sure what to do with you right now. You’ll need a physical… and I don’t see you failing that.” Knock Knock watched as Holly drank more water.

“Of course, you know, this means you’re hired. There’ll be more training, but you’ll be paid for that. I kinda wanna see what you can do in a crisis,” Toot Toot said as he watched Holly empty her glass.

Knock Knock glanced at the pegasus and then turned his eyes upon the earth pony mare. “Holly, I do believe that you’ve found your calling in life.”

Chapter 7

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Like an excited foal, Holly bounced around in place as she got to get a good look at the airship. Standing on the roof, she could see the craft tethered to its mooring. There was a gangplank connecting the ship to the roof. It was large, but not very large. A number of ponies were working on the ship, inspecting hoses, and making certain that everything was shipshape.

“So you use these to fight fires? Why not just clouds and stuff?” Holly turned around and looked at Knock Knock, her eyes wide with wonder.

“You can’t get enough water out of a cloud for a really big fire. For a tiny little house fire, you might get enough water out of a cloud, but tell me Holly, do you see any rainclouds waiting around to put out fires?” Toot Toot waited for the connection to be made in Holly’s mind. She was a smart mare, and he knew that she’d get it.

Holly, standing upon the roof, looked around the city, examining the skyline. There weren’t that many clouds today. What few clouds there were were fluffy looking grey clouds. A pegasus would have to go a long way to find a raincloud. She looked at the airship. “Oh… this makes sense. So you fly these ships over to one of the lakes outside of town, fill up the water reservoir, and keep them ready to fight fire.”

“Yes.” Toot Toot nodded. “All those hoses and stuff… we can pull up alongside a skyscraper, toss hoses in through the windows, and get to the fires directly.”

Studying the ship, Holly could see large brass nozzles beneath it, the nozzles where water was sucked up into the ship. The deck was wide and there were yellow stripes on it telling ponies where to stand. Holly guessed that rescued ponies could be brought aboard the ship and be saved from the flames. Holly could now understand why so many pegasi were fire fighters. They were well suited to the airborne tactics being used. Holly wasn’t certain how she could get from an airship to the top of a skyscraper, but she knew that a way would be found.

“The airships are a huge expense. We don’t have enough of them. We’ve begged for money, pleaded with those who make the budgets, but they’d rather watch the city burn than spend a bit of money. Crying shame, really,” Knock Knock said, his voice bitter. He lifted his head high, his mustache quivering as he chewed on his lip for a moment. “You’ll find out soon enough… there’s no point in ruining the job for you during your first week.”

“I don’t think anything could ruin this for me… this seems like the most wonderful thing in the world.” Holly gazed at the airship, feeling a powerful sense of romance. Holly, a mare that liked fighting, began to understand the appeal of this life. There were airships, hoses with big brass nozzles, giant pry bars, fire axes, and a relentless beast that threatened to devour the whole city, always lurking, always waiting, always ready to strike when least expected. It all seemed so very simple. Fire was the major heel, and the fire fighters were the big face. But there was also little heels to go along with the spectacle, like those who managed the city budgets. The burning buildings were the arenas. The skyscrapers were the A-shows. It was all a show like any other, travelling from place to place, the faces had to put a stop to the big heel, otherwise, everything would be ruined.

“It’s all so kayfabe,” Holly said as the wind whipped her mane around.

“What?” Toot Toot asked, looking confused.

“Never mind… it all makes perfect sense. I don’t know if I could explain it. But everything in life makes perfect sense right now,” Holly replied.

“If you say so.” Toot Toot eyed the mare for a long moment and then looked at the unicorn beside him. “Knock Knock, we should get her suited up. Start getting her used to it.”

“Yeah Holly, let’s get you geared up.” Knock Knock watched as Holly took one last glance at the airship, her expression one of adoration. He had seen that same face a thousand times in his life, but had never gotten over the emotional impact.

There were two racks sitting close to one another. One rack held leggings; a flying pegasus could just drop into those, but Holly, being an earth pony, would have to leap into them. After leaping into the protective leggings, two straps went over the back to secure the leggings into place. There was a pedal on the floor that acted as a quick release, freeing the pony now wearing the leggings from the rack. The second rack held the top half of the protective suit. A pony would stand beneath it and it would drop down. Magical snaps would seek each other out and the top half would secure itself to the leggings. It was a practical system born of necessity and seemed functional enough.

After the protective suit, other gear awaited. Oxygen tanks and a respirator mask. Two tanks, both of which went under the belly. Holly wasn’t sure about the under the belly thing, but then realised that if she had to carry a pony upon her back, the tanks would be in the way. There was a water tank as well, with a feed line that connected to the respirator and a little tube that went into the corner of the mouth. All of this formed one unit. The tanks were all bracketed together and it seemed easy enough to put on. You slipped the body harness over your upper half and then cinched the straps. The mask slipped over your face. The helmet went over your mask and your head. And then stuff was clipped to your body harness, like a married Halligan bar and fire axe set.

“Wait,” Holly said, shaking her head, “How does a pegasus fly wearing this gear?”

“In general, they don’t.” Toot Toot looked Holly in the eye. “If there were big open slits for the wings to slip through, the fire could get through it too. This is the ground fighter suit. Not many sign up for this duty.”

“The sky fighter suit lacks significant protection. It is meant more for a pegasus to come in through the window with a hose and get to work, or to stay outside the building and shoot inwards with a hose. They need their wings. Feathers are flammable, so most pegasi stay far, far away from the fire.” Knock Knock looked at the suit, looked at Holly, and then looked at Toot Toot. “I wear the ground fighter suit. Toots here has worn it on a number of occasions. He was in a real bad scrape a while back and the fire burned his face pretty good. Truth is Holly, we need more ponies to wear suits like this one. It takes a crazy amount of courage to commit yourself to going into the flames.”

“So how do I get into this? Just… jump in?” Holly asked.

“More or less. Sometimes, the top half is tricky, the magical snaps lose some of their magic over time and don’t always meet up right. This can be a real problem sometimes,” Toot Toot replied.

“So I get to wear this suit… and I get to be a big damn hero?” Holly turned and looked at the two stallions.

Knock Knock chuckled and his mustache crinkled as he smiled. “Most ponies call this the suicide suit. It comes with a slightly higher pay scale, yet nopony wants to wear it. But yes, if you wear this suit, it comes with the opportunity to be a big damn hero.”

“I’m sold.” Holly gave the suit hanging in the rack a final studying, trying to see how everything fit together, trying to make certain her body would fit, and getting herself worked up for her attempt.

Leaping, Holly prepared herself to land in the leggings. Something didn’t go quite as planned though. Hung up, Holly wiggled, trying to get free. Her front legs had hit the back of the suit and then she wasn’t quite sure what had happened next, but she had failed.

Wiggling free, she tried again. This time, she wasn’t quite lined up with the leggings. Her front and rear left legs went down into the right legs of the suit, leaving her half in and half out. Groaning, embarrassed, Holly kicked her way free, lost her balance, and fell to the floor, hitting the metal rack on her way down.

“I think I see a problem,” Toot Toot said. “Holly is the epitome of grace.”

“Keep it up Toots, I’ll tell Holly to knock you down again.” Knock Knock took a step back to give Holly plenty of room. “Holly, keep trying. We’ve plenty of time. You’ll get the hang of this, not everything can go perfect on the first try.”

Getting to her hooves, Holly gritted her teeth. She backed up from the rack, trying to figure out the best place to leap from, the angle of her leap, the positioning of her legs, and then she looked over at Knock Knock and Toot Toot. “So pegasi fly into the suits, just dropping in, how do unicorns get into them?”

“Oh, I teleport inside. It uses a bit of magical energy but it keeps me from falling on my mustache over and over.” Knock Knock reached up and smoothed his mustache. “I’m not exactly handsome, but I have a magnificent mustache. Don’t want to see the little fella get hurt.”

Well, that is no help at all, Holly thought to herself. She eyed the rack once more, lept, and shouted, “Earth pony way!”

A moment later, Holly clattered to the floor, almost knocking the rack over. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her rising temper, shook her head, and then began to get back up on her hooves.

“I completely overshot it,” Holly grumbled as she gave herself a shake.

“Keep trying.” Knock Knock went over to a wooden bench and sat down.

Several other pegasi were now watching, standing around the doorway. None of them were laughing and all of them kept glancing at Toot Toot. Looking at them, Holly got the feeling that Toot Toot was just as much in charge as Knock Knock, even if Toots didn’t have the title of captain.

“Cannonball!” Holly cried as she launched herself again. Her attempt ended in spectacular disaster. Her front hooves caught on the edge of the suit, flipped her over, and she landed inside of the leggings on her back, with all four legs sticking up into the air.

“I think she’s stuck, boss,” one of the pegasi said.

Wiggling, Holly tried to get free and discovered she couldn’t, much to her chagrin. She groaned, feeling embarrassed, and then worked up her courage so she could say, “Help me.”

Several pegasi flew over, grabbed Holly by her legs, and then grunting, all four of them hefted Holly free. They flipped her over in the air, and then then set her down upon her hooves.

“Thank you, gentleponies, for getting me back on my pegs,” Holly said with a smile. She lifted a hoof and gave the pegasi a little wave, never once thinking about the fact that it took four burly pegasi to lift her and set her free.

“Howzabouts we lift her up and drop her into the suit for the first time, so she can get a feel for it?” one of the pegasi asked as he reached back and rubbed his spine with one of his front hooves.

“That sounds like a good idea, if Holly is okay with it,” Toot Toot said.

“I’m game.” Holly stood ready. She stood wide legged, head held high, a smile upon her face. “Be careful gents, I’m ticklish and I tend to kick when I get tickled.”

Hearing this, Toot Toot began to back up, getting away from what he suspected was the danger zone. He didn’t want no part of this and wondered how much damage kicked pegasi might do to the brick walls.

“Toots, I’m scared Toots… why you backin’ away like that?” one of the pegasi asked.

“Toots ain’t skeered of nothin’, but he’s worried about something right now.” A dark brown pegasi shook his head. “I don’t get paid enough for this kinda stress. Come on, let’s get to work.”

“Come on fellas, I’m harmless. Give me a lift,” Holly said in a teasing voice.

Chapter 8

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“We’ll have to work on getting you suited up,” Knock Knock said, his mustache hiding his smile. “How does it feel? It should be kinda loose so you have room to move.”

Nodding, Holly felt her helmet slide around a little, and bang against the top edge of her respirator mask. The heavy fabric of the suit was balanced well, so nothing felt too heavy in any particular spot. The tanks hanging down from her barrel and her belly didn’t get in the way of her legs if she stood or walked with a wide stance, which she usually did anyway. Holly had big thighs in the back and they sometimes rubbed together, gualding her skin and rubbing away her pelt. A fireproof metal box hung over Holly’s backside, a first aid kit with a few basic supplies, the most important items being several large applicators of emergency burn ointment.

“Can you move on two legs?” Toot Toot asked.

Wiggling, Holly shuffled her weight around, trying to get a feel for the suit. The tanks were heavy. The suit was heavy. Pushing away from the ground with her front legs, Holly rose up, wobbled around, almost fell over, widened out her hind legs, braced herself, and then found her balance. She stood there for a few minutes, allowing her body to find its own equilibrium. Forcing it to adapt wouldn’t help, all that could be done was be patient and allow her muscles to find their own way. Closing her eyes, Holly thought about how she relied upon muscle memory. Behind the respirator, Holly’s eyes opened. Reaching around, she slid the Halligan bar away from its married axe, slipping it free from the loops on her sides. The front legs of her suit had grippy material around the fetlocks, and her grip on the bar was better than ever. She hefted it for balance, and then held it in a two fetlocked grip. She leaned forward, and then began to run on two legs, lumbering forward with the Halligan bar raised high.

-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-

Holly crossed the room with frightening alacrity, her hind hooves stomping upon the cement floor. The tanks on her belly caused a bit of a wobble in her two legged walk. She raised the Halligan bar even higher as she approached the six by six wooden beam wrapped in rope that was used as a training post, the purpose was to hit it as hard as one could so the body could adjust to high impacts and dealing with things like doors, support columns, or any other obstacles that might present themselves.

-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-WHUMP!-

Even though her bulk might suggest otherwise, Holly was more than capable of skating on her hind legs, she was a creature of surprising agility. On many an occasion, she had used her front skates to juice some poor heel and give them a good working over.

Roaring, Holly swung the Halligan bar into the training pillar, throwing all of her body into it. There was a thunderous crack and the pillar snapped. Through the rope, splintered wood poked out and became visible. Holly stood beside it, her barrel heaving, the Halligan bar still held in her fetlocks. The only thing still holding the broken post together was the rope wrapped around it.

“I think I just pissed myself,” Toot Toot admitted in a low, frightened voice.

“Earth ponies.” Knock Knock reached up and smoothed out his mustache. “You know, I have a nagging suspicion that Holly could handle a hose all by herself if she had to.” He looked over at Toot Toot. “Whaddaya think, ya old hose handler?”

“It takes four or six stout pegasi to handle a mid-pressure hose,” Toot Toot replied, responding with what his brain knew and understood.

“That’s a three inch hose with nine hundred to a thousand gallons per minute.” Knock Knock’s mustache quivered as he did the mental calculations.

“Yeah, that’s the long and the short of it, boss. Nopony holds one of those up by themselves… but no, I ain’t betting on if Holly can do it. I’m not in the mood to lose another wager,” Toot Toot said as he watched Holly dancing around the room in her bunker suit. He felt panic when he saw Holly lumbering in his direction.

Sliding the Halligan bar into its loops as she lept forwards, Holly then snatched up Toot Toot and then began to twirl around with him as his wings flapped and he tried to get free. She stomped around on her hind legs with effortless ease now.

“Eh, will ya look at that, Toots is dancin’ with the new broad,” a pegasus remarked as he walked past the door. “He looks scared.”

Glowering, Toot Toot did not reply. He said nothing, but allowed himself to be whirled around, held in Holly’s forelegs like an oversized foal. With a cry, the mare tossed him upwards towards the ceiling, and waited to catch him. Toot Toot did not come down, however, he hovered overhead, his wings flapping.

“Nice launch,” he said with a nervous grin.

“It’s noon. We’d best let Holly out of the suicide suit and let her go home. We have stuff to do. It’s another quiet day—”

“Knock Knock, you dumb bastard, you never say that! Now you’ve jinxed us!” Toot Toot stared down at his companion, his eyes narrowed and angry. “You never say that!”

“Yeah, well, maybe I want some excitement to happen,” Knock Knock said with a derisive snort to punctuate his words. “You got to dance with a nice lookin’ mare, and so far, all I’ve done to today is talk about how you like to get other stallions to help you handle your hose.”

Behind her respirator mask, Holly began to giggle.

“You’re a bastard.” Toot Toot shook his head. “Really, Knocker, you are a bastard.”

“While you two talk about your hoses, I’m going to slip out of this suit if I can,” Holly said. She waved her right front hoof and then began to titter as she walked away, still walking on two legs.

“Get a load of this broad, she’s hardly here for a few days and already, she’s busting our chops… she’s one of us, she is.” Toot Toot gave Holly a fond smile as he hovered in place. “Eh, get out of that suit and go take a shower, ya mug!”

When Holly pushed open her front door, her first thought was that she had entered the wrong house. She stood there, mouth open, wide eyed, taking it all in. The floors gleamed and looked brand new. The dull grey wood was now vivid cherry wood with a bright finish. The walls were much the same. The wallpaper, once faded, now looked like it had just been hung. The gas lamps were all spotless, perfect, the antique brass gleamed with an almost mirror finish. The furniture even looked new. The couch and the matching chair appeared to be immaculate. The purple paisley print was now vibrant, almost glowing with vibrant purpleosity.

“Madam! Forgive me, I had not expected you home until much later,” Alfredo Noodle said as he came halfway down the stairs.

“Forgive you for what?” Holly asked. She looked up at Alfredo and saw that the fastidious unicorn was covered in cobwebs and dust.

“Madam, I am atrocious in appearance and offensive to the eye.” Alfredo’s ears drooped in an apologetic manner. “Oh, this is awkward.”

“This place looks amazing… how did you do this?” Holly asked.

“Magic, madam, magic. I am, if I may boast, skilled in domestic magic,” Alfredo replied.

“Well, it’s okay if you are a bit cobwebby. I probably stink like hot sweaty plot crack. Been a long morning.” Holly watched as Alfredo’s haughty eyebrow elevated upwards and she was forced to swallow her own laughter.

“Would mademoiselle like to have her bath drawn?” Alfredo asked, his face a stony, stoic mask without expression, minus the elevated eyebrow.

“You speakin’ Fancy at me, Alfredo?” Holly, unable to help herself, smiled as she watched Alfredo squirm.

“Madam was complaining about—” Alfredo shuddered and then composed himself. “Madam was worried about the sanctity of her always beautiful feminine places. I desired to place emphasis upon madam’s beauty with a carefully chosen title.” The stuffy unicorn cleared his throat. “Madam, if I may, beautiful mares do not… perspire. After physical exertion, beautiful mares, such as you, yourself, glow.”

“Yeah, well, my glow was dripping down the back of my legs as I walked,” Holly replied. She watched as Alfredo’s eyes squeezed shut and the muscles in the stallion’s jaw clenched.

“Madam, I shall draw a bath for you right away, madam. And while you soak in the tub, I shall prepare for you a delicious repast.”

“What’s a repast?” Holly asked. She blinked in confusion.

Standing on the stairs, Alfredo slumped, looking defeated. “I shall prepare for you a scrumptious meal. Would madam like more grilled cheese sandwiches, or shall I prepare something else?”

“Grilled cheese sounds good, but if you wish to surprise me, that works too.” Holly realised she had left out an important detail. “Just… fix a lot of food. I’m hungry. Been glowing all morning while I wrecked stuff.” She watched as Alfredo turned around and disappeared up the stairs.

“You really fluster poor Mister Noodle,” Pretty Posey said as she popped out of the kitchen. “He’s kinda stuck up and proper and I mean that in a good way.” The pegasus looked up the stairs and then back at Holly. “He’s not a schmuck. He knows how to make a mare feel comfortable working around him, if you know what I mean. He’s real professional and he’s never, ever, not even once tried to proposition me or the others. He’s always made us feel special and valuable.”

“He strikes me as a good sort,” Holly said to Pretty Posey.

“Oh, he’s the best sort. He’d be a good catch for a mare… but I think he’s gay. He’s too prim and proper. I’ve tried to drop hints that it would be okay to flirt with me, and he’s never once took the chance. He’s either gay or just really, really stuffy.” The pegasus let out a disappointed sniff. She then mounted the stairs and went up, leaving Holly alone in the front room.

Alfredo had done something to the bathwater again. It tingled on the skin as Holly eased herself in. As she lowered her hind half into the water, she could feel the steaming hot water soaking into hot, sweaty, unmentionable places. Holly whimpered, froze half in and half out of the water, and then bit down on her lip. It stung. Letting out more little whimpers, she eased herself down into the tub for a soak.

Hot water worked its way into her wiggly bits, her jiggly bits, and her slappy-flappy bits. She let out little grunts and cries as more of her delicate anatomy was submerged in the medicinal water.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaah, that feels nice,” Holly gasped as she sat down in the tub. She leaned back, the hot water travelling up her spine, until she was supine in the tub, her head resting upon the back edge. She turned her head towards the wall, and then in the other direction, trying to stretch her neck.

As she lay there, her head turned, she saw a glass of wine sitting on the wooden table that sat beside the tub, the table where bottles of soap and bath oils were kept. It hadn’t been there when Holly had came into the bathroom. She glanced at the door, which was still shut. Had Alfredo teleported a glass of wine into the bathroom? She supposed it was possible. Unicorns could do that kind of stuff.

She turned her head up towards the ceiling, sighed, closed her eyes, and settled in for a soak, thankful for Alfredo’s attentiveness.

Chapter 9

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Head high, Holly Heartwood walked through the blustery wind, heading for the firehouse. The past few days had been difficult; there had been a physical, there had been plenty of training, and Holly was back to being in a constant state of being sore all over, a condition she was used to enduring as a roller derby star.

She had also signed more papers with Bronco Wisewithers for the professional endorsement, was photographed a zillion times in a wind tunnel to give her the illusion of great speed, and had picked up some new inline skates that allowed her a forward velocity she had previously believed impossible. Holly’s new bank account also had a tidy sum of money in it now, at least Holly believed it to be a tidy sum of money.

Life was almost perfect. Her house, which was being restored floor by floor, was starting to feel like home. She had a new bed filled with buckwheat hulls that was wonderful to sleep on. She had fully explored the house, both cellars, and the top floor. The top floor had a marvelous view of the small park that was just behind the rowhouses across the street from Holly’s, which were only three stories tall. Living in a house that was nine feet wide and exactly twenty seven feet in depth, (not the thirty feet that Holly had first thought) had some challenges, but Holly was adapting. The mansard roof had a broad, flat surface, wrought iron railing, and there were bins of almost dead grey dirt that would be perfect for a rooftop garden. In the city, there was no room for a large yard, but there was the rooftop, and there were many, many secret gardens upon the roofs of the city.

The wind whistled and howled as it blew between buildings, billowing down the artificial canyons of the city, gaining strength as it was pushed through narrow spaces. The wind was strong enough to cause the cabs in the street to wobble when the gusts caught them broadside. The wind was strong enough to blow ponies around on the sidewalk, unicorns getting the very worst of it. Very few pegasi flew in the air due to the gale force winds, as most pegasi lacked strength. Through it all, Holly was unphased. She was solid, she was sturdy, and she was an earth pony. Her hooves tended to stay where they were planted, very much like a tree.

As Holly made her way down the sidewalk, she righted ponies being shoved around by the wind, offering gentle nudges, little careful prods with her hoof, and sometimes using her head to prevent a nasty tumble. Holly, the solid sturdy sort, didn’t mind, and liked keeping others safe.

“Heya Knock Knock, heya Toots… how’s life?” Holly asked as she slipped in the door and then struggled to push it shut. “It’s blustery out there!” Holly looked at the two stallions and then realised that both of them had been waiting for her. Knock Knock’s mustache was quivering and Holly felt a growing sense of alarm. “Is something going on?”

Toot Toot nodded, but said nothing.

“Holly, we got back the physical information from the doctor and there is a bit of a problem,” Knock Knock said in a low voice.

“Problem?” Holly asked.

“Yeah Holly… you failed the physical—”

“How the nutty fudge did I fail a physical?” Holly demanded.

“Body mass index… they say you are—”

“Are they trying to say that I am FAT?” Holly shouted. She let out an indignant snort. “I AM NOT FAT! THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH A FULL FIGURED MARE!”

“Wait, wait, don’t start shouting, we can work around this, we just have to go downtown and see the commissioner and have a chat with him and he can sign a waiver.” Knock Knock’s ears were pinned back against his skull and he looked nervous, his tail was swishing around his hind legs, swatting at invisible flies and his mustache hid his mouth.

“DO I LOOK FAT?” Holly kicked out one shapely hind leg half covered by her long coat and gave it a wiggle. As she shook it, the plump flesh jiggled in a most eye pleasing way. “Do I look like a fat disgusting sack of cookie dough?”

“Pee coming out now,” Toot Toot said as he took a step backwards.

Knock Knock also took a step backwards to join his friend and his constant companion. “We can fix this… just… calm down. You’re a beautiful mare, Holly.”

“BUT I AM FAT!” Holly bellowed. “What, am I supposed to be a sack of draconequus antlers and door knobs, like those skinny little coathangers on the billboards?” Holly lifted up her right front hoof and began to wave it around. “When I roll somepony in the sack I want them to feel like they are screwing a pony, not rutting a thrice damned washboard!”

The two stallions, silent, gave a sidelong look to one another and then both looked at Holly. Knock Knock’s cheeks puffed out as he let a long, slow exhale escape while Toot Toot’s feathers ruffled out.

“It’s sexism! That’s what this is! Stallions are intimidated by mares of equal stature and equivalent mass! Would a fat mare be able to roller skate the way I do? Would a fat girl be able to prance around on her hind hooves the way I do? Or make it up those stairs? DO I LOOK FRONKING FAT?”

“How about a nice walk to cool off Holly?” Knock Knock gestured at the door. “We can go see the commissioner and get that waiver signed and then everything will be just fine and we can forget about this. You’re not fat at all… you’re just an earth pony. The firefighter guidelines were written for pegasi and unicorns… probably. They forget that earth ponies are always twice as solid.”

Almost but not quite mollified, Holly’s lip curled into a snarl. “So I’m fat and I’m discriminated against as an earth pony.”

“Let’s go for a walk,” Knock Knock said, gesturing again.

“Any alarms lately?” Holly asked as she and Knock Knock walked together.

“Just last night. A chimney fire. Small. No real damage. More smoke than anything,” Knock Knock replied as he leaned into the wind and struggled to keep up with Holly. He was strong, at least strong enough by department standards, but he was having trouble keeping upright in the wind and he envied Holly’s effortless gait.

“I’m aware that I’m a big girl,” Holly said in a low voice that was difficult to hear over the wind. “My former agent and I were always arguing about it. He kept saying that if I’d just drop some pounds and slim down a little, I’d be more popular and I’d get better billing.” Holly lifted her head and stared straight ahead as she walked. “You know how many slim and attractive mares I’d put into the wall at forty miles an hour?”

When the wind gusted, catching him broadsided, Knock Knock was forced to lean against Holly for a moment. He regained his balance and fought to restore a respectful distance.

“They even had me racing in intergender derbys… at least, that is what they called them. I was the only mare in a whole herd of stallions. They always threatened to rough me up and work me over and I always had to break a few bones to make them respect me.” Holly shook her head and felt the stinging wind in her watering eyes. “The other mares said I was too big… too heavy… I was too fat and they were tired of getting hurt.”

“I’m sorry, Holly,” Knock Knock said as he stared straight ahead, and gave Holly the benefit of the doubt that it was the wind causing her eyes to water. “Holly, you’re a solid mare, if you’ll let me be honest. But that is an asset in this job.”

“I like how I am. I’m not ashamed of being me. I’m tired of everypony trying to make me conform to some kind of standard, like my old agent. Ah, screw him. Telling him off was the best day of my life.” Holly felt Knock Knock getting blown into her for the second time and a half smile spread over her muzzle. “So what is your real name, anyhow?” She wiggled her hips to bump Knock Knock back onto his hooves and get him standing on his own again.

“My real name is Claybourne, don’t you—”

“Claybourne?” Holly asked, cutting the unicorn beside her off.

“—laugh.” Knock Knock turned and glanced at Holly. “My family, we immigrated to Equestria. My mama wanted me to have a name that kept me in touch with our old roots. You know, I don’t know why I thought you’d laugh. I dunno what I was thinking.”

“Where ya from?” Holly turned to look at Knock Knock.

“My family comes from a little far away place called the Manechester Isles.” Knock Knock’s black mustache bristled and had little icicles forming in it from his heavy breathing and the sub zero temperatures. The unicorn’s ruddy brown pelt also also getting iced over as he sweated a bit from his exertion to keep up with Holly as well as keeping upright on his hooves.

“So… your family immigrated here and settled in Manehatten?” Holly turned her head so she could see ahead once more. “Musta been hard, coming to this big city with nothing and making a life for yourself.”

“A lot of firefighters are from immigrant families, going way back. Toots too. A long time ago, our families came here, and we were poor, and we, well, we were stupid, but we were proud damnit, and it didn’t matter what job you had, just so long as you had a job. Even if it paid bupkis, at least you could say that you had a job and hold your head high. We did the jobs that nopony wanted to do. We took the crazy dangerous jobs. The jobs that got us killed.” Knock Knock paused and fell silent. He walked in quiet contemplation for a few minutes before speaking again. “I don’t know how it happened, but I imagine that at some point, there was some colt somewhere, some dumb as dirt type, and his daddy was killed by a fire on the job—”

Knock Knock drew in a deep breath before he continued:

“—anyhow, this kid, this dumb colt, he grows up hating fire, and he becomes a firefighter just like his daddy… and he settles down with some mare, and she hates his job, but she loves him in some crazy way, even though she’s scared dungless about his job, and they have foals, and at some point, the little foals, they get their heads all filled with the romance about this job, hearing stories from their daddy when he’s home, which is dung… total dung… and then at some point, the fire up and kills their father. One of them gets the sensible idea to grow up and be a nurse or a cab puller or something sane, but one of them, one of them realises that grandpa and daddy both died because of the Beast. So, being a real dimwitted sort, he goes off and becomes a firefighter, breaking his mama’s heart. And then, somehow, it just never stopped happening and now we have multigenerational firefighter families and some dumb colt is getting a cutie mark that is going to screw his life over.”

“So that’s how you got your little fire axe?” Holly asked.

Walking beside Holly, Knock Knock chuckled. “Something like that.” Knock Knock snorted. “And that’s how Toots got his rolled up firehose with a brass nozzle. Poor bastard. We tease him something awful about the fact that he was born to wrestle hose.”

Tittering, Holly felt her spirits lifted.

“Before we go and see the commish, you want to stop somewhere and get a bagel and a shmear?” Knock Knock asked.

“I’d love that… that’d be real nice,” Holly replied.

Chapter 10

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“See, that wasn’t so bad. Five minutes and it’s over,” Knock Knock said as they stepped out the door and onto the sidewalk. “So it’s over and we can put that behind us.”

“What now?” Holly asked.

“Now, you keep showing up for work. Early morning. And you keep training. Only now, if there is a call, you’re coming with us.” Knock Knock pulled out his pocketwatch from his jacket pocket, flipped it open, and had a look at it. “You know what, you’re going to get a crash course today. We’re not far from one of my investigations. Come with me, Holly, and let’s see if you got any brains between those perky little ears.”

Smiling, Holly could feel the cold air blowing over her hot cheeks. A light snow was falling now, the high winds had brought in a squall from the ocean. The flakes were dusting Knock Knock’s mustache.

“You’s a smart gal, I bet you’ll be more than some dumb hose or axe jockey. Follow me Holly, and show me what you are made of,” Knock Knock said as he took off, leaning forward into the wind, and tucking his watch back into his jacket pocket.

Laughing, Holly followed after the unicorn that was now, officially, her boss.

The brownstone building was burnt black. It was a short, squat structure, only three stories tall, rather wide, and had bright yellow caution tape all around the front. Beside the brownstone, there was a garage for a wagon, an almost unheard of luxury in the city, where space was at a premium. Most of the windows were broken.

Knock Knock ignored the yellow caution tape, ducking his head and going right under it, and then he made his way up the stairs, almost slipping only once. He stood in front of the door, watching as Holly also ducked under the yellow caution tape and made her way up the icy stairs. She did not slip coming up the steps and Knock Knock admired her steady hooves.

“I’ve only been here once, for a bit of a precursory look around, back when I picked up the key from the insurance agent. Watch out, this place is a mess and there is a lot of broken glass,” Knock Knock said.

Holly nodded and then looked at the front door. It had been smashed open and was now held shut by a padlock that had been bolted into place. She watched as Knock Knock inserted the key, turned it, and popped the lock open. He slid it free from the clasp, unhooked the clasp, and then pushed the door open.

“Lesson starts now. Holly, tell me what you see. Just have a look around, and tell me what you see.” Knock Knock made a gesture for Holly to go inside.

Holly stepped through the door, smelling smoke. The front room was burnt. She stood in the entranceway, looking around, trying to figure out what she was supposed to be looking at. The skeletal remains of furniture filled the room, there wasn’t much left of anything. The floor, covered in a carpet, was burned. The worst of the burn was in the middle of the room, the outer edges of the carpet wasn’t as damaged. Lifting her head, Holly looked up. The ceiling was burned; so much so that there was a gaping hole.

“How odd, the fire burned the middle of the room,” Holly said.

“Keep looking.”

There were paintings on the wall, the remains of paintings. The paint was blistered and the frames burnt. It seemed odd that the paintings even survived at all. Holly would have thought that the paintings would have burned away completely.

There was very little glass in this room, but every single window was broken. Feeling puzzled, Holly continued to look around, trying to figure out what it was that she was seeing. She began checking the floor again, studying the carpet. In the center of the room was a charred black mass.

“Carpet looks funny,” Holly said.

“You bet your ass it does,” Knock Knock replied. “Look over there, in that corner.”

Turning her head in the direction that Knock Knock had pointed, Holly noticed a long black streak leading to the charred mass in the middle. It didn’t make sense. Why had the fire burned in such an odd way?

“That don’t look right.” Holly shook her head.

“I’d bet bits to donuts that the fire started right there. Somepony flooded the middle of the room with accelerant of some kind, and then poured a little in that direction towards the corner. They lit the fire and then got out,” Knock Knock explained.

“That seems dumb… why the corner? I don’t get it.” Holly turned and awaited a further explanation from Knock Knock.

“We have ourselves a real genius at work here. A line of fire leading right to the front door would have been too obvious. So the ignition point was moved to the corner, cause somepony thought they had some kinda brains. The fire started, hit the big puddle of accelerant in the middle of the room, and exploded.”

“Is that why there is so little glass in the room? All the windows blew outwards?” Holly asked.

“Yeah, that’d be the reason.” Knock Knock scowled. “I hate stupid ponies that think they have some kinda brains. When the firefighters got here, the front door was locked—”

“Did the owner do this and lock up after himself?” Holly asked, her eyes going wide with shock and surprise.

“Not necessarily.” Knock Knock’s eyes narrowed. “There are other ways to unlock and lock a door. Locksmithing tools. Magical keys that change shape and size. Those things are unlikely, because they are as expensive as all get out, but they do exist. And then there are unicorns and magic.”

“If it was a unicorn, why use some flammable liquid and set that on fire? Why not just use magic?” Holly asked.

“A little bit of magic is undetectable. A whole lot of magic leaves behind a signature. That’s a good way to get caught,” Knock Knock replied.

Holly looked around the room once more, taking it all in. So the middle of the room was flooded with some kind of flammable liquid and a thin trail of liquid led off to the corner. It was ignited, the fire burned along the floor, hit the big puddle, exploded, blew out the windows, burned with a high heat that set the ceiling on fire, and then the floors above started burning.

“This room became a suckhole. Lots of air came in through the broken windows. The heat caused the air to rise through the hole in the floor, sucking in more air from the outside, and feeding the fire on the floor above. Everything on the next floor is an utter ruin, but we can’t go up the stairs. Not structurally safe.” Knock Knock watched Holly as she took everything in.

“So this was arson,” Holly said.

“I knew that it was the first time I was here and noticed the burn pattern on the floor,” Knock Knock replied. He smiled. “Follow me out into the garage. We need to go have a look around.”

The garage, unburnt, had no wagon inside. There was a woodworking bench, some shelves, and a large number of paint cans on the shelves. There were also chemical cleaners and solvents. Tools lined the walls and the floor was covered in sawdust.

“I suspect that the accelerant came from here. Many of those chemicals are flammable and become even more so if certain things are mixed together,” Knock Knock said as he gestured at the metal shelves.

“So this arsonist, he cases the joint, has a look around, doesn’t want to look suspicious as he’s doing what he’s doing, so he uses whatever is available to him to get the job done?” Holly looked around the garage and then walked over to the shelves.

“That’s the long and the short of it,” Knock Knock replied.

“I guess that brings us to the next question… why…” Holly began to peer around the shelves, poking her head between paint cans.

“The house was insured for a lot of money. That’s the obvious one. The owners happened to be out of town and on vacation in some place warmer, so that can look pretty suspicious right there. They have a good alibi. This whole neighborhood is being eyed for ‘revitalisation’ by the city, it is close to the city center and plenty of wealthy real estate types want to buy these houses. A number of them have already been sold. They want to build more high rises here, pack in more ponies, get more rent money, make a fortune. The owners did turn down a very generous offer on their home, so there is plenty of suspicion there as well. Some shady real estate types have been behind arson in the past. This one is going to be a big mess, I can feel it. It’s almost perfect. It’s an obvious arson that almost anypony can see right away, either some idiot was hired or somepony didn’t want to hide it, so they could send a message. Hard to tell. The suspicion goes in all directions, and I has this feeling in my bones that this case ain’t gonna be solved no time soon.”

“Sounds like we can’t win. The management has left the heels in charge.” Holly lifted her head to look on a higher shelf and noticed there was something missing. “Hey, Knock Knock, there is a rusty circle here on the metal shelf. Something was just sitting here… ain’t no dust right here, but there is dust all around it. Looks like somepony picked up a can of something and took off.”

Moving at a swift trot, Knock Knock went to Holly’s side, stretched out his neck, and had a look. There had been a can here recently, something large, rectangular, like a jerry can. The rust was visible, and inside the rust, there was a clean spot on the shelf. All around it was thick, heavy dust.

“Probably a big two and a half gallon cannister of turpentine,” Knock Knock muttered more to himself than to Holly. “Makes sense, highly flammable, explosive, burns hot as the blazes.” Knock looked at the paint and the rest of the woodworking supplies. “Might have been some kinda varnish too.”

“Where did the can go?” Holly asked.

“That… that…” Knock Knock looked Holly in the eye. “That is a damn good question. I didn’t see anything in the living room, and walking away with something like that would have been suspicious. It wasn’t put back in the garage, so let’s go have a look around, shall we?”

Beaming, Holly felt a growing sense of pride. Not only was she pretty, but Holly felt that she was a bit smarter than average. “Let’s go have that look around.”

As Knock Knock checked the shrubbery around the house, Holly checked the window wells that allowed light to shine into the basement. She had checked several and had seen nothing, nothing at all. She moved around the house, going from window well to window well, finding only some snow and old, dead, half rotten leaves.

She paused, lifted her head, and had a look around, trying to think of hiding places that weren’t so obvious. She had already peeked inside of the trash can. It was half full. She watched as Knock Knock almost slipped and fell on some ice. She choked back her giggles and kept looking, moving towards the front of the house.

Standing on the front sidewalk, Holly looked at the brick fence that existed on each side of the property. Her hoof kicked the metal lid covering the storm drain below. Holly froze, had an idea, and stepped off the sidewalk and onto the street. There was a big opening here, a gap between the sidewalk and the street that opened into the storm drain. It was a large opening, large enough to allow leaves and water to drain away from the streets and not get clogged.

Not caring about a little dirt, Holly kneeled down in the street, and with a great deal of caution, she stuck her head into the storm drain opening, a real tight fit. She looked around, trying to see if she saw anything. She saw the glint of metal in the faint light.

Pulling her head out, Holly regained her hooves, gave herself a shake to remove snow as well as old leaves, and then gave Knock Knock a holler. “Hey, there’s something metal down here in the storm drain!”

Hearing Holly’s words, Knock Knock came over in a hurry, almost slipping, and he let out a string of expletives so foul that Holly remained silent for a good ten seconds before exploding into laughter. More snow was falling now, large white flakes, and Knock Knock peered down into the drain.

His horn flared with light and a second later, a large rectangular metal can that had been stomped flat was lifted out of the drain. He set it down upon the sidewalk to have a look. It was a turpentine can. His gaze lifted and focused on Holly.

“Good work… at least we know what caused it. Nice job, Holly.”

Chapter 11

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Standing on top of her home, the snow billowing all around her, Holly Heartwood watched as the sun dipped down in the west. It had been a long day for her, much of it spent with Knock Knock. The arson investigation troubled her, weighing heavy in her mind, causing her to think and feel a little out of sorts. Holly liked to believe that ponies were good creatures, but there was mounting evidence to the contrary, and Holly didn’t like it.

Tomorrow would be a new day in the new city, full of new chances to learn, to grow, and to do exciting new things. Tomorrow would bring ponies to talk to, to spend time with. Traveling by train all over the country for the roller derby, Holly almost always had somepony to talk to, or at least somepony around. But now, Holly’s house was empty, and with her troubled thoughts, the emptiness, the loneliness, it was almost unbearable.

In the distance, Holly could hear a hoof cranked siren making its “aaaOOOOOgaaah!” sound. The whole city was full of light, and the city’s light reflected off of the snow clouds above, causing the sky to glow purple. This city never slept, the lights never dimmed, and this city never went silent. This city was all brick, steel, glass, and concrete, with very little in the way of greenery. Holly had heard ponies talk about how earth ponies didn’t belong in the city, earth ponies needed lush green fields to be happy, but Holly supposed she didn’t know what she was missing. She had always gone from city to city, train station to train station, arena to arena, one show to the next for so long; she couldn’t even recall ever being on a farm at any point in her life.

But she hadn’t lived in the city either. She had lived on trains, staring out the window, watching as the countryside scrolled past like a movie. She had lived in hotel rooms when she wasn’t on a train going somewhere. She had an apartment, a place she seldom visited, a place she had never even furnished, and had only been used to store her few belongings.

The snow was blowing in sideways now and the wind was picking up. Holly was glad to have a home. It was cold. Holly shivered and thought about going inside. From here on the roof, Holly could see Mallory Moo’s Automat. Another strong gust caused Holly’s long coat to go whipping around. This house, even though it seemed small, even cramped at times, it also felt huge and empty. Her teeth almost chattering, Holly decided it was time to go inside, get something to eat, and then go bed early so she wouldn’t feel so alone.

Pushing open the door of the firehouse, Holly stepped inside and shook the snow off of her. It was quiet, and nopony greeted her. She walked through the garage, around the wagon, and then saw that something was wrong. The wagon had a broken wheel and the rear axle was splintered. Cocking her head, Holly looked at the broken axle, trying to figure out what had caused that. Examining the wagon, Holly could see that the water tank was ruptured and there was a huge dent along one side.

“Hey Holly.”

Whirling around, Holly saw Fizz Fizz. “What happened?”

“Last night was a bad night,” Fizz Fizz replied, a pained expression upon his face.

“It looks like it… but what happened?” Holly looked at the drake and began to feel a growing sense of worry. “Talk to me.”

“We got sabotaged last night. Somepony messed with the fireplug. When we went to attach a hose, it… it’s like it burst. One of the big bolts went shooting off. Tap Tap fell.” The drake slumped down and closed his eyes.

“Falling doesn’t seem so bad… is he going to be okay?” Holly asked.

The drake opened his eyes. “Holly, we firefighters don’t die on duty. We fall.”

It took a moment for the drake’s words to settle in. Holly turned around and looked at the wrecked wagon. She then turned back around and looked at Fizz Fizz. “Are Knock Knock and Toot Toot okay?”

“They’re sleeping. It was a rough night, like I said. We got sabotaged and then a column fell over on our wagon, killing our water supply. The fire spread a good bit. We had to call in airships on an out of control house fire.” Fizz Fizz scowled. “Holly, I don’t mean to be rude, but I promised I’d bring the spotter up on the roof a cup coffee so he won’t freeze to death. Feel free to do whatever. Have a look around. Read a training manual. Just make yourself at home.”

Holly watched as Fizz Fizz departed through a door, his scaly tail swishing in the air behind him. She felt as though she had been kicked. Ears perking, Holly heard a faint sound that she couldn’t quite make out. She walked off to the call room, where the call boxes for the area were routed. The sound grew louder.

In the small, cramped call room, the repetitive beeping of Morse code rang in Holly’s ears. Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah. Holly only knew a little of Morse code, but knew that those were dashes. Fives dashes played in a row, a long pause, and then five more dashes, over and over, on a loop. She didn’t know what it meant. It didn’t seem to be an alarm though.

Holly’s mind reeled as she tried to figure out why somepony would sabotage the fire department. She had trouble understanding arson too. It was the act of a dirty, dirty heel, one that needed a non-kayfabe comeuppance. The real thing. A real honest to goodness beatdown.

Holly wandered around the bottom floor and then found herself in the kitchen. She smelled coffee. She looked around. The kitchen was clean with only a spoon and a bowl in the sink. There was a large cardboard box filled with instant oatmeal packets and a tap near the sink that dispensed boiling water. The side of the box listed a dozen different flavours. On a shelf, there was another box, unopened, that had packets of instant hominy grits, something Holly enjoyed eating a great deal. There were packets of hot cocoa and packets of instant hot apple cider. There was a lot of instant convenience and comfort food. By the sink, there was a box of donuts that had one sole survivor, a maple bar.

Stepping out of the kitchen, Holly walked into the dining area. Along the back wall was a giant map of the city, overlaid with red outlines breaking up the various districts. Push pins were stuck into the map and there were different colours. Holly had no idea what they signified. On one of the dining tables, there was bowl of fruit, apples, bananas, oranges, and one single pinkish grapefruit. At a loss for anything else to do, Holly began to study the map to familiarise herself with the immediate area.

Her nose buried in a book, Holly had lost track of time reading about practical approaches to fire survival, minding your escape routes, making sure you have air, and watching which way flames and smoke blowed. The book was full of useful, helpful, life saving information.

“Holly.”

Looking up from her book, Holly saw Toot Toot. He looked as though he had just stepped out of the shower. He was hovering just a few inches off the ground, and a bowl of oatmeal was held between his front hooves. He plopped the oatmeal down upon the table and then sat down. Holly could see that his eyes were sad, but also angry.

“Fizzy told me about what happened. I also learned that firefighters don’t die on the job,” Holly said, trying to be conversational.

“No. We don’t. We fall.” The pegasus stared down into his oatmeal and sighed.

“What is with the five dashes in the call room?” Holly asked.

“Interdepartmental message. Five dashes, a pause, then five more dashes mean that one of us fell on the job.” Toot Toot looked up from his oatmeal, grabbed his spoon, and began to stir the contents of his bowl. He cleared his throat and began to speak:

“We have a lot of traditions Holly. That is what makes us a family. Learning these traditions is every bit as important as learning how to fight fires.” Toot Toot paused, contemplated his oatmeal, and then blinked away tears. “We were once what kept ponies safe in the dark. We were the nightwatch. Not only did we fight fires, but we fought the darkness as well. We would go around the city to light the gas lamps with a fire pot on the end of a stick. We carried bugles to warn the town when something was invading or there was danger. We had pikes that not only helped us fight monsters in the night, but also fight fires.”

“I had no idea,” Holly said as she leaned forward, interested in everything that Toot Toot was saying.

“We held the darkness back… we kept the lamps lit. But we also kept the fire from devouring the city. We were the masters of fire and we shepherded its existence.” Toot Toot lifted his spoon and took a bite of oatmeal. He chewed, looking thoughtful, and then began to nod his head. “We’ve changed a good bit. We started off as a bunch of pegasi with axes, buckets, and pikes. But then the city got bigger. And bigger. And it kept growing. Buckets became useless. We faced towering infernos. Hoses changed things. Being creatures of tradition, quite a number of us believed in our buckets and we were resistant to change, at least at first.”

Holly nodded to acknowledge Toot Toot’s words.

“But when we saw what a great weapon a hose was for fighting the Beast, it didn’t take us long to adapt to something new. Some of us still used buckets for specific instances, but hoses became more and more reliable. We can’t have personal pride holding us back from fighting the Beast. It’ll devour us.” Toot Toot took another bite, chewed a few times, and gulped down his oatmeal. “My great grandfather, he was a pony that did not like change, or so I’m told, but he gave good reasons for resisting change. That pony was dead set against electric lights. Electric street lights. He said we should use gas lights… and not the fancy kind that lit themselves when the system pressurised. He said it was important for the community to see us, talk to us, speak to us about neighborhood goings on, and our nightly tradition of going out to light the gas lamps was the glue that held the community together. It gave ponies a chance to meet with us, see as what we are.”

“That actually makes sense,” Holly said.

Toot Toot gave a vigorous nod. “We’re no different than the cops. The community needs to see us… to know that they are safe.” Toot Toot took a bite of oatmeal and looked Holly in the eye. “You… you were a roller derby star. You know all about maintaining an image. How to be a big damn hero. Making the public love you.”

“Yeah, Toots, I gets that, but right now, it sounds as though somepony wants to kill you.” Holly shook her head. “I don’t get that. Seems like an act of stupidity.”

“It’s Knock Knock. And no, I’m not just saying that, he’ll tell you the same. He’s made enemies. He is very loud, very vocal, and very unafraid of ponies in power. He has gone forwards a number of times to the papers with his arson investigations, and he has made a number of cases public… cases that got ponies into trouble and made some ponies look real bad.” Toot Toot ate more oatmeal, spooning it into his mouth now with some speed now that it had cooled off some. Toot Toot lifted his head. “I think they’re going to give Knocker a white helmet to try and take him out of the field.”

“White helmet?” Holly blinked and tilted her head, looking confused.

“Grunts like you wear a black helmet. Captains like Knock Knock wear a red helmet. A fire chief wears a white helmet. A white helmet that is supposed to stay white. And clean.”

“So, to keep that white helmet looking pretty, you gotta stay out of the dirt and the smoke I guess.” Holly’s lips puckered into a scowl. “Screw that.”

Toot Toot shrugged. “Could backfire. Knocker could do a lot of damage with a white helmet. Would give him some credibility and some authority. Could go either way.” Toot Toot coughed, cleared his throat, and continued eating.

“You know, I really enjoyed that investigation I went on yesterday. I kinda wanna do that again… I hope that Knock Knock will teach me all he knows.” She looked at Toot Toot and her eyes narrowed. “And any time you want to tell me about traditions, I’m ready to listen.”

Chapter 12

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Sitting in the spotter’s nest, Holly looked at the city all around her. The spotter’s nest was a common post for new recruits, a vital part of learning how to remain alert while dealing with boredom. Holly had herself, some coffee, a pair of binoculars, and a whole city to watch to keep herself busy. She also had her thoughts, which now that she was alone, filled her mind and refused to go away.

All she had to do was watch for fires, which seemed simple enough. Look for smoke rising up from somewhere. Listen for distant bells that were ringing. Look for flares shot up into the sky by helpful unicorns.

The icy cold wind gusted, tearing at Holly’s mane and coat. She ignored it, her eyes narrowed as the cold air filled them with tears. Her shock of green mane whipped back from her head and was tugged by the gale. The spotter’s nest, a wooden structure, rocked back and forth in the strong breeze, but Holly did not feel alarmed. She had an amazing view of the city to keep her distracted from such minute terrors.

Lifting up her binoculars, Holly watched more distant targets. She saw smoke, but it curled up into the sky out of a chimney. More smoke rose out of a distant cannery, some place of horror that made a product known as ‘cod liver oil.’ For the life of her, Holly could not understand why a pony would need to drink such a vile concoction. Another factory in the distance was Firestrike’s Matches and Fire Starters. That would be an excellent place to keep a close eye upon. There were other places too; a furniture factory, a wagon wheel factory, as well as a coach factory where they made cabs and wagons. All of which Holly was certain were flammable.

On a distant hotel roof, Holly spotted a couple kissing. She only watched for a moment, peering through her binoculars, and then made herself look at something else, even though she wanted to keep watching the romantic display.

“Ready to die of boredom yet?”

Looking down from the spotter’s nest, Holly saw Knock Knock. He looked tired. His eyes were red and bleary. There were bags beneath them and Knock Knock’s entire face looked as though he had aged twenty years in a single night.

“Nope! This is great. I love watching the city!”

“Oh… well… I suppose we can use more watchers that actually enjoy this job.” Knock Knock took a deep breath, held it, let it out in a heavy sigh, and then began to watch the bobbing airship that was tethered to the side of the building.

“So… Knocker, what in Tartarus went on last night?” Holly asked as she peered through her binoculars. She was eyeing the match factory, which produced a lot of thick, black smoke. “Exploding fire hydrants?”

“I don’t know,” Knock Knock replied.

“But what causes a fireplug to just explode?” Holly asked. She lowered her binoculars.

“Holly, if I had to guess, and this is just a crazy guess made with not enough sleep, I’d say that the fireplug was slathered down in some kind of chemical that produces an explosive result when mechanical energy is applied.” Knock Knock shook his head and a fierce scowl caused even more wrinkles to appear on his face.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, so I am going to make a confused pony face.” Holly looked down at Knock Knock, crossed her eyes, and made her confused pony face, which she was told was similar to her silly pony face.

Mustache quivering, Knock Knock appeared to be trying not to laugh. “Imagine Holly, if you will, somepony covering a fireplug with something like… like… a nitroglycerine based gel. You’d go to tap the plug, hit it with a wrench, apply mechanical energy, and then you’d get an explosion. I’m not saying that this is what happened though… just a guess… a wild, wild guess. All I do know is, the fireplug exploded.” Knock Knock, now serious looking, bowed his head and his ears drooped down. “Poor Tapper.”

Lifting up her binoculars, Holly peered through them, not knowing what to say, or how to respond. She knew that she was part of the team, but still felt like an outsider.

“Holly, you’ve been here for six hours. You’ve been up in the spotter’s nest for over four. Go home, Holly, go home,” Knock Knock said.

“I can keep doing this,” Holly replied, not bothering to look down.

“You could, but you are still in your training and probation phase. We’re not supposed to keep you active for more than six hours at a time. Some kind of mumbo jumbo about mental fatigue impairing your ability to learn the job.”

“Whatta load of horseapples.” Holly set down the binoculars and looked down at Knock Knock. “That’s a wagon load of crap!”

“Yeah, maybe, but that is how it is. I’d like to keep ya, cause right now nopony wants the spotter’s nest, but I can’t, Holly. So skeedaddle.” Knock Knock squinted up at Holly and waited for her to come down.

“Fine. I’ll be here bright and early tomorrow morning,” Holly said as she lept over the edge of the spotter’s nest. She plunged towards the roof of the fire station and dropped for a good twenty feet.

She landed with a heavy thud beside Knock Knock, who stood wide eyed and rather alarmed that Holly had just made a twenty foot drop. He stood there, staring, his lower jaw moving as Holly shook some snow from her jacket.

“Ladders take too long,” Holly said, giving Knock Knock a nudge and waggling her eyebrows at him. She gave the tired looking unicorn a wide grin.

“Get out of here, ya crazy broad… go home!” Knock Knock shook his head.

“Ya ya, I’m leaving… take care of yourself Claybourne.”

Opening the door, Holly waited for some kind of greeting from Alfredo, knowing that he would be there to welcome her home. She came inside, took off her coat, and hung it from a hook on the wall near the door.

The house was warm, almost too warm. The front room was now an immaculate place. There was a new looking table now that sat between the couch and the sitting chair. On the table there was an ornate wooden bowl filled with fruit and beside the bowl was a newspaper. Something garlicky was heavy in the air, and it made Holly’s mouth water.

Holly thumped over to the sitting chair and sat down. As she eased herself into the chair, she heard hooves on the stairs and then, when she looked up, she saw a familiar black and white figure that brightened her mood right away, making her feel better about her day.

“Madam, I found the table down in the sub cellar. I restored it and brought it up to the front sitting room. I hope it pleases you,” Alfredo said in a soft, soothing voice.

“I like it, thank you Alfredo.” Holly continued to study Alfredo, watching as he reached the bottom of the stairs. His ears were drooping and he did not seem his usual, perky self.

“Madam, would you like a bath drawn?” Alfredo asked.

“No thanks, not at the moment,” Holly replied. Something seemed off with Alfredo, but Holly couldn’t figure out what it was. Being an earth pony, Holly sometimes had these feelings, but didn’t know why she had these feelings.

“Perhaps lunch?” Alfredo asked, one silver-blue eyebrow raising.

“Lunch would be lovely, but I don’t want to eat alone.” Holly gave Alfredo a fetching smile. “Say, you wouldn’t know anypony I could have a lunch date with, do you?”

“Madam, my apologies. I do not.” Alfredo stood waiting, glancing over at the kitchen door. “I do have something cooking though because I was expecting you home.”

“How about you, Alfredo?” Holly asked, blinking her eyes at Alfredo.

“Madam, if you requested it, I would have lunch with you.” Alfredo turned his head and looked at Holly. “If that would make you happy. It would give us a chance to discuss an important issue.”

“Oh?” Holly, now curious, looked at Alfredo, wondering what was wrong. “How bout this Alfredo, you tell me what’s wrong now… so I can think about it, and then maybe help you with it over lunch.”

“Madam, I… Holly, this is very difficult for me.” Alfredo closed his eyes and shook his head. “I am sorry.”

“Why sorry?” Holly pointed at the couch. “Sit Alfredo. Don’t make me tell you twice.”

The stuffy stallion remained unmoving. He opened his eyes, stared at the couch, and then his head turned towards Holly. “Madam, I fear I shall have to tender my resignation and I will not be—”

“WHAT?” Holly shouted, leaning forward in her chair.

“Very sorry.”

“Alfredo Noodle, you had better explain yourself,” Holly demanded, rising up out of her chair and moving towards Alfredo. “You can’t quit!”

“Madam, it is nothing personal. I… ah, it is very complicated,” Alfredo replied.

“Spill your guts then and I’ll decide if it is personal.” Holly’s face contorted into a horrible scowl as she stared up at the much taller Alfredo.

“The apartment in which I live has been sold. The whole building. I have been given a notice of eviction and I have a short amount of time to move out. There is nothing, and I do mean nothing available that I can afford on my salary. I cannot be homeless and then be expected to do my job here,” Alfredo said, explaining everything.

“So what will you do?” Holly asked.

“Madam, it is my intention to move to another city and start over,” Alfredo replied.

“No… no… no…” Holly shook her head. She glared up at Alfredo, standing inches away from him. “That’s not happening. I like you. You… you’re like my friend—”

“Madam, we know each other as acquaintances and—”

“Shut up!” Holly demanded. “I get to decide who my friends are!” Holly reached up and poked her hoof into Alfredo’s chest “I don’t even know how many bedrooms I have in this place. All of them are empty. You… you’re going to pick one, you’re going to move your crap in there, and you… you are not going to give me any lip about this, do you hear me?”

“Madam… I…” Alfredo stammered.

“NO LIP!” Holly poked Alfredo hard enough to cause him to stumble backwards. “This place is large enough for the two of us. You can work your normal hours, do your job, and then do whatever it is that you do in your off hours.”

“Madam, it is a bit more complicated than that… I have a complicated personal life that makes some ponies uncomfortable and I—”

“I… don’t… care!” Holly poked Alfredo again and remained deep within his personal space. “What you do in your personal life is your business… how bad could it be?”

“Madam, I moonlight in musical theatre—”

“That’s awesome!” Holly’s whole mood shifted and she smiled up at Alfredo. “What do you do? What’s it like? Are you gay or something and you think I’ll be bothered by that?”

“Madam… Holly… no… I…” Alfredo backed away from Holly.

“If you want to bring home a nice stallion from the theatre I won’t mind, but I might ask to watch,” Holly said, giving Alfredo a wink.

“Madam! Please… I am not gay!” Alfredo’s ears perked upright. “I am a transvestite! That doesn’t make you gay! I like mares but I also like looking like a mare! I like pretty, frilly things and fine perfume! I like singing and dancing! I like playing feminine roles!”

“And this is your complicated personal life that you worry about?” Holly asked.

“I’ve had to learn how to hide it. I’ve lost a job because of it. I did nothing wrong, but one of my previous employers found out about my personal life and fired me, saying that what I did on my own personal, private time made me unprofessional and unsuited for my work. I have been evicted several times because some small minded apartment manager didn’t want some ‘queer’ living in their building.” Alfredo lifted his head high and a proud look crept over his face. “I am not just some ‘fag’ or a ‘queer’ or just some dumb ‘drag queen.’ I take my job very, very seriously. My cutie mark appeared for a reason. This is what I do, what defines me as a pony… and what I do in my personal time also defines me as a pony. But I keep the two separated and I remain very, very professional.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get that. But I don’t have a problem with it.” Holly grinned at Alfredo. “What’s for lunch? Something smells good. Still up for our lunch date?”

“Madam… I… why yes, I suppose I am. Are you certain you wouldn’t mind having me as a tenant?” Alfredo looked down at Holly.

“Would you get mad if I asked you to wear one of those Fancy maid outfits one day?”

Alfredo began to sputter and he backed away from Holly. “Madam… I do not even know how to begin dealing with you—”

“Oh come on, a Fancy maid outfit would look pretty good on you. You could work it.”

“I need to check on lunch.”

“So, will you stay with me?” Holly asked.

“Yes, if you will have me,” Alfredo replied.

“Neat. Now this house won’t feel so lonesome. This place is creepy at night.”

Chapter 13

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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…”

Chapter 14

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Laying in a hospital bed, Holly yawned. More than anything, she was bored. Like, drop dead at any second from boredom, bored. She had to be hauled away from the fire on a stretcher. She was worried; when she was being carried away, there had been no sign of Toot Toot or Knock Knock.

Holly’s right rear knee was swollen to almost twice its usual size and it hurt to move. The doctors had already taken x-rays of it, and her other legs as well. The hospital service was different for firefighters, or so it would seem. Holly had never experienced such a speedy response.

First fire and Holly had lost all of her gear. She was a bit worried about that. The gear was expensive. Laying flat on her back in the bed, she wondered if she was going to be in trouble for what she had done.

The door opened; Holly turned, expecting the doctor. She saw a sooty, mustached unicorn. Holly grinned, happy to see Knock Knock, he was by her bedside in just a few steps, and the look on his face was one of terror.

“You crazy broad… you ain’t got no brains at all, do ya?” Knock Knock shook his head and tears began streaming down his cheeks. “That was almost a forty foot drop… and you had passengers… what in Tartarus were you thinking? This is my fault, I made a bad call… I made a bad call… that floor was below the fire… it was supposed to be dark and a little smokey… it was supposed to give you just a taste of the danger without putting you in any kind of real danger… are you okay?”

“I feel mostly fine,” Holly replied.

Knock Knock collapsed into a chair beside the bed. As he sat down, there was a knock upon the door, and then a moment later, it was pushed open. A doctor entered the room. An older stallion, the doctor looked at the two firefighters, one in the chair, the other in the bed, and bowed his head for a moment.

“Well, Doc, what’s the news?” Holly asked.

“Your hooves are full of micro-fractures and some substantial cracks. We can fix those with a special glue compound, injecting it into the fissures.” The doctor’s eyebrows, which were big and bushy, angled downwards over his eyes. “Right rear hock suffered a first degree sprain. You’re lucky… no sign of tearing or ripping. It’ll be fine in a week or so, but you’ll need to stay off of it as much as you can. In its current state, with as much swelling as it has, the ligament could tear.”

“Yikes.” Knock Knock grimaced and glanced over at Holly.

“I am utterly baffled by my findings. Even with your earth pony physiology, a forty foot drop should have shattered the bones in your legs. You are either extremely lucky or you are far more durable than the average earth pony. I have always marveled at the physicality of earth ponies… so many perfect physical specimens.” The doctor cleared his throat and then looked Holly in the eye. “But you are not invincible. Really, you must keep your weight off of your hock. As tough as you are, I doubt that your ligament could take any sort of strain at all right now.”

“I get it, Doc. I’ll be good, I promise. I take injuries seriously,” Holly said. She heaved a disappointed sigh. “My house is full of stairs. I don’t know how I am going to get around.”

“You are going to stay in bed… your hooves need to heal too… Holly, you were exceptionally lucky.” The doctor turned his head and looked at Knock Knock. “Is there any chance that you could help her get home?”

“Yeah, yeah I can do that, that’s why I came here. I was sent to look after my dumb, dimwitted rookie… jumping out of a window.” Knock Knock let out an angry snort. “I can get her home and get her inside.”

“Alfredo might be able to help me,” Holly said. “I still don’t know how I’ll get up the stairs… lotta stairs in my house.”

“I’ll get you upstairs to your room if need be.” Knock Knock snorted again. “Holly, you jumped out of a damned window… with two ponies on your back. Are you brain damaged?”

“I dunno.” Holly shrugged. “I’ve hit my head pretty hard a few times now.”

“Well, that’s all sorted out. Another doctor will be by shortly to perform the procedure upon your hooves. Prepare yourself Holly Heartwood, I am told that it is quite unpleasant. They have to soak your hooves in a hot solution to make them soft and spongy, so they will expand. The glue that gets injected is also very, very hot and there will be some pain and discomfort. The local anesthetic will help a little. Try not to panic if they have to drill.”

“Drill?” Holly lifted her head up from her pillows. “What?”

“Sometimes, to reach a deep crack, a hole must be drilled. Glue is injected into the problem area and the hole gets filled with glue as well. In time, it all grows together and heals,” the doctor replied. “The good news is, once your hooves heal up from this, typically they are stronger than they were before. This makes them harden.”

“Still not sold on the whole sticking a power drill into my hoof, Doc.”

“Holly, shut up. You just jumped out of a window. A little drill boring a tiny hole into your hoofsies ain’t nothing no worry about.” Knock Knock reached out and prodded Holly’s shoulder. “I’d tell ya to grow a pair, but I suspect you already have.”

Knock Knock came to a stop in front of 211 ½ on Factory Way Road. He glanced at the rowhouse; it looked like so many others, tall and narrow. Behind him, in his wagon, he could hear Holly giggling. She was doped up on painkillers and anesthetic. The hospital had been forced to tranquilise her after she had spooked when the drill got too close to her hooves. A spooked Holly was a dangerous Holly, a lesson that Knock Knock intended to remember.

“Stay here,” Knock Knock said as he unhitched himself from the small wagon. He went up the steps and knocked upon the front door. It was late afternoon now, and Knock Knock was tired.

The door opened and Knock Knock saw a tall unicorn with a tuxedo pelt. “You Alfredo Noodle?”

“Yes, yes I am… what is the matter with Holly?” Alfredo pushed his way out the door and started down the steps.

“Oh, there is a lot wrong with Holly. She jumps out of windows two hundred feet straight up in the air. Today, she took an almost forty foot drop. Cracked her hooves and got a real bad sprain on her hock. She needs to stay in bed and off of her hooves for the next week.”

“I see.” Alfredo, now standing beside the wagon, looked over at Knock Knock. “You look like you have had a rough day. Would you care to come inside for coffee or tea?”

“No thanks… very kind of you to offer.” Knock Knock listened to Holly giggling. “I have other things I need to attend to. I have a firehouse to keep in order. And Toot Toot is probably going out of his mind with worry.”

“I will look after her, I give you my word,” Alfredo said as he lifted Holly in his telekinesis. “Oh my word, Madam is heavy.”

“Didjoo juss call moi fat?” Holly mumbled.

“Madam is one very solid earth pony, made of muscle, stubborn, and dark matter,” Alfredo replied. He shook his head. “Madam is not fat.”

“Tha’s bettah.” Holly, cradled in Alfredo’s telekinetic bubble, was limp.

“I understand you live here now?” Knock Knock asked.

“Yes, yes I do.” Alfredo turned and looked Knock Knock in the eye. He saw fear, worry, affection. Knock Knock was more than a co-worker, Knock Knock was one of Holly’s friends, and a close one at that.

“You don’t mind playing nursemaid I hope. If you do, we can get an assistant to come—”

“Not another word.” Alfredo’s eyes narrowed. “I am the caretaker of this house, and by extension, all those who live in it. I will look after Holly. Please, put your mind at ease.”

“Thanks.” Knock Knock gave Holly a worried smile. He watched as Alfredo started up the stone steps to the front door. “I’ll be by to visit when I can. I’m getting a few days off.”

“Come by at any time… say goodbye, Madam.”

“Guhbuh Moom!” Holly stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry.

“They had to give her a near overdose level of ketamine to make her calm down… doctors say she’s gonna be dopey for a while… she’ll need lots of water,” Knock Knock said.

Alfredo, holding Holly, realised that she was sweaty, stinky, and she reeked of smoke. Putting her in bed would be a dreadful idea. He stood before the bedroom door, not quite knowing what to do. She needed a bath. Holly was in desperate need of a bath. He turned his head and looked at the bathroom door. He looked at Holly and saw a flash of yellow. She still had the little plastic leg band from the hospital on her leg.

Holly stared up at the ceiling and let out a lunatic laugh.

“Madam, I must do something that troubles me. I shall have to beg your forgiveness later, but I am about to bathe you. I do hope you will forgive me.” Alfredo pushed upon the bathroom door and made his way inside with Holly.

He began filling the tub with hot water and added medicated bath salts. Looking at Holly’s hock, which was twice its usual size, he added a bit more medicated bath salts. He hoped that Holly would not get the wrong idea from this. Holly was an understanding sort, but Alfredo worried.

Holly’s burnt orange pelt was streaked with soot. She was dirty, dirty enough that she would leave behind a dreadful ring in the tub. The tub would require extensive cleaning to restore it to its pristine condition.

“Tub. Tubble bubble.”

“Yes, Madam, I am about to place you in the tub. This would be easier if I had your consent, but you are not in a position of sound mind to do so. My apologies, Madam.”

Cringing, Alfredo lowered the giggling mare down into the hot water, easing her just a little at a time. “Again, my apologies, Madam.” He rested her head on the back edge of the tub, worried about her slipping beneath the water.

Gritting his teeth, Alfredo armed himself with a scrubbing brush. This was a job like any other. This was just cleaning, no different than scrubbing a dirty appliance. He went to work, lifting up one of Holly’s front legs with his telekinesis. She began to giggle as the scrubbing brush worked over her leg. Soap bubbles foamed and dribbled down her legs.

Alfredo soon discovered that there was a serious difference between scrubbing a dirty appliance and scrubbing a dirty Holly; the appliance did not moan. As the brush worked over Holly’s barrel, Holly writhed in the tub, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she let out the sort of moan that—

Shaking his head, Alfredo refused to even think about what Holly’s moaning sounded like. He rolled Holly onto her side, mindful of her bad hind leg, and continued scrubbing, staring ahead at the wall as much as possible while Holly began to make enthusiastic “OOOH OOOH OOOH!” noises.

“I do believe I shall need a nip of cognac once this is done,” Alfredo said to himself.

He rolled Holly over onto her other side, still mindful of her leg, and scrubbed away the soot. The bathwater was looking rather dirty, which bothered Alfredo. Sighing, he pulled the plug to empty the tub and once it was drained, he began to add fresh, clean, hot water to the tub. Alfredo bit his lip and tried to deal with his arousal. It was only arousal. At least it was not growing arousal. Not yet. But if Holly kept moaning, well, Alfredo, for all of his discipline, was still a stallion. He shook his head and promised himself more cognac. To take advantage of Holly in her condition was unthinkable and Alfredo would never be able to live with himself.

There was still one area left to clean on the giggling, moaning mare in the tub. Alfredo drew in a deep breath, tossed his head back to get his sweaty mane out of his eyes, steeled his nerve, wondered how much of his strategic reserve of cognac he was going to have to drink, and then committed himself to finishing the job, no matter how bad it got. He would not put a filthy mare into a clean bed. It violated his sensibilities.

Chapter 15

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With a powerful snort, Holly awoke. She had vague memories of Alfredo tickling her all over. No… not tickling… scrubbing. She remembered giggling in the tub. She also remembered Alfredo being a perfect gentlepony. Groggy, lightheaded, and thirsty, Holly looked around. She saw a bell beside her beside with small folded piece of paper that said the words “Ring me” in fine, ornate cursive print. There was also a glass of water.

There was a dull ache in Holly’s right rear leg. Lifting the blanket, she looked down into the darkness, trying to see her swollen leg. She hit a switch and the gas lamp beside her bed flared to life. She looked under the blanket again and did not like what she saw. Her hock had doubled in size. She lowered the blanket and cringed.

Reaching out her left foreleg, she grasped the glass of water in her folded fetlock and lifted it to her lips. The water was a little tepid, but it felt good going down her dry throat. It was gone all too soon and Holly set the empty glass down. All four of her hooves were throbbing, as if each of them had their own heart beating inside of them.

Smiling, Holly grabbed the bell and rang it.

“Madam?”

Alfredo stood just inside the door and Holly was happy to hear his voice. Her vision was still a little blurry at a distance and she had some trouble seeing him. The swollen hock didn’t seem so bad all of a sudden and the lingering feeling of fear in the back of Holly’s mind eased.

“Thanks, Alfredo,” Holly said. Her ears pivoted forwards. “I mean that. I remember everything. It’s good to know that I can trust you.”

“Madam, I am a transvestite, but I am also an utmost professional,” Alfredo replied.

Holly watched as the corners of Alfredo’s mouth turned up just a little. She wondered how she was going to make this up to him. She figured that she owed him some gesture of appreciation. But she had no idea what to do. As it was, she was stuck having to rely upon his good graces. “Alfredo, I’m really thirsty.”

“Yes, I would imagine so after all those drugs they gave you.” Alfredo’s brows crinkled with concern. “I would also imagine that you must be quite hungry after your heroics. You are in the evening paper. There are photos.”

“Oh really?” Holly, laying on her back, rolled over onto her side and raised her head.

“Yes, Madam. Including one photo of you in mid leap with the building exploding behind you. Quite dramatic. So far, I have had to turn away half a dozen reporters that have sought to interview you.” Alfredo lifted his head a little higher and one eyebrow rose. “If Madam will permit me, I shall carry Madam down the stairs to the dining room table. After seating Madam, I will serve Madam dinner. A hero’s repast is in order.”

“Oh, that sounds good.” Holly grinned. “Carry me away, Alfredo, carry me away from this awful place.” Holly stuck out her forelegs and gave them a wiggle.

Heaving a sigh, Alfredo’s sides expanded and contracted like bellows. Being the dutiful sort, he lifted Holly from the bed. Somehow, she was even more heavy than the last time he lifted her. Holding Holly before him, Alfredo turned around to head out the door. “Dinner has been ready for a while. I made a fine marinara filled with garden vegetables. All that is left to do is to cook the noodles, which will not take long.”

“Ooh, Alfredo, you’ll spoil me.” Holly tried to relax. Being suspended in magic felt weird, but she was dealing with it. She wasn’t even going to try to walk on her hooves, they hurt far too much. “Um, one thing Alfredo. Can we make a detour on our way downstairs? I need to use the bathroom.”

“Of course, Madam.”

There was a clunk inside of the wall. The dumbwaiter, as old as it was, was still fully operational. Holly, sitting at the now fully restored dining room table, felt a growing sense of anticipation. Something reeked of garlic, of onions, and the tangy scent of bell peppers.

She heard hooves on the stairs, the light reassuring tread that was unique to Alfredo. She lifted up a glass of ice water, took a drink, and looked at the table, which was already set. Turning her head, she saw Alfredo heading for the dumbwaiter. He moved with a delicate grace that most mares would kill for; Holly felt a pang of self consciousness as she watched him. She watched as he pulled open the dumbwaiter door.

Inside, there was a lot of food. There was a large serving bowl full of steaming noodles. The marinara was inside of a heavy cast iron pan. There was a tray of crusty garlic bread. Holly’s eyes widened as Alfredo set everything out on the table. He then began preparing a plate for her, creating a bed of long, buttery, steaming noodles, a hearty serving of marinara was placed in the middle of the bed of noodles, and several slices of garlic bread were tucked onto Holly’s plate.

When the plate was set down in front of Holly, she was drooling. Somehow, she managed to wait, staring at her food while Alfredo served himself. Closing her eyes, she inhaled, drawing in the fragrant steam rising from her plate.

“You do not have to wait for me,” Alfredo said in low voice.

“Okay, a few dinner rules… we eat together… and you don’t get to call me ‘Madam.’ No ‘Miss Heartwood’ either. Just Holly.” Holly leaned against the table, her eyes now open, and she gazed at Alfredo.

When the stallion sat down, Holly lifted a fork with her throbbing hoof. She attacked her pasta, twirling noodles and sauce together, and then took bite. Her mouth full of food, she let out a long, low moan, savouring the flavour of the sauce. It was chunky and the vegetables still had some texture to them. It was also spicy.

“Arrabiata sauce.” Alfredo’s eyes narrowed. “You’re tough, I think you can deal with the heat.”

“What does that mean?” Holly asked just before eating another bite.

“It means ‘angry.’ You are eating an angry sauce.” Alfredo took a bite and chewed with great enthusiasm. He used a slice of garlic bread to scoop up some sauce and some noodles. When he took a bite, there was a loud crunch from the crispy crust.

Holly ravaged her food. She hadn’t eaten since this morning. She shoveled food into her mouth with her fork, slurping and sucking up noodles with gusto, causing sauce to be splattered everywhere. Picking up a piece of buttery garlic bread, she gnawed on the crust and then let out a moan when she bit into the garlicky, buttery, well seasoned soft part in the middle. She didn’t know what the little green bits were, but they were delicious, savoury and sweet. As she chewed her garlic bread, more noodles and sauce were added to her plate.

Holly decided then and there that she wasn’t going to hide her appetite around Alfredo, not in the slightest. Sometimes, when eating around stallions or even other mares she found attractive, she held back, not wanting to look like a hungry glutton. But this food was too good and it was clear that Alfredo put too much work into it. Not eating it would be insulting.

Watching Alfredo eat was interesting, or at least Holly thought so. There was a lot of sucking and slurping. Alfredo had a fastidious nature, he was clean, neat, and orderly. But he was a hearty eater.

“My family, what little I know about them, came to Equestria from Roam.” Alfredo poured himself a glass of wine and then poured some for Holly. “My family lived in Roam, but we were not part of Roam. We were gypsies, shunned outcasts who rejected the idea of tribes. The gypsies lived together as one tribe long before Equestria was founded.”

Holly took a sip of wine and then set her glass down. It was red, it was strong, and the contrast of the wine with the spicy sauce made her lips tingle. “I don’t know much about gypsies.”

“They rejected the idea of tribalism… they lived as a single tribe of ponies. To be honest, I know very little. I know that they were outcasts, forced to move from place to place, unwelcomed, unwanted, and shunned. Hard to believe now, but there was a time when a unicorn and an earth pony having dinner together was an event that could incite violence.” Alfredo took another sip of his wine, shook his head, and sighed.

“They say that Manehatten is an earth pony city, but I see all kinds here,” Holly said.

“Yeah.” Alfredo nodded. “But a long time ago, this is where earth ponies came to have a place to call their own. There’s the Unicorn Range just west of Canterlot, Cloudsdale for the pegasi, and Manehatten was the place that earth ponies came.”

“I would imagine that it is difficult to have tribal diversity in Cloudsdale.” After speaking, Holly shoveled in more food, slurping in the noodles, and awaited a reply from Alfredo.

Alfredo nodded as he crunched on a slice of garlic bread. After swallowing, he took a sip of wine, closed his eyes as he gulped his wine down, and then, opening his eyes, he focused his gaze upon Holly. “Always kinda bothered me. We hear all this talk about tribal unity and friendship and the unification of the tribes… but then what do the pegasi do? They go right back to the clouds where they came from, a place unreachable and inaccessible by the other tribes.”

Holly nodded, but said nothing. She gobbled down more pasta, gulped down some wine, and then began chewing on a piece of garlic bread as Alfredo piled more noodles and sauce upon her plate. Being a hero was hungry work.

“It’s hard to gain acceptance, no matter who or what you are,” Alfredo said as he held his wine glass aloft in his magic. “I of course, speak from personal experience.”

“I would imagine.” Hunched over her food, Holly slowed down a bit to enjoy it more.

“The gypsies came to Equestria and something mysterious happened.” Alfredo took a sip of wine, grinned, and looked Holly in the eye.

“And what was that?” Holly, feeling intrigued, found that she could not look away from Alfredo. She lifted her fork to her lips and took a bite.

“They vanished.”

“They vanished?”

“Yes Holly, they vanished.” Alfredo nodded. “They came to Equestria to escape persecution and to try and find a place where they fit in. They were already models of tribal unity. And almost overnight, the gypsies vanished. They already had tribal unity… they had that for centuries before the founding of Equestria. They settled into cities, found work, bought homes, and they vanished.”

“Huh.” Holly thought about Alfredo’s words as she wiped her mouth with her foreleg.

“Every now and then, you read about a group of gypsies immigrating to Equestria from the old world… sometimes there are a few less than kind remarks by reporters. But they show up here in Equestria, get off the boat, and then they vanish. They’re no longer gypsies because they’re no longer being persecuted. They go off to Ponyville or some other place where the tribes are well mixed, and then, they are gone.” Alfredo gulped down his wine and then poured himself another glass. When Holly slid her glass forwards, he filled it without a word. Alfredo paused, a curious expression upon his face.

“Equestria has managed to do what no other country could do,” Alfredo said.

“What’s that?” Holly asked in reply.

Alfredo smiled. “Get rid of the gypsies.”

“Yeah, I suppose so. They’re just regular ponies now.”

“Holly, are you going to be up for some dessert? I made a cheesecake.”

“Oh, Alfredo… you know how to tempt a mare towards a dangerous end!”

“Well, there is a whole cheesecake and there is only two of us. It needs to be eaten.”

Giggling, Holly covered her mouth with her hoof. “I think I could do my part.”

“Good to hear.” Alfredo raised his glass in salute and then, placing it to his lips, tossed back the entire contents in one gulp.

Chapter 16

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The past few days had been ones of extreme boredom. Holly, trapped in bed or dependent upon another to be elsewhere, was ready for this to be over. Her hooves itched something awful, itched on the inside, deep inside, where the itch could not be reached. In bed, itching, bored, Holly was miserable.

The papers had plenty of pictures of her and her now famous leap. There was all of this talk of being a hero, and truth be told, while Holly was proud of what she had done, she was also disgusted by everything. Knock Knock and Toot Toot had been heroes for a long, long time, but had received little recognition for their many years of service and hard work.

Holly found the whole thing irksome. They had promised to come by, but so far, they hadn’t, and Holly’s mind filled with the paranoid fear that they hated her for being a hero. At least, that was the conclusion she had reached.

Sitting in the open room that was the second floor, Holly soaked up the sun shining through the window, glad to feel its warmth upon her sore leg. The swelling had gone down, but not by much. Sitting on the coffee table was her bell, the magical bell that would summon Alfredo.

Alfredo, who was down in the basement trying to fix the steam powered blower that pushed the heat through the air vents. The house was still plenty warm, but Alfredo was irked beyond belief that the blower had ceased to function. There had been much eyebrow raising and muttered angry words.

Sitting in the corner, the hoof cranked hi-fi stopped, the record distorting and becoming scary sounding as the phonograph died down. Holly could feel her life doing the same, grinding to a halt, and succumbing to boredom.

With no music, and nothing to do, Holly nodded off to sleep as a means to pass the time.

“Madam… you have guests.”

Alfredo’s voice lured Holly out of sleep. She cracked open one eye. She was under a blanket. She didn’t remember covering up with a blanket. She yawned and forced her other eye open. With the sun still shining upon her through the window, she was warm under the blanket. She lifted her head and looked around.

“How ya feelin’, ya crazy broad?” Toot Toot asked.

A big crazy grin appeared on Holly’s face when she saw her friends and heard Toot’s voice. She felt her heart start thudding in her chest. She took a deep breath, snorted, and then said, “Took both of you jerks long enough to show up… where have you been?”

“Dealing with higher ups,” Knock Knock replied as he sat down in a high backed overstuffed chair. “Officially, Toots and I have a few days off, because they feel we need them, but unofficially, we’re still dealing with a number of investigations, including the high rise fire.”

“Ya think it was arson?” Holly asked, her grin vanishing.

“Hard to say.” Knock Knock looked grim for a moment, then, his mood shifted, and he smiled. “I’d rather not talk about work though. How ya been?”

“Yeah, how ya been?” Toot Toot, sitting on a loveseat, made himself comfortable, sprawling out on his side. “This house is fantastic.”

“Thank you, Toots… I’m okay. Inside of my hoofsies itch,” Holly replied. She realised that Alfredo was gone. She wasn’t quite sure when he had vanished, but he had somehow slipped away unnoticed. “You know, if you two ever want to get away from the station, you are always welcome here.”

Knock Knock, hearing Holly’s words, nodded. “I’ll take that offer.”

“I can’t help but feel that I have seen your butler before,” Toot Toot said as he looked around the room. “He seems awfully familiar.”

“Oh, don’t call him a butler, he’ll get mad. He’s a maid. He doesn’t like the word ‘butler’ very much.” Holly kept her voice low as she spoke to Toot Toot.

The pegasus looked at Holly as if she had grown a second head. “Eh?” He blinked. “Er, whatever. I can’t help but feel that I know him from somewhere.”

“Yeah, me too… something about him… you don’t see many ponies with a tuxedo pelt. I’ve definitely seen him before.” Knock Knock looked at his companion and then at Holly.

“I do musical theatre,” Alfredo said as he crested the stairs.

“I do know you!” Toot Toot bounced in place on the loveseat.

Levitating a tray of drinks, Alfredo moved forwards, walking towards Holly and her friends. When he reached the coffee table, he set the drinks down. There were three gin and tonics placed upon the wooden tray, each topped off with a wedge of lime.

“Toots and I see a lot of your shows,” Knock Knock said in a low voice. He glanced at Holly, then at Toot Toot, and then his eyes came to rest upon Alfredo.

Holly, slow, but not stupid, began to make a few mental connections. Sensing something was up, she too looked around the room, first at Toot Toot, who looked away, then at Alfredo, who was staring at some spot on the wall, and then at Knock Knock, who stared back at her, looking a little bit embarrassed.

Seeing his embarrassment filled in the blank and Holly came to an understanding. “Hey… I gotta ask… what are two big strapping firefighters like yourselves doing going to musicals? See… I know what Alfredo does in his off hours, because he told me—”

“Madam, I do not know if this is wise,” Alfredo said in a soft voice.

Knock Knock looked at Toot Toot and Holly saw Toot Toot give a little nod. She lifted up both of her front hooves. “Hey, I’m cool with anything, really, you can tell me anything, anything at all, and I’m okay with it. Seriously guys… something tells me that both of you know what Alfredo does.”

“Yeah, we go to certain types of musicals,” Knock Knock admitted. He stared down at the floor, his cheeks puffing out as he drew in a deep breath and held it for a moment. He let it out in a huff.

“You see, Holly, Knock Knock and I… we’re—”

“Gay?” Holly finished. She saw both stallions nodding.

Knock Knock took another deep breath and cleared his throat. “Yeah… see… we have a consensual polyamorous marriage—”

“Wait… what?” Holly looked at the mustachioed unicorn.

“What Knocker is trying to say is, he and I are married to each other and our job. He’s always trying to be clever but his jokes take forever to explain,” Toot Toot said. Reaching out, he took a glass of gin and tonic and held it gripped in his fetlock.

“I shall have to make sure that both of you are given passes.” Alfredo bowed his head. “The theatre company much adores the mares and stallions that serve us and keep us safe.”

“You can do that?” Toot Toot asked.

“Yes.” Alfredo nodded and then headed for the stairs. “I have stuff that needs doing. I will speak with you later. Please, excuse me, Madam, I have work to finish.”

The pegasus watched as Alfredo disappeared down the stairs. “He’s handsome.”

“Toots, you don’t go into somepony else’s house and say how handsome their butler—”

“Maid,” Holly corrected.

Knock Knock’s mustache quivered as he shrugged and waved one front hoof around. “You don’t go into somepony else’s house and say how handsome their maid is.”

“Holly, help me out here, he’s handsome, isn’t he?” Toot Toot gave Holly a pleading glance. “Look, I know you’re probably stunned because you just found out about us, but come on… he’s good lookin’, right?”

Holly lifted up a glass of gin and tonic. She was starting to get a taste for them, Alfredo was always leaving her one to drink. She tossed back a gulp, crunched up an ice cube in her teeth, and then, saying nothing at all, she looked at Toot Toot and nodded.

“See, I was right.” Toot Toot looked at Knock Knock with wide eyes.

“Gusty, you’re incorrigible.” Knock Knock rolled his eyes.

“Oh, you don’t get to talk, Clay… if he was strutting around in that slick little lingerie that we both saw him singing in, you’d be saying how pretty he is.” Toot Toot’s wings fluttered.

“Both of you are hilarious.” Holly took another drink. “You’re like some old married couple. Everything about you makes sense now.”

“Ouch, Holly… that’s hitting low.” Toot Toot let out a chuckle and then looked at Knock Knock. “You know… we should all go to one of Alfredo’s shows. Together. Dressed up.”

“Huh?” The somewhat confused unicorn looked at his partner.

“We should get Holly all dolled up, get ourselves all dolled up, and go to a show to see Alfredo,” Toot Toot repeated. He glanced at Holly, then focused on Knock Knock. “It’d be great. We should find out when Alfredo is doing a big song and dance number, take some time off even if it means punching the higher ups in the nose, and then go out and have a fabulous night together.”

Knock Knock’s mustache quivered. “You’re just looking for an excuse to wear a feather boa again, aren’t you, you feathered freak?”

“I’m your feathered freak.” Toot Toot batted his eyelashes.

“Oh this just went to Weirdsville.” Holly tilted back her drink and took a big gulp. “This is great. Keep going, I’ve been bored, I’m enjoying this.”

“We don’t get to act like this often.” Knock Knock turned away from Toot Toot. “Officially, these sorts of relationships are forbidden. Not because we’re gay.” The unicorn paused and sighed for a moment. “They just don’t want married ponies working together. For a variety of reasons. But some of it is discrimination… not many ponies know about this Holly.”

“Your secret is safe with me. Feel free to come over and stay with me. Flirt. Have fun. You can use my sub-basement as a sex dungeon if you’d like.” Holly finished off her gin and tonic, crunched up an ice cube, ate the wedge of lime, peel and all, and then set her glass down on the coffee table. “I’d love to go to a show.”

“Do both of you fine gentleponies have time to stay for a meal?” Alfredo appeared, as if by magic, at the top of the stairs.

“If it isn’t too much trouble,” Toot Toot replied.

“Sir, it is never too much trouble. This is my job. I find it quite fulfilling.” Alfredo gave the pegasus a dry smile. “For the record, I have to start rehearsing for a show that will take place about a month from now. The Stony Spooky Cinematic Review.”

“Oh hey, I love that show!” Toot Toot bounced off of the loveseat and onto his hooves.

“You only like it because it is an excuse to dress up.” Knock Knock rolled his eyes.

“Who will you be playing?” Toot Toot asked as he trotted over to Alfredo. He looked up at the tall unicorn, grinning from ear to ear.

“Why, Evil Doctor Wienerschnitzel, of course.” Alfredo cleared his throat.

Toot Toot bounced around, his wings flapping, acting very much like a colt, which was saying something for a pegasus with more years behind him than ahead of him. He looked at Knock Knock with a pleading expression.

“I don’t get it.” Holly said.

“No… you don’t. You have yet to experience the freak show that is the Stony Spooky Cinematic Review.” Knock Knock gave Holly a grin. “It’s about a young couple… they have problems with their wagon, a broken wheel. They go back to find help and end up in the castle of Evil Doctor Wienerschnitzel, who is from Transexual Prancylvania. After that, it gets weird.”

“Oh.” Holly blinked. “Now I’m curious.” She looked over at Alfredo. “So these are the sorts of roles you take on?”

The tall unicorn nodded. “Yes, Madam, these are the roles I play. I quite enjoy them.” Alfredo bowed his head. “If you will excuse me, I am off to the kitchen to make a meal.”

“Want a little help in there?” Toot Toot asked.

“Toots—”

“Knock Knock, it’s Evil Doctor Wienerschnitzel… how many times does a pony get to help Evil Doctor Wienerschnitzel in the kitchen?” Toot Toot pranced around on the hardwood floor, his wings fluttering at his sides. “I’m gettin’ a wingboner over here!”

Closing his eyes, Knock Knock let out a heavy sigh. “Do you see what I have to put up with in private?”

Chapter 17

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Sitting in a chair, listening to the wind outside, Holly read the paper, not quite paying attention to what she was reading. Her mind was on her return to work tomorrow. These past few days had been some of the longest days in her life, boring days. Endless days. At least having Alfredo around helped to pass the time.

She flipped through the pages, skimming over the boring stories, until at last something caught her eye. She began to read in earnest. It wasn’t that Holly was stupid, or didn’t like reading, like most other ponies, she liked reading, she was just very selective about what she read. Entranced, she spent a good ten minutes reading the same article several times.

“Hey, Alfredo?” Holly lowered her paper.

“Yes, Madam?” Alfredo looked up from a magazine about sheet music.

“Did you read the paper?” Holly asked.

“Yes I did, Madam.”

“So what did you think about the crazy geologist and her husband? Those weirdos went into a spider cave and went all medieval on the gross bugs to rescue some foal.” Holly took a deep breath. “They’re wandering the wilds promoting the values of science and adventure… this is pretty neat stuff.”

Tempted though he was, Alfredo did not correct Holly about spiders being arachnids and not bugs. He cleared his throat. “I thought the article was well written and I feel that more young ponies should go out and explore nature. I find that the fact that they are inspiring other young couples to go out and live on the road and doing good deeds to be a good thing.”

“I don’t see the appeal of wandering about the boonies, I guess I like city living, but I think what they are doing is great. I think that Maud Pie pony is right… the world makes a good classroom.” Holly blinked, thinking about how that applied to her being a firefighter.

“I never attended school for theatre.” Alfredo cleared his throat. “I started off as a gopher, fetching stuff, because I just wouldn’t go away. I wanted to see everything, experience everything. Even though I wasn’t acting, I memorised the whole play bill. I memorised every line by every cast member. I learned entirely by doing. This… Mister Teapot fellow, he is getting a chance at an education that no classroom can duplicate.”

“Yeah.” Holly nodded. “You know, I had Knock Knock and Toot Toot teach me all kinds of stuff, but nothing they told me or trained me for prepared me for meeting the Beast for the first time.”

“Madam, nothing beats experience,” Alfredo said, his eyes lingering on Holly. “Knock Knock wants to keep teaching you the tricks of the trade. When you go back to work on light duty, you’ll be following him around to his various investigations. I daresay that you’ll learn more in a month of following him around than you would learn spending a year in school.”

“Really?” Holly cocked her head off to one side. “Do you really think so?”

“Madam, Knock Knock can teach you things that you would never find in a text book,” Alfredo replied. He pulled his eyes away from Holly, peered at the clock on the wall, and then closed his magazine. “Oh dear, look at the time. It’s midnight.” Alfredo cleared his throat and then looked at Holly. “Holly, I have grown very fond of the time we spend together, even if it is just a quiet time of reading.”

“Yeah, Alfredo, this is nice.” Holly folded up her newspaper and set it down on the sofa cushion. She gave Alfredo a smile. “You’re like… the nicest fella a mare to could ask to share a house with… you don’t even get mad when I stick my chewing gum under a chair.”

Heaving a sigh, Alfredo added checking under the chairs of the house to his list of things to do on the morrow. “No, Madam, why would I?”

“How’s them hooves of yours, you crazy broad?” Toot Toot, surrounded by other firefighters, was back to being his usual self. He looked at Holly, smiling, glad to see her back at work.

“Eh, I feel fine. I could do my job, that’s all that matters,” Holly replied.

Raising an eyebrow, Toot Toot nodded. “I’d imagine so, but the doctor wants a few days of light duty, just to be sure.” The pegasus sighed. “Well, you’re going to be in the spotter’s nest for a while, sorry about that, but that is light duty. Don’t worry though, once Knocker is back from speaking to the higher ups, the two of ya will be off to look at some arson investigation. Up for the walk?”

“The doc says a bit of walking would be good for me. Said the sprain healed up fine.” Holly tuned in to something specific Toot had said. “Knocker is off seeing the higher ups?” She saw a look of anger pass over Toot Toot’s face for a moment and then he was his usual, smiling self once more.

“Yeah… there is a movement taking place to pull the firehouses off of Crown funding and privatise them… having businesses providing us funding. It’s a load of crap… something proposed by Manehattan Mutual Life.”

“Who are they and what do they do?” Holly asked.

“They’re an insurance company,” Toot Toot replied, his ears perking forward in an aggressive way. “Not to worry, it will never happen, but the higher ups… the higher ups like the idea of salary based on performance and shiny new fire wagons, and other cockamamie promises that these businesses will never keep.”

Holly frowned, the corners of her mouth curling downwards, and her expression soured. “By privatisation, you mean… charging ponies to save them from fire?”

Toot Toot nodded.

“I wanna go kick somepony.” Holly shook her head.

“I’d pay bits to watch that.” Toot Toot grinned.

The cab rolled and clattered over the rough street, bouncing Holly around. She stared out the side opening, watching the city go by. She would have been fine with walking, but Knock Knock had insisted on taking a cab to their destination.

The stallion sitting beside her was distracted, she suspected that he was angry, and he hadn’t said much of anything. He was wearing a heavy grey woollen overcoat and a broad brimmed trilby hat with his horn poking out of a hole made in the crown. He was a handsome figure in his coat and hat, and Holly could see the appeal that Knock Knock must have had for Toot Toot. His mustache had been waxed and the ends were curled up.

Holly liked mustaches; they tickled.

The cold grey sky began to drizzle, causing little beads of ice to appear on everything the rain fell upon. The wind was sharp, cold, making Holly’s nostrils sting and causing her lungs to burn if she took a deep breath. Holly snuggled down inside of her dark green coat and pulled her front hooves up inside of the sleeves.

Feeling cold, feeling a little lonesome, thinking of the unnatural state of celibacy she found herself living with at the moment, Holly sighed and wished that she had a pony to get warm with.

“Okay, pay attention Holly… we know this one is an arson. It was also an attempted mass murder—”

“Then why are we here?” Holly asked, blinking at Knock Knock. “I mean, we already know, right?”

“Because there could still be more to learn,” the mustachioed stallion replied.

Shivering, Holly stared up at the warehouse that had been converted into a factory. It was brick, large, parts of it were burnt black, it had no windows, all of them had been bricked over, and the whole place still reeked of smoke.

“Sweatshop,” Knock Knock said in a low voice as they approached. “Employed mostly mares. Illegal immigrants. Also had underaged labour. This place was not at all legit. One of the many sweatshops set up by Manehatten’s fashion industry. They made knock off designer saddlebags, dresses, and coats.”

Holly scowled as they approached the brand new doors. She stopped and stared at the doors. “Hey, why do the doors look so new? They’re like… not burnt.”

“Holly, they chained the doors up to keep the workers inside while they worked. The workers were kept locked inside until quotas were met and then they were released.” Knock Knock saw Holly’s expression darken. “Everypony got out. The doors were smashed down in a stampede.” Knock Knock waved at the group of police officers guarding the building.

“That’s horrible!” Holly waited while one of the police officers unlocked the shiny metal doors to allow her inside. She waved, trying to be polite, but was too disturbed to smile. She felt a growing queasy feeling in her guts.

Inside the sweatshop, Holly could see nothing but ruination in the faint light that made it through the now open doors. There were no windows. Knock Knock cast a spotlight from his horn to light the way. There were burned sewing machines everywhere. Burnt wooden dressforms. Burned carts filled with charred goods. Wooden tables had been burned into useless piles of blackened wood.

The second floor had been made of wood; most of it had burned and collapsed. Holly could see the piles of wreckage towards the back of the building when Knock Knock’s spotlight shone upon it. Gritting her teeth, Holly began to make her way inside to have a look around.

“Be careful, this place is dangerous, watch where you step,” Knock Knock said, offering Holly a warning. “Stick with me in the light.”

Holly couldn’t imagine being trapped inside of a building while it was on fire. Water splashed underhoof and more water could be heard dripping. The front half of the building appeared to be more extinguished than the back half. As they continued, things were far more burnt.

“Why is everything more burned back here?” Holly asked.

“The sprinkler system never went off—one of the things we need to check on while we are here. The only way to put the fire out was hoses, and there is only one set of doors,” Knock Knock replied.

Holly nodded, understanding. That made sense. Fighting a fire was limited to the reach of the available water. They would have had to come in the doors, secure a safe area to work, and then progress a little further into the warehouse.

“There is some kind of office back there,” Holly said, stepping over a blackened sewing machine. “Forepony’s office?”

“Yeah.” Knock Knock shone his light ahead, revealing a treacherous path consisting of burned planks, sewing machines, and exposed nails. Not even bothering to ask, he lifted Holly, ignoring her protests, and carried her over the pile of dangerous debris.

“Hey! Hey Mister Mustache! I’m not some fragile girly little mare like Toot Toot, lemme go and let me do my job!” Holly demanded as she was levitated over Mount Tetanus Shot Waiting To Happen.

Knock Knock snickered as he made his way through the treacherous heap of junk. He felt water dripping down upon his pelt and wondered if the roof was leaking or this was water leftover from putting the fire out.

He set Holly down in front of an open doorway, glad to be unscathed from the dangerous crossing. He looked around, mindful of the broken glass. The offices had windows so that the factory workers could be watched. He watched as Holly stepped inside the office.

Hearing Holly scream completely unnerved him. He rushed forwards, the light from his horn causing the shadows to tilt and dance all around them, fearful that Holly had stepped on broken glass, perhaps slicing open one of her frogs.

Letting go of another scream, Holly stepped backwards, bumping into Knock Knock, and then shrieking once more in panic. She felt Knock Knock beside her, she took comfort in his touch, and her heart pounded in her barrel so hard that she feared that it would break her ribs.

Looking down, Knock Knock saw what had made Holly scream. Blackened bones and half burned carcass lay upon the floor. Knock Knock focused his light, shining it down, trying to get a better view. He heard shouting behind him and saw flashing lights.

“We heard screaming!” a voice shouted.

“We’re back here,” Knock Knock replied. “We have a body.” He looked down at the charred ropes that could be seen on the legs, tying them together. “This just became a murder and arson investigation.”

The mustached unicorn looked at his companion. “You okay? If you’re not, you need to be honest with me.”

“I’m okay… I almost tripped over it and when I looked down, it… it was staring up at me!” Holly replied. She took a deep breath and gave herself a shake. “I’ll be fine, but I’m gonna need some coffee… and maybe some Goldendrop Sunshine Whiskey, you know, the kind with the smiling Princess Celestia on the front of the bottle.”

“Okay… we’re going to keep working, and afterwards, we’re going out for coffee. That sounds like a good idea. Just stay with me, Holly, and pay attention,” Knock Knock said, admiring Holly’s pluck.

The police officer, who had crossed over Mount Tetanus Shot Waiting To Happen, sighed when he saw the body just inside the doorway. “Oh damn… this is gonna mean a lot of paperwork…”

Chapter 18

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The blackened body unnerved Holly, but she remained resolute. She wasn’t in the mood to walk away from a job not finished. She began looking around the office, trying to take in every detail, and trying not to look at the burnt body on the floor.

There was a desk, burnt. A bookshelf, burnt. There was a large metal cabinet, also burnt. The doors were warped from the heat. Holly pulled them open and peered inside, using the light from Knock Knock’s horn to see. The cabinet was filled with papers. Some of the papers were singed.

The office was unremarkable except for the body on the floor. More police officers had arrived and powerful lanterns were being brought back to the offices. The moving, bobbing lights caused the shadows to dance about, making everything eerie. Holly stepped through a door that connected two offices together and into the next office.

It was burned as well. There were two desks in this office, one of the desks had a fan on it. There was nothing along the back wall. No cabinets, no shelves, no nothing. Holly looked at the wall, noticing how much larger the room was than the office next door, but she didn’t think it was because of the lack of furniture.

“Knocker, come here,” Holly said, her voice somewhat reedy and fearful sounding.

Hearing Holly call for him, Knock Knock stepped through the door. He looked around, shining his horn light on everything, including Holly. She looked spooked, but she also looked determined. Once more, he admired her pluck. She was a worthy student.

“This wall… something seems off. This office is larger than the one next door. And I don’t think it’s the furniture.” Holly looked at Knock Knock with wide eyes, her pupils enlarged to see in the dim light. She watched as Knock Knock studied the room, looking around, and then she watched him back out of the room and stand in the next room over.

“I think you’re right.”

Hearing these words made Holly smile and made her fear subside a little. She stepped into the next room and stood beside her friend and teacher. She watched as he looked around at the shelves, tugged at the book shelf, and then, he gave a tug on the metal cabinet with his telekinesis. There was a screech.

One of the officers looked up as the metal cabinet was dragged away from the wall, revealing a door behind it. The door looked solid, sturdy, and reinforced. There were three deadbolts on the door, each with their own keyhole. Knock Knock sighed.

“If I had a pry bar, I bet I could get that open,” Holly said.

“You’d need a battering ram to get that door down.” The police officer shook his head. “We’ll have to call in our locksmith. That door ain’t opening.”

“Officer, do you have a pry bar?” Knock Knock asked.

“What, do you actually think she can get that door open?” The officer’s voice sounded incredulous. “That door is a fortress… it’s designed to keep ponies out.”

“The door is pretty solid, but you know what, I don’t need a pry bar. I’ve changed my mind,” Holly said in a low voice.

“Eh, Holly, light duty—” Knock Knock started to say, but it was too late. Holly, standing on her hind legs, wobbling only slightly, hefted up a desk, lifting it up and swinging it around. She slammed the desk into the wall next to the door and there was a terrific crash as most of the desk shattered into little pieces.

The grey cinder blocks of the wall were also damaged. Several of them had cracked and some pieces crumbled away. Knock Knock looked over at the officer, whose jaw was now hanging open. Several other officers were also staring.

“You know Holly, Officewrecker doesn’t have the same ring,” Knock Knock said in a dry voice. “Hang on ya crazy broad, let me go get you one of those big heavy sewing machines so you can work your mayhem.”

“Why, thank you, Knocker, you know just what a mare wants… a sewing machine… so I can smash stuff with it.” Holly smiling now, watched as the officers loaded up the blackened corpse on a stretcher. She felt bad, sad even, but no longer scared. She had stuff to smash.

When Knock Knock returned with a sewing machine, Holly hefted it a few times to get a feel for it. It was metal, heavy, solid, and had a good feel to it. It weighed about a hundred pounds or so.

Stepping back, Holly lifted the sewing machine over her head, lunged forwards, and brought it down in an overhead chop. A huge chunk of the wall crumbled and fell away. Holly smashed the wall again, and again, banging away at the weak bits, until a hole was formed in the cinderblocks. It felt good being destructive. She smashed the wall over and over until there was a hole large enough for a pony to crawl through.

Knock Knock shone his light in the hole. There were stairs leading down. The mustachioed unicorn lifted his head and looked at the officer that had doubted Holly. “Wanna come down with us, Officer…”

“Cornflower,” the officer replied. “Officer Cornflower. And yeah, I’ll go down first. We don’t know what’s down there, just so long as she’s behind me and has my back.”

“Holly, look after the nice officer… we do try to cooperate with the nice ponies in blue,” Knock Knock said to Holly as she tossed the sewing machine aside and dropped down on all fours.

The stairs were narrow and creaky, and Holly could feel her coat rubbing up against the wall on either side of her. Officer Cornflower, a pegasus, had a lantern around his neck, and behind her, Knock Knock had his spotlight.

At the bottom of the narrow stairs was a small room, the walls were cinderblocks, and the walls themselves were slick with mildew. The room smelled bad. Officer Cornflower gagged a few times and fanned his wings about.

There was a door in the far wall. Holly noted that it had no deadbolts. The room she stood in had filing cabinets, a desk, and several lockboxes were stacked against the wall. She saw something on the desk, lifted her hoof, and pointed. “Hey, what are those books on the desk?”

Officer Cornflower went over and began to examine the objects on the desk. His eyes narrowed, the pegasus looked angry, and his feathers fluffed as the hairs on his back bristled. “These are passports. There’s several passports here just laying on the desk.”

“I don’t understand. Somepony explain to me what is going on, please?” Holly looked at the officer and then at the unicorn standing beside her.

“Without a passport, an immigrant or a visitor can’t do much. For a number of sweatshops just like this one, they help get a labourer into the country and then they take their passport and refuse to give it back until some cooked up debt is paid off. For many, who are desperate and don’t know how our immigration system works, they panic. They think that if they seek help, they’ll be deported or worse, arrested and thrown in prison. So they work,” Cornflower said, trying to fill Holly in on the situation faced by so many.

“That’s horrible! That… that makes me want to kick somepony!” Holly yelled.

“Eh, I’d be looking at something else if that happened. I wouldn’t see a damn thing.” Cornflower stepped away from the desk. “All these lockboxes. I bet we’ll find passports and random trinkets, sentimental stuff being held hostage.”

“What ponies are this bad?” Holly asked.

“The sorts that burn down buildings… usually with ponies inside of them,” Knock Knock replied in a soft whisper that somehow filled the small room with sibilant sound.

“I want to find these heels… and I want to see them punished.” Holly, who had run a whole gamut of emotions, from curiousity, to fear, to overcoming her fear and finding her groove once more, was now furious. She stood there, letting out little snorts, one hoof pawing at the rough stone floor.

“Do you mean that?” Knock Knock asked.

“YES!” Holly’s voice caused both Cornflower’s and Knock Knock’s ears to pin back from the force of her voice in the small room.

Cornflower began pulling open the desk drawers and rummaging through them. He found notebooks, bits of paper, a few bits, a pack of chewing gum, there was a stuffed toy in the bottom drawer, and an endless amount of clutter that might have something useful buried within it.

While he sorted through that, Holly went to the door and pulled it open. A dark hallway loomed before her, and she felt Knock Knock brush up against her side and she peered ahead. There was a door on each side, then, a little further down, there was another set of doors on each side, and at the end of the hall there was another lone door.

Holly went down the hall, came to the first door, opened it, and found an empty room. This room was dry, free of mold, and had a few wooden pallets on the floor. She backed out, glanced at her unicorn companion, and tried the other door on the other side of the hallway. This room was empty, save for a canvas saddlebag on the floor in the corner, which was empty.

“Hey you guys,” Cornflower said. “I found something!”

“What’s that?” Knock Knock replied.

“A note!” Cornflower sounded excited. “We’ve moved the goods to second location. Please take care of the union organiser Seabright in whatever way you see fit. I think Mister Farthing’s goons will hit us soon. Be ready, he’s the sort that will do something drastic.”

“You think the stiff upstairs is Seabright?” Knock Knock asked as he stepped back into the first room. He watched the pegasus shrug with his wings.

“Goods… I wonder what the goods were. Could be anything. This city has cancer in the form of every dirty vice you could think of.” Cornflower’s face darkened. “Probably drugs or questionable alchemical ingredients.”

“I need some light,” Holly said from the hallway where she stood in the near darkness.

“Right, sorry.” Knock Knock turned around and went to Holly so he could light her way.

The second and third storeroom were both empty, with nothing in them. Each room was dry, made for storing stuff and keeping the mold away. Holly opened up the final door at the end of the hallway. This room was not empty.

Inside, there was something that appeared to be some kind of printing press. The room reeked of ink. There were several lockboxes, still closed, a map on the wall, with several marks on different locations, there was a small, square table stuffed into the corner, and one lunchbox, empty.

“They’s making more than sewn goods here, that’s for sure.” Knock Knock peered around the room. “What in Equestria would they need a printing press for?”

“Nefarious purposes, that’s what,” Cornflower replied as he crammed into the room with Holly and Knock Knock. “Forged documents, fake stocks, fake bonds, fake banknotes, look at this thing… this ain’t no common printing press. It’s gotta weigh a ton and there is no way to move something this big and this heavy out of this secret basement. I bet our goods were some kind printed goods maybe. Who knows?”

“So we have a sweatshop upstairs, what might be a dead union organiser, a printing press, a secret basement, evidence of criminal activity in the form of transported goods, but we don’t know what those are for sure, a few empty storerooms, a whole bunch of passports, and we haven’t even investigated the building to find the source of the fire yet,” Holly said, summarising her day so far.

“I think we’ve found all we’re gonna find down here. We should start looking upstairs and see what we can find.” Knock Knock took one final glance around the printing press room, but saw nothing important.

“When this is done, how’s abouts we all go out for lunch together?” Cornflower asked.

“Well, Knocker did promise me coffee,” Holly replied.

“I did.” Knock Knock nodded. “This is going to be a long day though. A nice lunch might be in order. What did you have in mind, Officer Cornflower?”

Cornflower, now leading the way down the hall, said to his companions, “I knows a great sammich place… they have grilled mushrooms and this brown sauce on the special, it’s to die for.”

“Hey, that sounds good, that has my vote!” Holly said as she pushed past Knock Knock to hurry out of the room and down the hall.

“Hey, wait for me!” Knock Knock followed after Holly, his spotlight bouncing from his quick steps.

Chapter 19

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The roof of the warehouse factory was about three stories tall and standing atop it, Holly suffered a curious sensation when she stood near the edge. Her mind raced with memories of her long distance jump and her several story plummet. She felt queasy, dizzy even, a feeling that she had never felt before. She went cross eyed, her knees wobbled, and she wanted nothing more than to be away from the edge of the building. She backed into Knock Knock and then saw through blurry vision that he was giving her a curious look.

“Don’t think about it Holly. Just try not to think about it. You’re safe up here, you can’t fall because I’ll catch you,” Knock Knock said to Holly in a low, reassuring voice.

Holly glanced at the edge, her vision going from bad to worse as she did so, and there was a rushing sound in her ears. She closed her eyes, shook her head, causing her ears to flop around, and then when she opened her eyes once more, she looked at something other than the edge.

“She okay?” Officer Cornflower asked.

“She’s fine,” Knock Knock replied. “She jumped out of a twenty third story window and then made an almost forty foot drop to the roof of the building next door with two passengers on her back.”

“Oh, I read about that… saw the pictures too… That was quite a leap.” Cornflower peered off the edge of the warehouse factory and glanced at other buildings that were nearby, not certain of what he was looking for, but just looking on the odd chance that he might see something.

“I’m fine… it’s nothing.” Holly’s lips curled into a scowl and with a defiant stare, she peered at the edge for a moment, ignoring the feeling of vertigo, and then began to look around the roof and take stock of her surroundings.

“Come on, let’s have a look around.” Knock Knock reached out and gave Holly a gentle, reassuring prod.

There were three big steel water tanks in the center of the roof. One tank had the word ‘potable’ on it, it took Holly a moment to think of what that meant, as she was still somewhat distracted by the sense of vertigo that kept plaguing her. The potable tank was rusty looking, as were all three tanks, and there were several holes rusted through the metal.

So much for drinking water for the workers.

The other two tanks had patches on them, newer sheets of metal that had been welded over rusted holes. Knock Knock was examining these, and after a time spent looking them over, he knocked on them with his hoof. They were empty, completely empty, which caused Knock Knock to swear.

“No drinkable water and the two tanks to feed the sprinkler system are empty. Great, just great. This place is not up to code. Shouldn't a building this size have what… four tanks on the roof to feed the sprinklers?” Cornflower knocked on the metal tanks himself.

“For a building this size?” Knock Knock shook his head. “At least five or maybe six.”

“Damn.” Cornflower began to look around, checking out the tanks, trying to figure out why they were empty. A cold wind gusted and blew his mane around his face and neck.

“So, you think they held water at all or have they just been up here empty and used for decoration?” Holly asked.

Knock Knock followed a series of large pipes to a junction in the roof. The water main had been jury rigged to feed all three tanks, not just the potable water one. Not a legal move, as the sprinkler tanks were supposed to have their own separate water line. He peered at the tanks through narrowed eyes, his mustache quivering as he chewed on his lip.

Saying nothing, he stood near the tanks, dropped down onto his belly, stretched out his neck, and looked beneath the tanks. His horn began to glow as he stared into the dim, shadowy darkness, and then Knock Knock began to curse and mutter below his breath.

“What’s up, Knocker?” Holly asked.

“The fronking water pipes that drop down and feed into the system.” Knock Knock let out a snort and then got back up on his hooves, his breathing heavy. “Somepony ripped the pipes out. They're all broke and bent. Looks fresh too, there isn’t any rust on the exposed edges. My guess… they never fixed the potable water tank, too rusty, too expensive, and then jury rigged the sprinkler feed tanks to the drinking water system… but the sprinklers never went off during the fire because somepony ripped the pipes out.”

“Somepony?” Officer Cornflower shook his head. “Unicorn. There is no way to reach those pipes, which means a unicorn had to rip them out, if that is what happened. I wonder if we can get a magical signature?”

“We should try,” Knock Knock replied. “So… the fire goes off, the door is chained shut, the workers are trapped, and the sprinklers never go off as the fire begins to rage. Meanwhile, there is a pony tied up in the back office. All of the important stuff in the hidden basement has been moved out. I think we’re looking at a premeditated arson, among other things.”

“And evidence of something larger, something bigger, connections to other criminal activity,” Officer Cornflower added. “This is the kinda thing that keeps me up at night… I have a niece and a nephew now. I have half a mind to tell my sister and my brother in law to get out of this wretched hole of a city.”

“What’s that?” Holly asked as she pointed to what appeared to be a shack on the roof.

“Forepony’s shack. See how it overlooks what used to be the loading docks? It’s all boarded up… we should have a look inside of it though,” Knock Knock replied.

“But it’s all boarded up. The door has been nailed shut.” Holly tilted her head. “The windows have plywood over them.”

“Holly, a unicorn could wink inside of there no problem. I could wink inside of there.” Knock Knock shook his head. “Not going to though. Might be trapped. Might wink into a mess of spikes or who knows what. Don’t want to wind up like Blinky.”

“Blinky?” Holly asked.

“Firefighter. One of my mentors. Made a blind teleport to get himself and two foals out of a burning building. The foals were fine, but Blinky was half in and half out of a fountain that he didn’t know had been installed down in the lobby of the building he was working in. He thought he had a clear spot to materialise.”

“Ew.” Cornflower flapped his wings and stomped his hoof. “That’s uglified.” The pegasus eyed the door and then looked at Holly. “I’ll be right back. I’m gonna go get a pry bar from the supply wagon so yous can get that open.”

Using the pry bar, Holly opened up the door with minimal effort, the wood was old, rotten, and rather flimsy. The foreman’s shack smelled horrible; it was mildewy, musty, and something… foul was in the air. It was filled with old magazines. Holly peered inside the dim room and when Knock Knock’s horn illuminated the space, she got a much better look at one of the magazine covers. It had a mare dressed in a black body suit having her hooves licked by a blindfolded and trussed up stallion.

Holly found herself blushing furiously because of the image, which left her flustered.

“Ugh, smells like the peep show theatres off in the redlight district,” Cornflower muttered as he stood outside. “Did we just stumble into somepony’s masturbatorium?”

Looking up from the magazine on the floor, Holly saw that the walls were wallpapered with pornographic images and pages taken from magazines. And this wasn’t good old fashioned stallion-on-top-get-it-over-with-quick—oh no. Some of this stuff on the walls was weird.

Staring at one picture in particular, Holly’s thoughts slipped from her mouth unbidden. “You know, I’ve always wondered if I could lick myself… she’s doing it, I wonder if I can reach?”

“Holly… don’t be weird. We’re professionals,” Knock Knock said as his eyes were drawn to a picture of two stallions modeling a lot of heavy bondage gear. A pegasus had his wings bound and blinders over his eyes.

“Some unicorn is living here,” Officer Cornflower said as he pointed at an almost empty bottle of beer sitting on a shelf by the filthy mattress. “The beer hasn’t evapourated away yet.”

Holly pushed her way into the one room shack and began to look around, trying to ignore the lewd images plastered everywhere. She didn’t even want to think about how the magazine pages might be glued to the wall. Nope, she didn’t want to think about that at all.

There was a hot plate connected to several batteries, an electric kettle, a toaster, and along the shelf against one wall there was food. A loaf of bread, boxes of macaroni and cheese, bottles of beer, a bottle of wine, several industrial sized tubs of lotion, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jam, and a jumbo economy sized package of paper towels.

In the corner, there was a pile of wadded up paper towels that had a horrible glaze that left them shiny and reminded Holly of fresh glazed donuts—they glistened in Knock Knock’s horn light in the most disturbing manner. Stunned, Knock Knock stood in the middle of the room, not knowing where to begin looking for potential clues.

“Hey, that looks familiar,” Holly said as she pointed to some photographs on the wall.

“Um, Holly, we… uh—”

“Knock Knock, shut up and have a look at this, this is pretty bad,” Holly said, cutting Knock Knock off. “Officer Cornflower, we have a pervert.”

Both stallions moved closer and had a look at what Holly was pointing at. There were photographs here. Some of the backgrounds were familiar. In one photo, there were sewing machines. In another photo, metal shelves and filing cabinets. Several photos appeared to be in the secret basement.

Each and every photograph had something in common though. A blindfolded and somewhat bound mare… or filly. Tails were lifted, sometimes forcibly, secured and held in place with rope around the neck. Some of the photos showed sex in graphic detail, and none of the mares seemed like willing partners. As for the fillies—

“I can’t look at this any more. Excuse me.”

Holly backed out of the shack, went out onto the roof, and then stayed away from the edge of the building. She stood with her sides heaving, she closed her eyes, and then tried to make the horrible images vanish from her mind.

Knock Knock also exited the shack and came out onto the roof. He joined Holly, standing beside her, and not knowing what else to do, he nosed her neck, trying to comfort her.

“It was all pretty funny until I saw the photos… gross, but funny. Knock Knock, I don’t feel good,” Holly said in a low voice.

“Deep breaths, take deep breaths,” Knock Knock replied.

Holly took a deep breath, following Knock Knock’s advice, and then took another. After her third deep breath, she puked, vomiting up the remains of her breakfast. The sour taste of stomach bile coated her tongue, making her gag, and causing her to continue throwing up, doing so with such force that it shot out of her nose, until at last her stomach had been emptied and she stood there dry heaving.

“Holly, this city is rotten.” Knock Knock’s voice was soft, kind, reassuring, almost like a father speaking to his daughter. “There’s a lot of bad things in this city. I’ve seen a lot of bad things. Sometimes, ponies do awful things and then they try to burn away evidence of their guilt with fire, but the Beast is a terrible demon to make a deal with. Ponies like me know his tricks. Ponies like me find the secrets that other ponies try to hide.”

Holly coughed, gagged, then spit out stringy blobs of bile and drool.

“It’s not enough that we fight the Beast Holly… but we gotta go after all those who serve him. Still want to learn? Still want to help me? Because there is gonna be a lotta days like this one.” Knock Knock patted Holly on her withers, trying to give her some comfort as she tried to catch her breath.

Panting, Holly wanted to shout. She wanted to scream. She wanted to yell. She wanted to tell Knock Knock that she would jump down the very throat of the Beast if that is what it took—but she said none of these things. She was too hurt, too winded, and still too nauseous. She nodded her head, then tried to swallow the lump of bile and phlegm in her throat.

“You know, what you need is an officer working with you, pooling some resources.” Officer Cornflower approached Knock Knock and Holly, a disgusted expression upon his face.

“I’ve tried… I’ve petitioned the city I don’t know how many times trying to get some help.” Knock Knock looked up from Holly and glanced at the approaching pegasus. “It’s like they don’t want criminals being caught.”

Officer Cornflower’s eyes narrowed and he nodded. “I’m gonna talk to a few ponies I know. We’re dealing with something big here… not just here, but all over this damn city. Not only do we have arson, but we have evidence of organised crime.” The blue pegasus’ ears splayed out sideways, he looked at Holly with some concern, and his scowl softened into a worried frown. “You know, we’re going to make enemies.”

“I already have enemies,” Knock Knock said in a soft voice.

“I’ve had plenty of heels that tried to juice me for personal reasons, kayfabe be damned.” Holly sucked in a deep breath and then continued in a raspy, growling voice. “Something needs to be done. What can we do about it?”

“We push back the darkness and we go after those who serve the Beast. It’s all we can do, Holly,” Knock Knock replied.

“Well, I’m in. After everything I saw today, I’m in. For realsies.” Holly coughed and spat out a chunky blob of phlegm.

“And I’ll see what I can do about having us work together. I know a few ponies. I can’t make any promises though.” Cornflower’s ears perked up as the wind gusted and blew his blue mane back from his face. He extended his hoof and looked at his two companions.

Nodding, Knock Knock reached out bumped the offered hoof and then watched as Holly did the same. He cleared his throat. “We can’t win you know. This is a club for losers.”

“Well then, we need a face to break the C-show script and start pounding on the heels.” Holly met with Knock Knock’s eyes and then Cornflower’s. “I like being an against all odds face.”

“Let’s go get a bite to eat and talk this over… I think we’re done here.” Knock Knock looked over at the water tanks and the busted pipes. “I wonder if the pony who busted the pipe is the same pony living in the spunk shack. If so… he’s in a world of trouble if they can track down his magical signature.”

Holly took a deep breath. “I hope so. Those pictures made me sick…”

Chapter 20

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Sitting in the observation nest, Holly thought about the events of the past few days as she kept watch. The sweatshop, the hidden basement, the forepony’s shack on the roof. The day after when nothing had happened. The day after that, when nothing had happened. Then the day before this one when something had happened and Holly couldn’t go, because she was still on light duty.

Holly’s ears, hearing the creak of the door, perked. She looked down and saw a few ponies she knew. Her replacement, Knock Knock, and Cornflower. Grinning, the shimmied down the ladder, not up for a long distance leap at the moment.

“Hiya Corny!” Holly said, ignoring the dismayed look on the stallion’s face.

“Holly.” Officer Cornflower raised his wing and waved.

“Corny has some news for us… so spill it,” Knock Knock said.

The blue pegasus gave a disappointed grin. “I did some talking to the right ponies. I had to ruffle a few feathers and step on a few hooves.” Cornflower’s grin faded. “I was able to secure an agreement for the M.F.D. and the M.P.D. to work together. That’s the good news.”

“There’s bad news?” Holly asked.

“Yeah.” Cornflower nodded. “There is.” The pegasus’s face looked sour. “I was made the official liaison to the M.F.D. for the sake of cooperation between our two respective departments.”

“But that’s good news… I think?” Knock Knock’s mustache quivered and he looked at Cornflower. “Something yous ain’t telling us?”

“The job comes with a new pay scale. I got my pay cut down by almost a full quarter. I get to start at the bottom of a new career,” Cornflower replied, his ears folding back against his skull. “I also got a new badge. Had my old one pulled. My effective powers for law enforcement have been… diminished.”

“Ah, damn, I’m sorry.” Knock Knock looked away, staring at a factory smokestack that was belching out smoke, and he took a deep breath.

“I’m angry, but what can you do? These assholes… I had to put the screws to them. I had to run my mouth. I had to make a few threats and throw my weight around. I did the right thing… and I’m being punished for it.” Cornflower let out a dismayed sigh and shook his head. “Anyhow, there’s another piece of news. I might have a lead for us. There’s a small time crook, a runner, and he might know something about our sweatshop fire. He was employed there by a one Mister Stokes, who is now missing. Probably on the lam. I know where our perp is, he lives with his mother. Want to go pay him a visit? We should… talk with him.”

“Hmm.” Knock Knock looked thoughtful. “Up for a field trip?”

Holly nodded and flexed her knees.

“We’ll have to take the subway. Yous twos can’t fly, and he’s all the way out in the ‘burbs. I hate being underground, but I’ll manage.”

“We’re looking for Fink Apple, son of Fourberie Apple, sister of the infamous Flim and Flam Apple. These are the Bad Apples, shamed members of the Apple family, one of the families responsible for the founding of this city, and the reason why Manehattan is called ‘The Big Apple.’ Fink is a small time criminal, his cutie mark is a smashed apple shaped padlock. If you squeeze him, he’ll sing.”

“I’m related to the Apples,” Holly said.

“I’m not surprised,” Knock Knock replied.

“It’s by marriage… I think. I’ve never paid it much attention. I come from the Oranges and somepony married one of the Apples. There was a fight. Or something, I dunno.” Holly thought about her aunt, Cara Cara.

“The Oranges were one of the families that started Manehattan. There was a bit of squabble between them and the Apples about who was more important and who really made the city what it was. That was a long time ago, but some of the Apples and the Oranges keep the feud going,” Cornflower said. He stopped for a moment on the sidewalk and looked at his other two companions. “See that run down lookin’ dump over there? The little cracker box house? That’s where we’re going. There’s a police call box right over there on the light pole. I’m gonna hit that, then I’m going to knock on the front door and speak to Fourberie Apple. While she’s speaking to me, Fink is going to slip out of the back door and make good on his escape. So I needs one of yous to go back there and wait by the back door, but out of sight. There’s an alley that runs along the back. There’s no back yard, the back doors of these places open right up to the alley and there’s a buncha dumpsters and stuff back there.”

“I’m on it, Holly said as she took off at a trot, heading off down the sidestreet for the alleyway.

“I’ll do what I do best.” Knock Knock smiled and smoothed out his mustache. “This is the sort of job I was born for, Officer Corny.”

“Wisepony,” Cornflower muttered.

“Hello again, Fourberie,” Officer Cornflower said. “This is Fire Officer Claybourne. We’d like to speak with your son, Fink.” The blue pegasus gave the mare in the doorway a hard stare.

Fourberie Apple looked tired. A cigarette hung from the corner of her mouth. Her wheat coloured mane was still up in curlers. Her face was wrinkled and prematurely aged. One of her fake eyelashes had come loose and was hanging from her eyelid.

“Fink doesn’t live here anymore,” Fourberie said in a raspy, croaking voice. “He’s done moved out.” She coughed and looked Cornflower in the eye. “Why don’t you just piss off and leave us alone? Just because a crime happens doesn’t mean that Fink is involved.”

“We need to speak to your son, and we need to speak to him now. The police are on their way… in force.” Cornflower’s eyebrow raised and his glare hardened.

“Like I said, piss off. You got a warrant?” Fourberie looked more bored than anything else.

“Of course I have a warrant. That’s why I’m here,” Cornflower said in a voice that no longer had any patience. “And I know you’re stalling so he can make his escape out the back door.”

Fourberie, no longer looking bored, smiled, revealing yellow teeth and cracked lips.

“Thing is, I have the back door covered.” Cornflower grinned as a terrific crash came from behind the house. “I suspect that dear little Finky is getting schooled right now.”

There was a scream of pain and Fourberie’s smile faded. Her cigarette fell from the corner of her mouth. There was a loud metallic thunk, followed by a wail of pain, and then a loud gong sound. Knock Knock cringed when another howl filled the neighborhood.

“Ooh, that’s uglified,” Cornflower muttered. “I bet numbnuts back there decided to try and push Holly over.” As he spoke, there was a sound that sounded like a dumpster falling over, followed by a whimpering cry.

“Is she killing him?” Fourberie asked.

Knock Knock shook his head. “Naw, she’s a roller derby star. It’s all scripted violence. It’s not real.” The unicorn’s mustache quivered and his ears perked when he heard another metallic gong sound. “That sounded like somepony using two garbage can lids as cymbals.”

Fourberie, eyes wide, nodded.

Knock Knock came around the corner of the house and froze. There was trash everywhere. On the ground was a colt at the end of his adolescence. A big colt. Holly was standing with a big stupid grin on her face, not even breathing hard. The dumpster had a few head shaped dents in it and was tipped over on its side. Garbage cans were knocked over. Holly’s eye was starting to swell, which infuriated Knock Knock, but Fink Apple was a bloody mess. With the colt’s red pelt, it was hard to tell where the blood started and ended.

“He got feisty,” Holly said. “Tried to run. I clotheslined him and he fell down, but he didn’t stay down. His mama did a bad job of raising him. He suckerpunched me. After that… well, it was time to juice a heel. He might claim that I picked up the dumpster and hit him with it, but let’s be honest… ponies just can’t pick up a dumpster and hit another pony with one… that’s silly.”

Coughing, the colt spit out a few teeth, curled up into a fetal position, and laid still.

“Heya, chum,” Cornflower said in a steely voice. “I know you worked for Mister Stokes… we need to ask you a few questions… and you’re going to talk to us. You want to talk to us… believe me, you want to talk to us.”

“I ain’t got nothing to say to you, screw,” Fink moaned.

“Oh, but you see, I think you do. We recovered some photos from a recent crime scene. Foal pornography photos.” Officer Cornflower lowered his head down low and placed his lips next to Fink’s ear. “In several photos, there is a red leg.” Cornflower glowered down at the colt. “Say… you have a red leg. Got something you want to tell me?” Cornflower’s eyes narrowed and his voice dropped in a dangerous whisper. “What would your mother say?”

“Piss off, screw.” Fink closed his eyes.

Cornflower looked up and saw several pegasi flying in, and with them, a paddywagon. He looked back down at the colt. “Because of that red leg in the photos, that one that looks just like yours, Princess Luna is sending one of her agents to come and speak with you. They’re gonna do things to you. Real bad things. You got anything to say about that?”

“I ain’t done nothing wrong,” Fink replied.

“I want the name of the pony living in the forepony’s shack on the roof,” Cornflower said to the colt. “You and I, we’re going to talk. One way or another, you’re going to tell me everything I want to know, so make this easy on yourself.”

In the alley, a pair of pegasi pulling the paddywagon landed.

“His name is Cooper. I don’t know his first name. Just Mister Cooper. He’s a unicorn. He has a barrel mark.” Fink opened his eyes as he heard hooves approaching. “Where’s my mom? I wanna say goodbye… don’t let them send me to Luna… no… please, look, I’m cooperating! I’m cooperating! I’m not being a jerk!”

“Too late, son,” Cornflower said. “Yous done messed up and got involved with the wrong sorts of ponies.” The pegasus watched as the colt squeezed his eyes shut and began to sob. Knowing that one had pissed off the Princess of the Night had that effect on ponies. Tough ponies stopped being tough. Hard boiled ponies softened right up. Cornflower had watched some of the hardest criminals he knew turn into big bawling babies once it had sunk in that Princess Luna was now getting involved.

“Look, all I did was run notes back and forth, honest. I ain’t had nothin’ to do with no foal pornography, honest, honest, honest!” Fink’s sides began to heave with panic and he lifted his head. “My last job was taking a note to Mister Silver Farthing, the bank manager… we… we printed up a bunch of fake banknotes… certificate thingies… I don’t know what they were or what they were for, but we printed them by the thousands for him. He tried to screw us, he refused to pay the quoted price. Mister Stokes found another buyer for the certificates, but I don’t know who.”

“Mister Fink, your cooperation is noted. Princess Luna’s agent will be happy to know that you’ve cooperated,” Officer Cornflower said. “For your sake, I hope you’re as innocent as you say. You’s in deep dung, son.”

Walking back to the subway station, the trio were subdued. Behind them, the neighborhood was swarming with cops, cops with full powers of the law. Officer Cornflower had been dismissed and thanked for doing his duty.

“You need some ice on that eye,” Knock Knock said.

“I’ve had worse,” Holly replied. After hearing everything that had been said, Holly was no longer smiling or jovial. She walked with her head low and a troubled expression upon her face. “You think he’s innocent?”

Using his wings, Cornflower shrugged. “Princess Luna’s agent is going to sift through his memories. Whatever he’s guilty of, it will be found out. There’s no hiding. He’s gonna be worked over. Gonna be rough on the poor colt.”

“Do you think he’s the type though? I mean, do you think he would do it?” Knock Knock asked as the trio walked abreast together.

Squinting, his lip curling back away from his teeth, Cornflower weighed what he knew about Fink in his mind for a while before replying, “Yeah, yeah I do think he’d do it. The little twerp is spineless. A bit of pressure, a bit of bullying, and he’d be right there with the rest of them making some poor filly cry. He might cry about it later, but he’d get over it. He wants to be a tough pony. Wants to be a wisepony. Wants to be a gangster. But he’s a spineless chump and a two-bit flunky.”

A cold gust of wind blew and Holly turned to look at her companions. “That’s pretty sad. He did fold pretty quickly though.”

“He lives up to his name… Fink Apple. He’s rotten to the core. But damn, I hope he’s not guilty. Filly diddling is one of those ‘unforgivable’ crimes that Princess Luna don’t brook. If he’s guilty, we’ll never see him again. If he’s innocent… after the agent gets done with him, poor Finky is going to spend the rest of his life jumping at every shadow, pissing himself at every loud noise, and he’ll never get a good night’s sleep ever again. They say it changes a pony. Not in a good way. Those night agents… they drag out every little dirty thing you ever did. You confess to everything. You ever steal money out of your mama’s drawer? You’ll tell them, and then you’ll cry about it.” Cornflower stepped over a crack in the sidewalk, not wanting to break his mother’s back.

“What could do that to a pony? Some kind of unicorn magic?” Holly asked.

“No… the fronkin’ Night Guard… they’re not ponies… not anymore. They’re something else… and if you look into their eyes, they’ll see right into your brain. I’ve met one before. He was real nice. Real polite. Real professional. Nice fella. Wore sunglasses indoors. Creepy as something escaped out of Tartarus though. Had a forked tongue and wings like a dragon.” Officer Cornflower shuddered. “I’ve heard stories that they lay eggs. It’s weird and spooky.”

“Eh, ponies don’t lay eggs. That’s gotta be an urban myth,” Knock Knock said in an uncertain voice. “I bet it’s all illusion and superstition to scare ponies into line. They’re probably just regular pegasi with illusion spells.”

Shaking his head, Cornflower replied, “I dunno, but I don’t think so. Wait till you meet one…”

Chapter 21

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It was funny how life was. On Holly’s first day with regular duties reinstated, her entire shift had gone by without incident, right up until the end, when the alarm sounded. She had been learning how to maintain the wagon and how to wrestle hoses for most of the morning. The alarm had come just before lunch.

Now, she was sitting on the wagon, racing towards a fire, her belly empty, hungry, excited, nervous, and maybe just a little bit scared, even though she would never admit to that. She leaned on Toot Toot as the wagon took the corner at speed. She smiled, but then remembered that nopony could see her smile because of the face mask and respirator.

The iron covered wagon wheels threw off sparks as they clattered over the cobblestones. This was an old section of Manehattan, it didn’t have smooth paved roads. The ride in the wagon was bone jarring and bounced everypony around.

As the wagon raced up the street, the burning building came into view.

“Ten floor walk up,” Toot Toot said as he stared up at the building. “I hate these places. At least the fire is in the middle.” The pegasus stared upwards to assess the situation. “Airborne battalion, grab hoses and axes! We’ll take the fight to the air.”

Holly looked to Knock Knock, waiting for instruction. She was already sweating inside of her gear and shaking with excitement. Knock Knock was listening to some of the apartment residents and the on site landlord. After a moment, he stepped back and raised his hoof. He made a circular gesture, drawing the firefighters closer.

“Holly, you’re with me. Sixth floor. Fizz Fizz, you and Rubber Ducky take the fifth floor. Everypony else, stay outside and spot. If you see fire in the windows, make it known. Everypony should be evacuated. Check anyway. The airborne battalion are going to get hose in and were going to take the Beast down, got it?”

Coming off of the stairs of the sixth floor, Holly pushed the door open and found herself in a smoke filled hallway. It was dark, real dark, but no sign of flames. The fire had started in a fifth floor apartment; somepony had been smoking in bed, which Holly now understood was one of the leading causes of fires in the city. The fire had set the bed and the room ablaze and then the fire had crept out the window and had jumped to the second floor, igniting the curtains in an open window.

Holly could not help but feel that this could have been avoided if ponies didn’t buy tacky polyester curtains. She pushed her way down the hallway with Knock Knock just behind her. Knock Knock was rapping on the doors with his magic, banging away, making a lot of noise. Nopony answered. Ahead, a lot of smoke was pouring out from beneath a door.

The door itself was terrifying. The paint bubbled and blistered. The brass doorknob was glowing with heat. Holly pushed herself against the far wall as she maneuvered around the door, she was determined to check the entire floor for any ponies that might have stayed behind, perhaps taking a shower and ignoring the alarm.

The floor seemed clear. There were only eight apartment units on the floor, three on the right side, three on the left side, and one apartment at each end of the hall. Flames were now licking out from beneath the door to the apartment that was on fire.

“Holly!”

Ears perking inside of her helmet, Holly turned to look at Knock Knock. She could hardly even see him in the dense, billowing smoke. She tapped on the side of her helmet with her hoof, indicating that she had heard him.

“The Beast is escaping… you and I are going to soak down the hallway! I’m going to open up the firebox, we’re going to get the hose, and I’m going to open up the water valve… you’re going to take point, because you’re a big gal and I’m old and afraid and I’m gonna hide behind you!”

Inside of her mask, Holly smiled and nodded. Knock Knock was the bravest pony that she knew. She watched as Knock Knock opened up the firebox; he had to fight to get the door open. She saw him standing there, just standing, nothing else. She edged forwards and had a look.

The firebox was empty. There was no hose in the firebox. None at all. Holly could only think of one word to say in this situation, and it wasn’t a very nice one, but she said it anyway, unable to think of anything else.

“FRONK!”

Turning her head about, Holly could see that the carpet in front of the door was now on fire and flames were lapping at the walls. There was going to be Tartarus to pay for the empty firebox, but that would have to be dealt with later. Right now, she and Knock Knock were in a hallway with the Beast breathing down their necks.

“Toot is no doubt fighting the fire from the outside, sending water in through the windows, but getting to this hallway is tricky! We gotta stop the fire!” Knock Knock shouted.

“What do we do?” Holly asked.

“We get the airborne battalion to get us a hosepipe and we come through an empty apartment,” Knock Knock replied.

“Sounds good.” Wasting no time, Holly went for the first door in reach. It opened and Holly made her way through the apartment. She went to the window, opened it, and was grateful for the cold. She wondered why somepony would leave their windows open in the middle of winter, but it was a passing thought. There could be any number of reasons.

A watchful pegasus swooped over and Holly waved. “I need a hose! We’ve got fire in the hallway!” Holly watched as the pegasus darted away, he was fast. She watched as ponies worked below, a hose had already been attached to the fireplug. Now, other hoses were being attached and a flight of pegasi lifted the hose up to the window where Holly was waiting.

The hose was empty and limp, but Holly knew it would change soon enough. “Knocker, keep feeding me hose! Keep my line free and untangled, I’m going after the beast!”

“Righto!” Knock Knock began to straighten out the house and making sure that it didn’t snag on corners or furniture. “Remember Holly, fan from side to side, start high, and work down! Let the water fall on the fire and soak in!”

Holly, holding the hose, felt it come to life. It filled with water, going stiff, becoming rock hard. She tried not to think about how badly she needed to get laid. Standing on two legs, she went stomping out of the apartment and into the burning hallway.

There was a lot of fire in the hallway, a whole lot of fire. Holly leaned forwards and pulled open the valve on the hose. It came to life in her hooves, spraying out a high pressure stream. It almost slipped free from her grip, but somehow, Holly held on. Leaning forwards, she began her slow advance towards the fire, dousing everything with water.

Back behind her, Knock Knock kept the hose fed, making sure it didn’t get held up on anything. The hose was a heavy, living thing now, and almost as dangerous as the fire. One slip, one screw up, and the hose would be just as dangerous as the fire.

Holly aimed for the source, hitting the burning door with a stream of water. The charred wood splintered, shuddered, and then broke apart. The Beast thundered into the hallway, now fed by fresh air, the burning apartment with the open window allowed for the fire to advance into the hallway.

Gritting her teeth, the determined mare pushed forwards, undaunted by her terrifying foe. She laid down an even spray, aiming high, hitting the walls and the ceiling, and allowing the water to trickle down and rain upon the burning, blazing carpet. The fire hissed, spat, and sizzled.

For a time, it appeared that the Beast was dying, but then Holly saw something, and as she stood staring, she was certain that her eyes were playing tricks on her. A tiny little bipedal figure danced around in the flame, bouncing around, and making obscene humping gestures at her, gyrating its hips and pumping its arms.

Frowning, Holly turned the hose upon it, aiming for it directly. The water hit the burning figure, sending it sprawling, but did not put the fire out. “Oh you dirty little…” Holly grumbled inside of her respirator mask.

“OH CRAP!” Knock Knock shouted behind Holly. “Zebra alchemy! That’s a fire gremlin! No wonder the window was open in the middle of winter, fumes!”

“What in fronking Tartarus is a fire gremlin?” Holly demanded as she focused the hose on it. “What am I looking at and how do I kill this thing?”

“Gremlins are alchemical manifestations, they’re horrible and mischievous and dangerous!” Knock Knock shouted in reply. “You’re going to see a lot of them, there are a fair number of zebras in the city!”

Gritting her teeth, Holly kept the hose focused on the flaming little gremlin. The flames flickered and died out. Holly had no time to savour her victory, she still had a fire to put out. She started her methodical fanning but then noticed something in the flames.

There were now two figures dancing in the flames. One was shaking its little behind at her, and slapping his hind section. The other was making lewd gestures while grabbing its flaming crotch.

Incensed, Holly turned off the hose, letting the pressure build, took careful aim, and then pulled back the lever to release the high pressure flow once more. The jet of water caught the crotch grabber full on and sent him flying down the hall, smashing him into the wall and extinguishing him.

The other lept up, let out a burning roar that was shockingly loud for its size, and dove into the middle of a burning mass of flames. Much to Holly’s dismay, there were now three little gremlins where the lone survivor had stood. Nopony had mentioned the magical hazards of working on this job.

A jet of water shot out of the burning doorway and struck the rightmost figure. It vanished, leaving behind two. Holly realised that Toots must be pushing his way through the apartment now to join her in the hall. The flames looked pretty heavy around the door.

“There are going to be citations for this, oh you’d better believe it! Alchemy without following the proper safety protocols! Public safety!” Knock Knock shouted. He fired off a spell, hitting one of the gremlins, and causing it to pop.

Which left one. Holly killed the water flowing from her hose, pulling the lever back. She allowed for pressure to build for a moment, took careful aim, and then yanked the lever, sending a high pressure jet towards the last gremlin. She hoped that this would kill it.

The water struck the burning gremlin, sent him sprawling, and rolled him into a puddle of steaming water The gremlin hissed, fizzled, and then extinguished with a flash. Holly did not take time to celebrate her victory, she focused on putting out the rest of the fire in the hallway and the burning doorway. Now paranoid, Holly waited for more gremlins to show up.

Two hoses made short work of the flames and soon the burning doorway was nothing more than a sizzling, steaming mess. Holly continued to apply water to anything that was smouldering, as she had been instructed. The hallway was now filled with smoke and steam, somehow becoming even darker and harder to see.

At least the threat was over.

Chapter 22

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Feeling exhausted, Holly climbed up the stairs to her home at 211 ½ Factory Way Road. She was tired, sticky, reeked of smoke, and she was looking forward to a hot bath and then a comfortable chair. The day had been too long and fire gremlins were far too annoying.

The fact that she was certain to see more of them on the job irked her.

Hitting the latch on the door, Holly opened it and stepped inside. She stood just inside the door, shut it behind her, let out a weary sigh, and then began to slip out of her heavy coat. She hung it on the rack by the door and then stood there, taking a few deep breaths, and thinking about how happy she was to be home.

“Madam,” Alfredo’s soft voice said, “you have visitors. They are upstairs on the second floor and have been made comfortable.”

“Aw, nuts.” Holly scowled.

“Madam, I could show them to the door, but I think that would be unwise.” Alfredo’s lips pressed into a straight line and one eyebrow raised. After a moment, he added, “One of them is an Agent of the Crown.”

“Oh double nuts.” Holly just wanted a bath. A bath… was a bath so much to ask? “I need a drink, if you don’t mind.”

“Yes, of course, Madam,” Alfredo replied, “I shall get you a drink at once and when it appears they are about to leave, I shall draw you a bath. Madam has been working hard.”

“Yes, Madam had to fight with fire gremlins today.”

“Oh, my apologies, Madam. Those are nasty. Alchemical accidents are the worst.” Alfredo nodded and then turned tail, heading off to the kitchen.

Now feeling both exhausted and annoyed, Holly went up the stairs to check upon her visitors. She moved with a heavy slowness, every bone in her body ached, and she had a powerful thirst. She was hungry too. She hoped that her guests had a good reason to be here.

At the top of the stairs, Holly froze when she saw Fink Apple. She was not expecting to see him sitting on her sofa. He had red bloodshot eyes and he twitched in a fitful manner. The pony sitting beside him was wearing sunglasses and was dressed in a fine suit coat. A somewhat weathered looking grey fedora sat on the table in front of him.

The pony in the sunglasses was a brick wearing a suit.

Holly was a big mare, of that there could be no doubt, but the brick in the suit made Holly feel as though she was a filly. He was broad withered and had legs like tree trunks. The tips of his ears were tufted.

And when he smiled, his teeth were all pointed.

“Greetings, Holly Heartwood. Shall I call you Miss Heartwood or would you be offended?” the brick wearing the suit asked.

“Just call me Holly,” Holly replied as she took a cautious step forward.

“Ma’am, Holly since you insist, there is no need for you to panic. My name is Warden Grimes. This, as I am sure you know, is Fink Apple. This is no mere social visit, this is the first step on Fink’s recovery.”

Taking slow steps, Holly moved to a chair and sat down, her eyes focused on Warden Grimes and his mirrored sunglasses. He had bat like wings at his sides. For a moment, his tongue flicked out and Holly was almost certain that it was forked. She felt a growing sense of unease.

“Fink, didn’t you have something to say to the nice mare?” Grimes asked.

The bleary eyed colt nodded and then began to tremble. “Ma’am, I’m real sorry for hitting you, Ma’am, that was wrong of me.”

“What did you do to him?” Holly demanded. “Did you scramble his brains? Make a mess of his mind? I’ve heard a few stories… it ain’t right, messing with another ponies mind like that, so help me—”

“Ma’am, Holly, I assure you, I did nothing. Fink merely lived up to both his nature and his namesake. A little bit of pressure and he folded. He cooperated and saved himself a lot of trouble.” The brick wearing a fine suit turned and looked at Fink. “See Fink, what did nice Warden Grimes tell you… even though you wronged her, she is still concerned for you and is worried about your well being. See, this is how good ponies are supposed to act.”

Holly, confused and still a little angry, let out an uncertain wicker.

“Holly, a good pony, I do believe was ready to make a mess out of me because she thought I might have tampered with your mind. She moved to protect you, a worthless reprobate, because of her inherent goodness. Are you learning?” Grimes’ soft smile turned into a hard scowl.

Fink Apple nodded and then muttered, “She’d make a mess out of you I think… wait till she hits you with a dumpster.”

Chuckling, Grimes smiled once more. “You see Fink, with some hard work, you can be accepted back into society. Good ponies will take care of you and look after your needs. Holly is a good pony. She works to make our society better.”

“And I worked to make it worse.” Fink hung his head and then began to sniffle.

“Wait, so you brought him here to teach him a lesson?” Holly asked, still feeling and sounding short tempered.

“Fink refused to believe that any pony could be nice to him or would be kind to him because of who and what he is; a scummy reprobate. All he can see is the bad in ponies. I had to show him that he was wrong, and make him see the goodness in the better members of our society. He just needs to find a better class of pony to spend time with. In time, when he gets better, when he gets reconditioned, when his recovery allows him to do so, he will.”

“Ten thousand hours of community service,” Fink said in a low whisper.

Blank faced, Holly sat in her chair and tried to take it all in. She heard the soft clunk of a glass being set down beside her and the clink of ice cubes against the glass. Without even turning her head, Holly said, “Thank you, Alfredo, you’re the best.”

“Oh, I know, Madam, there is no need to tell others about it,” Alfredo replied as he moved away.

Wrapping her fetlock around the tall tumbler, Holly lifted it and took a sip of the ice cold and refreshing gin and tonic. It was piney and delicious. She studied both Fink and Warden Grimes as she sipped. She had to assume that the red leg in the photos must not have been Finks.

“Why would you get on his case for messing with my mind?” Fink asked.

Holly shrugged but said nothing, not knowing what to say, and continued sipping her drink.

“I wronged you… why should you care about what happens to me? I don’t get it.” Fink shook his head. “What are you getting out of it?” The colt waved one hoof and blinked a few times, trying to hold back tears. “You have nothing to gain but you coulda got in big trouble for threatening Warden Grimes.”

“Oh, we don’t punish good ponies,” Grimes began to chuckle, “whatever she could dish out, I’m sure I could take a few slaps to the muzzle.”

“Oh yeah?” Fink turned his head to look at Grimes. “Just wait until she picks up a dumpster and smacks you.”

Holly giggled. “Oh come on, a mare can’t pick up a dumpster—”

“Miss Heartwood, you are a good pony. Lies are unbefitting of you,” Grimes said in a flat monotone as he stared at Holly. He was no longer chuckling. “Holly Heartwood, professional roller derby star who skated under the pseudonym of ‘Holly Homewrecker.’ Known mile a minute skater. Considered by most to be in peak physical condition, the upper echelon of earth pony physicality. Actual physical upper limits, unknown. Magically assisted strength, for certain. Known for leaping out of skyscraper windows. Committed the following crimes; shoplifting a candy bar as a filly, jaywalking, public profanity, and tearing the tags off of a mattress.”

“How did you know about that?” Holly asked, her eyes widening. The mention of the mattress tag blew her mind. It did say not to remove the tag under the penalty of law.

“The same way that we know that you are a good pony and that we know that Fink is a bad pony,” Grimes replied. “We can overlook your few faults because you do more good than bad. For Fink, his cup of badness overfloweth.”

In her seat, Holly squirmed.

“Anyhow, I do believe that Fink here has learned an important lesson. We should be going. There are other lessons to teach. I would like to thank you, on behalf of Princess Luna, for your part in helping poor Fink here get straightened out. I do believe that smacking him with a dumpster knocked some good sense into him.” Grimes bowed his head.

“I’m sorry for smacking you with a dumpster,” Holly paused and took a deep breath, “twice. But to be fair, you suckerpunched me.”

“Oh, I had it coming, Miss,” Fink said in a defeated voice. “I was wrong for what I did and I’m real sorry. When I reach the community service stage of my rehabilitation, if there is anything I can do for you, I will.”

“Ah, that’s what I like to hear!” Grimes grinned, revealing far too many pointed teeth. “Sincere and meaningful apologies. An honest change of heart that isn’t lip service.”

“Wait, before you go,” Holly said, still holding her gin and tonic in her fetlock. “I want to know… are you going to help Fink get better?”

“I am Fink’s guardian pegasus. Princess Luna loves him and wants him to get better. With my help, Fink is going to get better. We will find a way to repurpose his talent. We will correct his thinking. And I will remain at his side until such a time that Princess Luna deems that he is better and can be trusted to do the right thing on his own.”

Holly took a sip of her drink, swished it around her smoke flavoured mouth, and then swallowed. “Well then, good luck, Fink. Don’t mess up, okay? And if you need any help, or you just want somepony to talk to that isn’t all creepy like Warden Grimes here, you come and pay me a visit.”

“Thank you,” Fink said in a small voice, looking very uncomfortable.

After a hot bath, Holly felt much better. Still damp, she trotted down the stairs to the second floor and saw that Alfredo was laying out food on the table. As far as housemates and stallions went, Alfredo was just about perfect.

“Madam… twice?” Alfredo raised his eyebrow.

“Huh?” Holly, confused, look up at the taller stallion. No denying it, he was handsome. Yup. Real handsome. Holly felt an itch that needed scratching.

“Madam, you hit that poor colt with a dumpster. Twice.” Alfredo clucked his tongue.

“Just little taps, I promise. I wanted to leave a lasting impression. He left a head shaped dent in the dumpster.” Holly sat down at the table, rested her forelegs on the edge, and then smiled. “What’s for dinner?”

“Corn and potato chowder, with cornbread,” Alfredo replied.

“Oh, that sounds fantastic.” Holly felt her mouth watering. She looked around, her eyes lingering on the window, and noticed a few new houseplants. Alfredo had been decorating. The houseplants were a nice touch.

Everything was clean, tidy, well polished, everything looked wonderful. It was nice coming home after a long day at work. There was something rewarding about it; and for whatever reason, knowing that she was coming home to Alfredo made it even better.

She watched as he went over to the dumbwaiter, her eyes lingering on his legs and his tail. She thought about all of her casual flings. Having one of those with Alfredo would make things weird. Complicated. A casual fling meant that you met, you hooked up, you scratched the itch, and then you went about your separate ways. As tempting as it was, as nice as it might be, Alfredo had to be off limits. She thought about him against her back and wondered if he was a nibbler, and if he was, ear, neck, or both?

Blinking, Holly snapped out of it. Alfredo was a friend, not a fling. It had been too long since she had last been laid, and she suspected it was doing something horrible to her judgment.

As Holly pushed the thoughts from her mind, a little voice asked, What if it wasn’t a fling?

Chapter 23

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Being an adult. Holly gave the concept of being an adult a lot of thought. Being an adult meant having a house, paying your bills, eating sensible meals, being responsible, and having adult relationships with other adults. Other responsible, sane adults. Being an adult meant not banging the help. Oh, sure, plenty of adults banged the help, but it was something you never heard spoke of in a positive light—it was one of the things that adults did that other adults around them would shame them for. One simply did not have a fling with the hired help.

Besides, Alfredo was only attractive and eye catching because he was there. Every day. Day after day. Going about the house, doing what he did, with his long shapely legs, his silver blue mane, his little white socks and his fine tuxedo pelt.

“Madam, shall we have delightful coitus until you are very much like a screen door?”

Holly grinned upon hearing those words, but felt confused. “Huh?”

“The more I bang you, the looser you shall get—”

Blinking, Holly snapped herself out of her daydream fantasy. She shook her head, feeling out of sorts, and realised that she had no idea how Alfredo might talk dirty. She was probably way off. Alfredo was a kinky sort, of that there could be no doubt, he was a transvestite after all, but she had no idea what he might sound like if he was talking dirty.

A part of her wanted to find out.

Oh yes, she wanted to hear that fine, cultured voice saying dirty things in her ear.

The Stony Scary Cinematic Review was coming up. There were plans to go out and have a good time with Toot Toot and Knock Knock. Alfredo kept practicing his lines and singing while he did housework.

A very adult voice in the back of Holly’s mind reminded her that adult relationships focused on more than sex, ponies were supposed to know one another. They knew each other’s past and knew things like a pony’s favourite colour, favourite food, favourite song, a plethora of somewhat useful trivia, the mechanical nuts and bolts that fastened a relationship together and then needed some maintenance at regular intervals to keep the relationship tight.

Holly realised that she knew next to nothing about Alfredo. A little voice warned her that she shouldn’t know very much about Alfredo, he was the help. This was not the responsible thing that adults did. Plus, if things didn’t work out, Alfredo was bound by his contract—things would get awkward if there was a falling out and he had to keep working here.

Not to mention living here.

Holly wasn’t certain that she could kick him out if there was a falling out, she knew how expensive it was to live here in the city, or at least she was getting an idea. She was lucky. Others not so much. If she wanted to make money, she could rent out spare rooms for two thousand bits or more a month and there were ponies who would pay. No, a falling out would make things awkward and messy and it just wasn’t worth the risk.

Was it?

For Holly, the days began to blur together, much as they had when she was a roller derby star. Her hours had changed; she was now working from noon until midnight, volunteering for extra hours, plus being on call for when she was needed to assist Knock Knock in his investigations. The firehouse was a different place in the evenings than it was during the day. There was dinner together, which sometimes they didn’t get to finish. There was a movie projector and a collection of reel to reel movies; the surest way to relieve the boredom was to put a movie on, a fire was certain to happen at some point.

More importantly, Holly was given her own bell, something that was kept with her at all times. If she was needed, the bell would ring. With her bell, Holly was also given a silver badge, something she adored and treasured. On the top of the shield were the letters M.F.D. Near the bottom in fine script were the words Manehattan Fire Department. Her name appeared on the badge and below her name were the words ‘Junior Arson Investigator,’ a rank given to her not so much because she had worked hard to earn it, but because she was one of the few foolhardy enough to accept it. The city was desperate for ponies willing to do the job. With it came a minor increase in pay scale, which left Holly wondering if she was making ‘good’ money now. She supposed she was, she was living in a house that was paid off after all, and the money she made was more than enough to pay what few bills she had.

With the badge came the authority to arrest, detain, and question.

It was not a privilege that Holly was comfortable with.

“I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this,” Holly said as she gulped down a swallow of coffee that had been cooled with milk. She leaned back against the soft cushion of the booth and then looked down at her empty plate—the meal had been spectacular. Some kind of zebra dish with rice, beans, spicy stuff, corn, and strange vegetables, something called okra or something weird like that.

“Mister Silver Farthing was found inside of his bank vault. He’s dead,” Cornflower said as he held his coffee cup between his front hooves.

“So… he’s finally found and he’s dead. Somepony whack him?” Knock Knock eyed the blue pegasus with one raised eyebrow.

“We ain’t never seen nothing like it… he was all burnt… the bank vault was sealed from the outside. A bunch of stuff in the vault was burned as well, we found a lot of ash from burned paper, and all the silver and gold bars melted into puddles.”

“What?” Knock Knock leaned over the table, a look of utter disbelief etched upon his face. “Gold melts at almost two thousand degrees and silver at about seventeen hundred.”

“We found faint traces of magic in the vault, so we suspect we know the cause, but it isn’t unicorn magic.” Cornflower took a sip of his coffee and then stared at the mustachioed unicorn. “Claybourne, I’s tellin’ ya what I told my boss, this is weird stuff. Mister Stokes is still missing.”

“Mister Farthing was supposed to get the stuff printed on the printing press in the basement of that sweatshop,” Holly said, reminding herself of the little details. Her face became pinched and thoughtful.

“The fake banknotes.” Knock Knock shook his head. “So what are the odds that Mister Stokes had the pony who stiffed him torched?”

“Well, Mister Cooper is still at large, his accomplices too. He has a couple of cronies. The whole department would like to get our hooves on him… he might’ve torched that fat bastard Mister Farthing.” Cornflower sniffed, his nose running somewhat from the spicy meal, and then shook his head. “Princess Luna is getting involved… she has her Wardens and her Agents investigating the bank already… the evidence is piling up that the bank had plenty of shady dealings. As it turns out, the bank is part of a bigger company, an insurance company.”

“Hmm.” Holly’s ears stood up.

“Even better, said insurance company had policies for the warehouse where the sweatshop fire took place and a very large life insurance policy had been taken out on Fink Apple, along with a number of known goons for Mister Stokes.” Cornflower tapped his hoof on the table.

“You think somepony might have wanted to bump off poor Finky?” Knock Knock asked.

“Sure looks that way,” Cornflower replied, “he’s lucky that we got to him when we did… poor colt didn’t know much, but he knew enough. I think somepony was going to clean house and poor Finky was going to go out with the trash.”

“Did you find anything out about Seabright?” Holly asked.

Cornflower snorted. “Seabright was more than a union organiser… low ranking enforcer for the Capstone crime family… dirty pony. Worked up the workers in an outfit, got them to form a union, and then sold them a protection and assistance racket to milk them of their wages.”

“This city is rotten… why don’t the princesses do something?” Holly, confused, took a sip of her coffee.

“Holly, love, this city has several million ponies living in it. As powerful as the sisters are, there are limits to what they can do. This is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Crime is a fact of life… and the truth is, a number of the crime families are what keeps order round here… the Capstone family deals with what they call ‘harmless’ crimes, rackets, gambling, extortion, embezzlement, stuff like that. They keep the dope pushers and the violent criminals out of their territories. We come down too hard on the Capstone family and everything goes to bad. Like it or not, the city needs them to keep order.” Cornflower turned his head and looked out the window, watching ponies go by on the sidewalk.

“Necessary evil,” Knock Knock said.

“No evil is necessary,” Holly replied, shaking her head, “sorry, but I just don’t believe that, no offense, Knocker.”

“None taken.” The unicorn set his coffee cup down on the table. “Holly, as bad as it sounds, organised crime keeps the city safer and better.”

“Explain that to me… ‘cause I just don’t believe that.” Holly set down her coffee hard enough to make it slosh out of the cup and onto the table. “I’d like to know how crime makes this city better.”

Sighing, Knock Knock reached up and began to rub his nose. He looked at Holly for a moment, sighed again, and then looked at Cornflower. The pegasus shrugged and let out a snort. “Holly, it’s like this,” Knock Knock began, his face stern and serious, “we still have crime, but it’s corporate crime. Families like the Capstones, they keep the city presentable to big businesses. Dope fiends, pimps, prostitutes, muggers, while all of those things still exist, they are kept in check by the enforcers and agents of the various crime families. Having a bunch of flea bitten prostitutes selling themselves on the sidewalk does not make businesses want to put down roots here in Manehattan. So the pimps and the prostitutes disappear and high class escort services spring up to replace them. Violent crime goes down because violent crime is bad for business. Shoppers do not wish to go where purse snatchers or bag grabbers might prey on them, so purse snatchers are beaten to within an inch of their lives and are told to go elsewhere.”

Holly gave the unicorn beside her a blank stare.

“When Matilda Mascarpone was arrested, it’s been about ten years or so ago, she was the matron of a powerful crime family. When she went down, the city sank into chaos. Violent crime skyrocketed. Pony on pony crimes were so high that the police could not deal with them. There were so many fires that the fire department had to decide which buildings to save and which buildings to let burn down. Rape and murder rates reached an all time high. It got so bad that Princess Celestia sent the royal guard and placed the city under martial law. That made things worse if you can believe it.” Knock Knock looked Holly in the eye as he spoke, his voice wavering from emotion.

“Those were dark days,” Cornflower said as he tossed a generous tip down on the table.

“In the end, it wasn’t the police or the royal guard that brought the city back under control. It was the Capstones—they rushed to fill the vacuum and brought order and law back to city.” Knock Knock looked away from Holly and added a few more bits to the tip on the table.

Holly, who was feeling very hurt and confused about the heels being left in charge, shook her head and added a few more bits of her own. The rent was too damn high and waitresses needed to make ends meet too. “I don’t want to talk about this any more… come on fellas, we have an investigation to do, let’s get to hoofin’.”

Chapter 24

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It was delightful watching Alfredo dusting the second floor dining area and sitting room. Alfredo was nice to look at, there was something about him. He was big, but he wasn’t musclebound. He had his fantastic tuxedo pelt so he was always so handsome. He was well proportioned, his body was an outstanding series of curves, thin places, thick places, and sexy places.

“Alfredo?”

“Madam?” Alfredo continued his task, which at the moment happened to be dusting the ceiling with a big fluffy feather duster.

“Do you think the world can change?”

The stallion cleared his throat. “The world changes all the time.”

Holly’s eyes lingered on Alfredo’s neck, the smooth, shapely muscles intrigued her, the curve of his throat, the hard, almost sharp square angles of his jaw. Holly liked that a lot. Alfredo had a broad, well chiseled jaw, but his muzzle was narrow, almost delicate looking, the sort of fine, narrow muzzle that could work its way into hard to reach places.

It was far too warm in the sitting room and Holly felt herself sweating.

“No, Alfredo, do you think the world can change for the better?”

“Madam, you keep asking me these questions. Is something bothering you?” Alfredo turned his head away from his task and looked at Holly. “Are you well, Madam? You look a bit flustered. Shall I turn down the heat?”

“I’m fine, Alfredo,” Holly replied as she imagined Alfredo whispering the word ‘Madam’ into her ear. She shivered in much the same way she did when she emptied her bladder in the morning, a full body shiver that just felt good. “It’s like the heels are in charge, Alfredo. I came to town thinking about settling down and making a life for myself here. I got myself a job. I did all of the things adults are supposed to do. I’m trying, anyway. But I keep learning more about the world… about this city… how things are… and I feel powerless to change it. I feel like I’m fighting a match I can’t win, a rigged match, the sort of match where I have to take a dive.”

“Madam, the odds are stacked against us. There is little we can do. The best we can hope for is to make the changes we can and live as a good example for others. I try to have good manners, be polite, be considerate, and hope I run into like minded ponies.” Alfredo placed his feather duster into a basket, pulled out some wood polish, and then pulled out a clean, absorbent cloth. “You have no hope of changing the world and believing that one can do so is folly. However, you do have the means to inspire others. The world needs heroes.”

“Yeah, Alfredo, the world needs faces,” Holly said, her head nodding, agreeing with Alfredo. Her gaze dropped down, her eyes focusing upon the silver candlesticks in the middle of the dining table. “I think I changed one pony. Fink decided to make a heel-face turn. I had something to do with that. Maybe that’s the best I can hope for.”

Humming to himself, Alfredo began applying the wood polish to the ceiling panels, rubbing the oily compound into the dark, rich looking wood that already seemed to glow with its own inner light. He tilted his head up, exposing his neck once more.

And Holly watched with a great deal of interest, her attention now returned to Alfredo. Her thoughts tumbled around in her mind like trash blowing down the canyons of the city, caught up in the fierce winds that blow between buildings. Staring unabashedly at Alfredo, Holly could not help but think that the house was somehow… empty. It needed something, but she didn’t know what. It was quiet, perhaps too quiet, and something felt wrong. Holly’s eyes lingered on Alfredo’s neck, moved down to his withers, and then trailed over his well muscled ribs. She thought about Alfredo’s long legs wrapped around her barrel, squeezing her, holding her, she thought about rubbing her face against his neck, her fevered mind thought about his reassuring weight against her spine.

Blinking, Holly snapped herself out of her reverie and looked away, her cheeks hot and flushed. She hadn’t been laid in quite some time, too long, perhaps, and her fantasies were getting away from her. She wondered how long she had been staring, and if Alfredo had noticed. She cleared her throat, feeling a tickle in the back of her mouth, and realised that she needed some air. It was far too hot in the house, it was, in fact, sweltering. It was like a hot, humid, tropical jungle.

Holly did not care that it was blizzard conditions outside, she was going to go for a walk.

Much to Holly’s consternation, Alfredo had insisted on going for a walk with her. The large, puffy, wet flakes of snow were flying in sideways, it was damp, and it was dark. Alfredo was wearing an old fashioned woollen coat that had a floppy decorative collar, a long scarf that had been secured around his neck, and was carrying a large umbrella, which he was using to try and shield her from the elements.

Bundled up in her own coat, Holly was still far too warm. She didn’t know what was wrong, but she felt downright feverish, as though she might be sick. Alfredo was handsome and distracting in his old fashioned coat and his chivalrous behaviour with the umbrella was charming, endearing even.

The pair made their way down the sidewalk, walking side by side, with Alfredo holding the umbrella into the wind, trying to shield Holly from the sideways flakes that swirled about. The wind howled, a fierce cry that made one worry about windigos. The sidewalk was treacherous, slippery, and while Holly was managing, Alfredo was fighting to remain upright.

Unable to contain herself, Holly got a bad case of the giggles while Alfredo danced a jig to try and keep his balance. The wind shifted, gusted, snatched the umbrella, and then with a panicked cry, Alfredo was pulled down the sidewalk, the umbrella acting like a sail in the wind. He braced his legs, trying to get traction, but his hooves slid over the wet, icy sidewalk like a fine ship slicing through water.

Holly ran after him, picking up the pace, a loop of her scarf slipping free from her neck and streaming out behind her. She was grinning, happy, not even aware of her own happiness, and as a helpless Alfredo went skimming down the sidewalk, Holly moved with surprising agility and speed to try and catch him.

With her tongue hanging out from the corner of her mouth, Holly was panting with exertion, she ran beside Alfredo, ready to step in and take action if real danger presented itself. As she ran beside him, Alfredo begged and pleaded for Holly to help him stop, but Holly saw no real need to assist. Alfredo was having the time of his life, this looked like good fun, an exciting time, and potentially, a new sport was taking place. Snow sailing.

“Madam, please!”

Cold, damp flakes fell on Holly’s hot, moist nose, melting right away, the moisture dribbled down her muzzle, down her chin, and then froze beneath her jaw, giving her a beard of icicles. The pair went shooting down the sidewalk together, blasted through an empty intersection, there was no traffic to speak of, and kept going. With as much crusted ice and snow as there was, Holly was no longer sure if they were on the sidewalk or in the street. It didn’t seem to matter.

The gale force wind died out, becoming a stiff breeze once again, and Alfredo coasted to a stop, looking and feeling a bit like a messed up martini; something both shaken and stirred. He shook his umbrella, trying to be rid of the snow, and then folded it up with a smart snap. He shook his head to be rid of the snowflakes on his ears and his mane, then, he threw back his head and laughed.

For Holly, it was good to hear Alfredo laugh. It was nice to listen to, it was nice to know that he could let go and have fun like any other pony. She watched as Alfredo stowed his large umbrella in a sleeve along the side of his coat and then stomped his hooves to get the crusted ice off of his fetlocks.

“I’m in the mood for chestnuts,” Alfredo announced, looking around and sniffing. After several seconds of standing and looking around, he took off at a trot, a broad grin on his face.

Feeling hungry, Holly went after him, wondering how he could smell anything in the blizzard. She fell into pace with him, he was still having trouble navigating the sidewalks, his hooves slipping and sliding with each step he took. When he almost took a tumble, Holly bumped into him, keeping him upright.

He rounded a corner and got a faceful of snow as the wind shifted. Alfredo shook his head, his ears flopping around, and using his magic, he readjusted his scarf to keep the chill wind off of his neck. The umbrella remained in its sleeve. Walking beside Alfredo, Holly’s long orange tongue whipped out and licked the snowflakes from her face. She wondered how Alfredo knew where to go.

The shop was tiny, nothing more than a hole in the wall. Holly expected a street vendor, a wagon perhaps, she had seen them out and about. This place was cozy. There was a brick fireplace against the far wall, there were no tables or chairs, but there was a small open area. The counter was near the fireplace. The smell of popcorn, chestnuts, and peanuts filled the air with a wonderful, drool inducing savoury scent.

“Do you happen to have chestnuts roasted in truffle oil?” Alfredo asked.

“Yeah,” the old, wrinkled stallion behind the counter grunted.

“I’ll take a bag.” Alfredo, using his magic, reached into his coat, pulled out a few bits, and plunked them down upon the counter.

The old stallion, a pegasus, shuffled away, disappearing behind a door. There was a clunk, a blast of fragrant steam, a blast of heat that came out of the door and into the room, and then another clunk. A moment later, the pegasus reappeared with a disposable brown paper feed bag, the kind that clipped on to the face and over the ears, filled with chestnuts.

“Enjoy,” the old pegasus said as he set the chestnuts down upon the counter and then snatched up the bits with his wingtips. He then teetered off to sit down in a chair and read his newspaper.

Lifting up the bag in his magic, Alfredo pranced off towards the fire, grinning, his long coat rustling as the snow upon it melted, causing rivulets of water to go streaming down. Holly followed after, sniffing, her mouth watering.

“Want some?” Alfredo asked, shaking the bag.

“Do you offer to share your nuts with every mare you meet?” Holly’s ears stood up straight as she let slip her innuendo. She watched with almost sadistic glee as Alfredo squirmed, she could see his nostrils flaring, and his breathing became heavy.

Much to Holly’s relief, Alfredo began to snicker. It was nice hearing him laugh. He shook the bag again, causing the chestnuts inside to rattle. As Holly watched, he lifted one out, popped it into his mouth, crunched it, then, using his magic, he lifted out another and held it out to her.

Smiling, Holly accepted, allowing Alfredo to feed her. She paused… she had eaten chestnuts before, but never with truffle oil. She took a deep breath, almost overwhelmed, closed her eyes, and very nearly melted. She crunched it up, biting down on it, crushing the nut between her broad, flat teeth. Nothing else compared. When she opened her eyes, there was another chestnut floating in front of her muzzle, and Alfredo was giving her a hopeful look.

She ate the next nut, her eyes locked onto Alfredo, unable to look away. She watched as he chewed, his jaw muscles flexing, and her ears perked at the sounds of his scarf rustling. The nuts were salty, savoury, rich, both sweet and bitter, they were delightful. She had always just eaten them with salt and nothing else, at least, she wasn’t aware of anything else being added.

In silence, they kept eating, Alfredo pulling two chestnuts out of the bag at a time, giving one to Holly and eating one himself. Holly, who had been staring at Alfredo all day, was now all too aware that Alfredo was staring back at her, which made her heart race with excitement. Alfredo was the sort that appreciated the finer things in life, and if he was staring at her like that… it made Holly feel good about herself.

Holly hoped that the bag of chestnuts would last forever.

Chapter 25

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Standing on the edge of an airship, Holly looked down upon the smoking building. Not much fire, plenty of smoke, and plenty of ponies inside, many of whom were probably passed out from smoke inhalation—not to mention getting closer to death with every second spent inside. The instructions were clear; go inside, find ponies, get them to safety. If fire was encountered, wait for a hose crew.

It all seemed simple enough, but Holly was wary. She treated each fire as if it might kill her, on Toot Toot’s advice. Toot Toot was getting up there in his years and this was his inspired pearl of wisdom on how to stay alive in this career.

“We’re ten feet above the building! Drop!” a pegasus shouted.

Grinning inside of her mask, Holly bounded over the rail and then dropped to the roof. The smoke was already rising up all around her, it rose from the roof vents, black, sooty, and smelly. Above her, pegasi fluttered down, and then much to Holly’s relief, Knock Knock was beside her.

Not needing to be directed, Holly went right for the door that allowed rooftop access. It wasn’t locked, it opened right away, but upon opening, a river of black, sooty smoke came pouring out, making it almost impossible to see as it rose up into the sky with the rest of the smoke. Holly stared down into the abyssal darkness of the staircase. It was hot, she could feel the heat even through her protective gear.

Where there was smoke and heat, there was usually fire.

She began sweating almost right away as she led the way down, her heavy hooves thumping on the metal stairs. The sound of her own respirator was almost deafening in her own ears as she breathed in and out, managing her breathing so she didn’t breathe too much. A firefighter’s ability to last on long jobs was only as good as their air supply.

At the top floor, many of the pegasi behind her spread out to search the floor, but Holly kept going, following the plan. She was going down into the black heart, the place where it was suspected to be the worst. The building was a twenty story walk up with no elevators, and the worst of the smoke came from floor fifteen and above, with the absolute worst coming from floor fifteen or sixteen.

The stairs, full of smoke, were like descending into Tartarus. After a few floors, it became almost impossible to see, and Holly was having to feel her way along, while Knock Knock shone a powerful spotlight from his horn (the tip of which poked through a special hole in his helmet) in an attempt to light up the floor numbers and doorways. It was claustrophobic, dark, and oh so very dangerous.

Down she went, going further into the impossible darkness, going into a place where most ponies would not willingly go. It was thrilling, exciting, and it was all Holly could do to control herself as her heart pounded within her barrel. The darkness was a living thing, a thing of horror, the stuff of nightmares made real.

After more stairs, Knock Knock shone his light upon the wall, hoping to see. Even with the powerful light spell, it was almost impossible to make out anything through the smoke. Squinting through her mask, Holly could just make out the number ‘15’ etched into what appeared to be a white plastic sign.

Standing at the door, Holly felt three pokes of Knock Knock’s hoof against her side. She braced herself, reminded herself that she was brave, and pushed the door open so that she, Knock Knock, Toot Toot, and others could go into the hallway.

They were greeted with an impenetrable wall of blackness that Knock Knock’s light spell could not shine through. Holly felt a sinking feeling in her heart; smoke like this was death. She wondered how many survivors they would find on this floor. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to rescue anypony if she couldn’t see anything.

Other ponies were carrying gear, and because each of them had to feel their way along as they looked for ponies… Holly wasn’t sure how anypony could be saved. Under her helmet, her ears perked. A burning building was a noisy, scary place. She could hear the creaking of wood, the screech of metal, there was a distant, worrisome crackle that sounded a lot like fire.

“I’ve seen this before,” Toot Toot shouted so others could hear him. “I’d bet my retirement that the fire is in the walls! This building is old, but it got a facelift! I don’t think they replaced the insulation in the walls! I bet the fire is burning and smouldering in the walls and in between the floors! This smoke is toxic! And I’d bet bits to donuts that it was started because of bad wiring!”

In the hallway, Holly could see nothing, nothing at all. It was impossible to see anything. The smoke was thicker than molasses. She dropped down to her belly and began to crawl along the floor, her oxygen tanks scraping along the cheap carpet. Down here, there were a few precious inches where the smoke wasn’t quite as thick, and it was possible to see a few feet ahead.

Holly crawled, with Knock Knock beside her and Toot Toot behind her. Other pegasi in their group spread out, all of them looking for doors. Time was working against them. As Holly crawled, she could not help but notice how warm the floor beneath her was, and it was growing hotter. She didn’t like this at all.

Holly found a door, knocked, and knew that she wasn’t going to get an answer. She rose, getting up on all fours, and tried the door. It did not open because it was locked. Scowling beneath her mask, Holly rose into a bipedal stance and she pulled out her halligan bar that was married to a fire axe secured against her side.

She gripped the bar in her fetlocks, balanced herself, and then drove the halligan bar into the space between the door and the doorframe. The door, while sturdy, wasn’t as solid as it could have been, and with the splintering of wood, Holly forced it open. Standing on one hind hoof, Holly kicked out with the other, and the weakened door was ripped from its hinges by the force of Holly’s kick.

Sliding the halligan bar back into place, Holly dropped down on all fours and entered the apartment. It was filled with the horrible, impossible to see through black smoke. She dropped down to the floor and began to crawl around, hoping to find survivors. There was a short hallway that opened into what Holly knew to be a kitchen—she could feel the cabinet doors as she felt her way along and her hoof clanged against the metal stove.

Feeling her way along, Holly found a doorway. She thumped on the door, it felt hollow and cheap, and when she did, she heard a muffled cry. Standing up, she opened the door and found herself in a smoke filled bathroom. In the tub, there was a group of ponies all huddled together. They had the shower on and were trying to stay as low as possible.

These were smarter than average ponies, or so Holly felt. Somepony was a clever pony getting into the shower. Holly felt Knock Knock push up beside her as he came into the bathroom and shone his light. In the tub, there were two foals, two adults, and one elderly looking stallion. Holly recoiled—it looked as though all of them had been crying blood. Bloody tears stained their cheeks, blood dribbled from their noses, and all of them had blood flecked lips. Holly remembered Toot Toot’s words about the insulation and shuddered.

“We need to get them out,” Knock Knock said in a loud, clear voice that was only somewhat muffled inside of his respirator. “Toot, Holly, we need to get them to a window. We’ll have them airlifted by pegasi. I’ll go find a window and shoot a flare out.”

Knock Knock departed, pushing his way back out, his heavy canvas protective wear rubbing up against Holly’s and making the odd sound of coarse fabric scraping against itself.

Holly stood by the tub, feeling worried and concerned. She looked at the family, who were looking back at her as the smoke swirled around the bathroom, eddying from the falling water in the shower. A family of earth ponies.

“It’s gonna be okay!” Holly shouted. “Today is your lucky day… Holly Homewrecker is here to save you!” As she spoke, Holly’s ears perked at the faint, muffled sound of shattering glass.

The elderly stallion lifted his head and gave Holly a weary, pleading stare that she could hardly see in the smoke. “Foals first,” he croaked to Holly. “Please, save them.” The old earth pony began coughing.

As he coughed, Holly could see red droplets hitting the clear visor of her facemask. Her worry grew, like a fire getting a breath of much needed air. “Okay, listen up, ‘cause it’s gonna get scary. I’m gonna carry you on my back to the window, and then some very brave pegasi are going to carry you to safety, so I need all of you to be brave. As an earth pony, I understand what it is like not to have your hoofsies on the ground, mmmkay?”

Neither of the foals responded, but lay there, limp, the water from the shower soaking them. Holly could feel a growing tightness in her chest, a heightened sense of worry. The smoke and fumes were killing them… slowly and no doubt, painfully.

She watched as Toot lifted up one foal and she felt it placed upon her back. It lay there, limp, unmoving, and Holly became terrified that it was already too late. She fought back her rising panic, fear, and the growing feeling of hopelessness. The other foal was placed upon her back and she backed out of the bathroom, dropped as low as she could without crawling on her belly, and followed the wind now blowing through the apartment. She found Knock Knock standing next to the window, and she could see the piercing daylight streaming in, punching its way through the thick smoke.

Making her way to the window, she saw that the glass had been knocked out, and no dangerous pieces had been left behind. There was a clean exit. Knock Knock lifted both foals at once in his telekinesis and then levitated them out the window, to the waiting embrace of pegasi, who strapped them into safety harnesses, moving with swift, well practiced ease. Holly did not watch them depart, she was already on her way back to the bathroom to get more ponies.

Once back in the bathroom, Toot Toot loaded up the young stallion, the mare, and the old stallion all upon her back. She held their weight easily, not having any trouble at all, and she hoofed it out of the bathroom, through the kitchen, and into the living room where there was an open, waiting window that had helpful, life saving pegasi hovering outside.

Knowing that these ponies were rescued, Holly’s spirits were lifted—she would need them for the work that still needed to be done. There were still more ponies to rescue and Holly hoped that she would get to them in time.

“That went by the book,” Knock Knock said as he sat down upon the floor of the firehouse, glad to rest his weary, aching hindquarters. “We even managed to pull out most of them alive.”

“Remains to be seen if they’ll stay that way,” Toot Toot muttered. The sooty pegasus let out a sigh and then collapsed onto the floor. He rubbed his cheek against the cool, wooden floor and snorted a few times to clear his nostrils.

“They were bloody.” Holly dropped her helmet on the floor and it clattered upon the wood. “It was horrible in there. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Keep working with us and you’ll see it often. The old insulation was cellulose based and treated with chemicals. It’ll burn, if you give it enough air, but mostly it just smoulders and smokes while releasing terrible chemical fumes. It’s illegal and buildings were supposed to be cleared of the stuff about twenty years ago, but most landlords still haven’t gotten around to getting rid of it.” Knock Knock shook his head. “Gusty, your wings were exposed to that stuff. Go and shower before your feathers dissolve.”

“Ugh, too tired to shower.” Toot Toot rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. “I’m getting too old for this job, I swear. I think come spring, I’ll retire.”

“You’ve been saying that you are going to retire in the spring for the past ten years, you hose drinker.” Knock Knock reached out and gave Toot Toot a gentle kick to get him moving.

“This year, I mean it.”

“You meant it last year, too.” Knock Knock looked at Holly. “Go and hit the shower, Homewrecker, unless you want to be bald all over. Try to keep the water out of your eyes when you rinse out your mane, it’ll sting plenty if you aren’t careful.”

Holly’s eyes narrowed and she gave Knock Knock a teasing smile. “You know, it would be a particularly romantic gesture on your part if you carried poor Toots to the shower and gave him a good hosing off.”

Mustache quivering, Knock Knock considered Holly’s words. After a moment, he smiled and replied, “You know, I think he’s getting too old for that.”

“I’m never too old for that!” Toot Toot huffed as he rolled over onto his stomach. With a great deal of effort, he stood up on wobbling knees. “That’s probably why I feel old… I haven’t had my hose unrolled for a while.”

Holly bellowed with laughter as she walked away, leaving her gear in a pile, knowing that it would get picked up. She strode away, sweating, stinking, and aching for a shower. She felt itchy all over and was in a hurry to get whatever was all over her skin off of her.

Chapter 26

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One had to be careful of old houses, old houses had creaky floorboards, creaky stairs, and made it quite difficult to be sneaky. The Stony Scary Cinematic Review, or the Stony Spooky Cinematic review, depending on which playbill one read, was coming up, and Alfredo was rehearsing his part as the evil Doctor Wienerschnitzel. Alfredo did his best rehearsing in the shower, belting out soulful wails amplified by bathroom acoustics.

Which was the reason why Holly was sneaking towards the bathroom door and avoiding traitorous floorboards that might give away her position. She wanted to hear Alfredo sing. His voice was almost magical. Holly had been having plenty of daydreams lately of Alfredo serenading her. That was the dream… being serenaded by a pony who had his own natural tuxedo.

Today was Holly’s day off and she intended to make the most of it, even if she was exhausted. Work had been downright brutal as of late, with the day before yesterday having three fires in one shift, all of which Holly had dealt with with her usual aplomb. There were investigations too, every day she learned a little bit more from Knock Knock.

Alfredo’s big moment was coming up, just a few more days now, and Holly, Knock Knock, and Toot Toot all had the evening off. Holly was quite excited; she liked the music, she liked hearing Alfredo singing, and she secretly wanted to see Alfredo dressed up in drag, something she hadn’t seen yet, but was hoping to see soon.

“...in just seven days… I can make you… a stallion...”

Ears perking at the sound of Alfredo singing, Holly didn’t need seven days. She had already found a stallion she was interested in. The relationship between them thus far could only be summarised as ‘weird.’ Holly was no stranger to one night stands. You meet somepony, you have a few drinks, you shagged, and then it was off to the next city for the next show and you never saw that pony again. It was just a random encounter, a shag with a stranger, some means to scratch the ever present itch.

And Holly had quite an itch.

She had never been this pent up. It was like being a teenage filly again. The dry spell had lasted so long that she was back to having wet dreams, a fact made all the more embarrassing by the fact that Alfredo changed her sheets while she was off at work. She had no idea what sheets soaked in mare musk had to be doing to him, nor did she have any idea what Alfredo must have thought of her… he probably thought she was a nymphomaniac sex fiend.

At least that wasn’t the worst thing he could think about her.

So embarrassing!

So Alfredo had to know that she was suffering, and being the gentlepony that he was, he had done nothing, nothing at all, to take advantage of her, make a move on her, or anything of that sort. It was always ‘Madam this’ or ‘Madam that,’ and Alfredo was entirely too proper. It was impossible for a mare to catch a break.

It would be nice if Alfredo showed a little interest. Holly wouldn’t mind a little rub up against her side. She wouldn’t mind a little nosing. Maybe a caress against her ear. Or coming up from behind her, mounting her, and grabbing her around her middle while he—

Holly lost track of everything, including what Alfredo had been singing. She squirmed, shifting her weight, and then felt the need to escape. She backed away, mindful of treacherous floorboards, and she desperately wanted to scratch her own itch. The problem was where… she was the noisy sort and there was nowhere in this house that she could go and do such a thing without Alfredo hearing it.

The itch was so bad that Holly was ready to ride the arm of the sofa, like she had done once when she was younger. That had ended in disaster, with a soaked, smelly sofa that would never be the same no matter how much cleaning it had endured.

There was no relief in sight. The itch would have to go unscratched. Holly would have to remain unsatiated, her needs not satisfied. Holly crept away from the bathroom door, leaving behind a perfumed cloud of need and desire that she was entirely unaware of, a scent that had a tendency to linger and cling to everything exposed to it.

Daring Do’s most recent novel was being turned into a movie Holly discovered as she flipped through Alfredo’s Variety, an entertainment magazine. A casting call was being put out to play a unicorn and an earth pony, both intrepid explorers, for a coming film called The Volcano’s Fury. Holly eyed the article, wondering if she could be an actress. They needed somepony that could deliver lines in what the paper described as a ‘meaningful monotone.’ Holly remembered something about a volcano that had exploded during the past summer, but she didn’t remember much, only reading about it in the newspapers as she had gone on with her life on the roller derby circuit.

The film was going to be a rom-com. Holly snorted. What sort of romance or comedy could possibly happen on a geologic expedition? The whole thing seemed absurd. She flipped the page and continued reading, her eyes scanning the print. There was scandal and controversy, Holly liked that stuff. The latest scandal was the controversial decision to cast an earth pony in the role of a unicorn in the upcoming Stupendous Six movie, a film about the Elements of Harmony. An earth pony mare had been selected for the role of Rarity, a unicorn, and there were already cries of alarm as prosthetic horns looked terrible. They tended to bob around and look awful on screen.

The Singing Stallion of Spring would be coming out soon, another rom-com, a film about a pegasus stallion that attempted to follow Princess Celestia around and serenade her, flying in her general vicinity and caterwauling away to profess his love for the alicorn. Another part involving a prosthetic horn, this time stuck on a pegasus mare.

The real singing stallion of the spring had been arrested, tried, and convicted of stalking, assault, and trespassing after Princess Celestia had rebuffed his many advances. The poor dumb idiot had tried breaking into the castle and had attacked one of the guards. Holly remembered reading about it almost a year ago.

She blinked. She wasn’t stalking Alfredo… no siree… Alfredo lived with her. They shared the same living space. They were bound to bump into one another and there were times that she… that she had to potty and then discovered that Alfredo was in the shower, so she had to stand around and wait.

And she certainly wasn’t reading his newspaper just so she could catch a whiff of his cologne. Nope. She was reading because she was bored. Bored and not horny at all. Nope, not horny at all, certainly not horny enough to hump the furniture and ruin it.

There was a rom-com that needed to happen. The bored, horny fire fighting mare that humped the furniture, and the dutiful, dignified butler, er, maid, stuck cleaning it up, all while making witty one liners, pithy phrases, and doing his duties with a raised eyebrow while giving the camera a knowing look.

Holly squeezed her hind legs together as hard as she could, her dock clenched, and she let out a frustrated, flustered sigh. She could go out somewhere and it wouldn’t be hard to find somepony to have a little fun with, but the trouble was, she didn’t want to find somepony to have a little fun with. She didn’t want another one night stand. She wanted to be a grown up, with a career, and a house, and responsibilities, and all that other stuff that she had.

Besides, a one night stand seemed so pointless… so meaningless. No matter who she found to help her scratch her itch, there was only one pony she wanted. She waved the newspaper and inhaled, catching a whiff of Alfredo’s scent. His cologne, something exotic, with a trace of soap and window cleaner. It was magnificent. Nothing else would satisfy. Holly realised that something might be wrong with her if she found the scent of window cleaner sexy.

But it was.

It was oh so sexy.

Because of whom she associated the scent with.

Alfredo, the tuxedoed stallion, was a sexy, sexy beast with a voice that could make an alicorn’s knees wobble and go weak. Holly closed her eyes and took another deep breath, which she held, and then let out in a long, wistful sigh. She opened her eyes and set the newspaper down upon the table beside the sofa.

She needed to be out of the house. She needed to get away. She needed to go and clear her head. It didn’t matter that it was hovering around zero degrees outside, she needed to get out and go for a walk. Maybe go somewhere. The cold air would do her some good.

“Madam—”

Oh, Holly thought to herself, that voice.

“—I was curious if you would like to go out and watch a movie.”

Holly lifted her head, wondering what Alfredo was up to. She blinked and looked up at him. He was just asking her out to a film, she reminded herself, it didn’t mean that he was flirting or hoping for a shag.

“The Gaslight Garland Theatre is having a Silver Age Saturday Show. Today is a double feature science fiction show with films from the Silver Age. Today’s films are It Came from Gelding Grotto and Princess Celestia’s Plan Nine Versus the Gender Bender Fungus From Outer Space.”

“That sounds wonderful, Alfredo…”

“Madam?” Alfredo’s eyebrow raised. “These films are terrible, but they are so awful that they’re good. A big part of their charm is the silvertone film… a beloved relic of a bygone era.”

“I’d love to go to a movie with you, Alfredo,” Holly said, almost breathless. “After two films, I’m bound to be almost starving to death…” Holly’s open ended suggestion trailed off and she almost regretted saying it. She looked up at Alfredo with wide, hopeful eyes.

“I suppose we can do dinner—”

“My treat, if you pay for the movies,” Holly offered.

Alfredo’s eyes narrowed. “Very well then.” The stallion cleared his throat. “Are we taking the subway, or shall we walk? If we’re walking, we should leave right away, the Gaslight Garland Theatre is a good walk and the sidewalks are a bit slippery.”

Holly nodded. It was cold outside too… freezing in fact, but Holly wasn’t worried about the cold—no, she had a furnace inside that was fully stoked. The scariest thing about the cold would be if Holly’s backside began streaming from all the heat she had just below her tail. It would look like she was breathing from both ends if steam came from both her muzzle and her backside.

She had never felt this way before and she wondered if it had something to do with the fact that she had stopped taking her birth control pills. She felt no need to do so, and hadn’t for quite some time. She hadn’t been shagging for a while. She had grown up, become responsible, and taken control of her life. She was living like a responsible adult, or so she thought.

“Madam?”

“Huh?”

“You’re staring, Madam.”

“Sorry, I uh, was just thinking.” Holly’s reply was sheepish and a bit embarrassed. “I’d love to go for a nice long walk… it will make the theatre all the toastier.”

“Indeed, Madam.” Alfredo nodded, turned, and began to walk away, his tail swishing around his hind legs. “Excuse me while I get my coat, Madam.”

Holly watched him go, her orange tongue flicked out, licking her dry lips, and then vanished. His hind legs were black on the outside, but he had white streaks that ran down in the inside of his thighs, almost to his hocks. He had a white belly that looked oh so fuzzy, and a little patch of white just below his tail, right where his—

“Madam, we must hurry,” Alfredo called out from the stairs.

Blinking, Holly snapped herself from her trance, rolled off of the sofa, and went to go and get her coat, every muscle in her body tensing as the fires burned out of control within. As Holly hit the stairs, she wondered if she would need a firehose to put the fires out. The mental image of a hose spraying her caused her to gasp, then giggle, and then the fires burned even hotter as she realised what the mental image represented.

Chapter 27

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Tonight was the big night—the big night—and Holly was almost beside herself. The old house was warm and full of life. Clayborne and Gusty were staying there as guests, and Holly was glad to see Knock Knock and Toot Toot behave more like themselves away from work. It was going to be time to go soon. Clayborne and Gusty were getting dressed in their room upstairs, and Alfredo would be getting dressed at the show. Holly was just dying to see what Alfredo would look like as Doctor Wienerschnitzel.

Holly sat in a chair, unable to sit still, sipping on a gin and tonic made by Alfredo. The drink was delightful, and the wedge of lime made it perfect. The day had almost been perfect; a big lunch made by Alfredo, pasta with a carbonara sauce, bread, salad, and appetisers of little balls made out of eggplant, mushrooms, and some kind of soft, gooey white cheese, dipped in egg, rolled in breadcrumbs, and then deep fried in hot peanut oil. The afternoon was filled with a few cocktails, time shared together, and then came the preparation for the evening.

It was going to be cold tonight, bone chilling, record low temperatures. It was going to be a frigid trip to the theatre. Holly sipped her drink, thoughtful, reflective, grateful to have friends. She had a house to have guests in. She had the means to provide for others.

Was this what growing up was? Is this what it felt like? Was the hallmark of growing up the ability to provide for others? Holly didn’t know. Her whole life had been turned upside down. She was born to roller skate, something she had been doing very little of lately. For whatever reason, her cutie mark now felt wasted, maybe even neglected. She had moved on, gone on to other things, she was making headway in a new life for herself.

Sure, she could still skate… on clear days, she could go out and clear her head, and come spring, the conditions for skating would be ideal. But skating was now a hobby… a means to pass the time, a bit of exercise, a way to stay in peak physical shape.

But skating wasn’t her life. Not anymore. Holly had realised quite some time ago, she was a ‘lifer.’ She would either die in service of the M.F.D. or would be forced into retirement when her body could no longer take the abuse. Or forced into administration and investigation, which didn’t seem so bad. Holly rather liked the investigative side of things, she was good at what she did and was already up for a performance review, which might mean a promotion. Alfredo had told her that she was making more than enough to cover the bills, live in relative comfort, and even tuck away some bits for a rainy day. She also had money coming in from endorsement deals.

Holly had never been one for managing her finances very well. As a roller derby star, she had an agent that dealt with her finances. Now, Alfredo looked after her bits. She trusted him implicitly. She and Alfredo had an ideal living arrangement.

But Holly wasn’t entirely happy. There was the keen sense that something was missing. Something was off. She thought of her Aunt Cara Cara, and her Uncle, Sumac Heartwood. They had been young, in love, and they had made this house a home. They had filled it with life.

Sipping her drink, Holly felt a new ache of longing. She thought of Alfredo, and it wasn’t in the usual way that she had been thinking about him. He could help her fill this house with life. Something in the back of her mind suggested that Alfredo could be more than a fling, that somehow, this could be more than hitting on the help. Alfredo was a skilled domestic. He liked looking after the house and being a homebody. Holly took another sip. Sumac had worked in a furniture factory and Cara had worked two jobs to keep up with the house payments.

There would be no need for that now, the house was paid for. In the clear. Owned. Holly could make a fair bit of money. She realised that she might be able to support a family. The ice in her drink clinked against the glass as she held it in one trembling fetlock. That was the reason that Cara had given her the house… Cara had to have known that Holly would grow up sooner or later. Holly set her glass down on the small wooden table beside her chair, placing it upon a magazine.

In that moment, Holly grew as a pony, but she was unaware of her growth. She only had a hazy awareness that she was about to begin the next phase of her life, and she wanted to take those first few brave steps with Alfredo. Settling back in her chair, Holly entertained new fantasies, and they were quite unlike the pervy, fevered fantasies that she’d been having. Quiet, but lively dinners together. Coming home after a hard day’s work and being greeted, maybe even kissed. Coming home to a loved one… no, a family. Having a foal might slow down her career a bit, but that wouldn’t be so bad. There was also adoption. Sitting in her chair, wide eyed, Holly nodded. This house was large enough for a few free roaming foals. She began to wonder if Alfredo would enjoy such a thing. Would he be happy as a stay at home father? Would he be comfortable about her being the breadwinner? Some stallions got persnickety about that sort of thing. This was a complete role reversal.

Holly grabbed her own fetlock and then squeezed them both together. This didn’t have to be about scratching the itch, or a one night stand, or hitting on the help, oh no… this could be something more. Alfredo was a domestic sort… it wasn’t such a leap for him to be a stay at home dad. This didn’t have to be a fling.

“Holly?”

Blinking, Holly snapped to attention, almost startled. She turned her head and looked at Alfredo, her cheeks blazing with an inner fire, and her heart fluttered in her chest. He had showered, was now dried off, and his mane was slicked back on his head. He was immaculate, perfect, and handsome.

“Holly, it is almost time to go,” Alfredo said in a low voice, “are you going to be ready?”

Nodding in reply, Holly blinked a few times, trying to clear her head. “Just need to put on a jacket. I don’t know what to wear, I don’t really have anything so I’m going as is.”

“Holly… you are perfect just as you are.”

In her barrel, Holly’s heart began smashing against her ribs, like a fire axe or a halligan bar against an uncooperative door. Holly had a knack for opening doors—she was The Homewrecker. In that moment though, Holly wanted to be a homemaker though, or at least a contributor. She realised that Alfredo had called her by name. Her mouth went dry and she was unable to speak. She wanted to ask if Alfredo really thought she was perfect, but she couldn’t get the words to come out.

The only thing she had done to get ready was spritz herself with fancy perfume. She didn’t even know if it was good perfume. She usually wore the cheap stuff, the stuff that kept a sweaty mare from smelling a bit too much like a sweaty mare, and she sprayed herself down in all the right places for her own peace of mind. But not tonight. She had purchased something expensive and fancy. The mare behind the counter had given her an odd look. Holly was not the coat hanger mare of exquisite beauty.

“Holly?”

With a startled snort, Holly snapped back to reality.

“You seem a little distracted, are you okay?” Alfredo asked.

Holly shook her head, then nodded, then shook her head, and unable to make up her mind, she nodded and shrugged at the same time. “It’s the big night, Alfredo. I’m nervous. I don’t know what to expect.”

“I’m a little nervous too,” Alfredo admitted to Holly in a low voice. “I thought this would be easier with friends watching me, but now I’m scared to death of disappointing you and them.”

“Alfredo,” Holly said, sounding just a little breathless, “uh, I don’t think I could ever be disappointed in you… you… I… Alfredo, I… I think… you… me… I, uh, I think I—”

“Yes?” Alfredo’s eyebrow raised as Holly’s stammering trailed off into silence.

“I’m very happy that I asked you to come and live with me,” Holly said after a painful moment of utter and absolute silence. She cringed right away after saying it, regretting it. It sounded lame, the words were not what she had wanted to say. She felt hot and flustered.

“Holly, is there something you would like to say?” Alfredo asked.

Staring, Holly realised that there was a lot she would like say. Hey, Alfredo, how would you feel about being a stay at home dad? or, Hey, Alfredo, how would you feel if the pony employing you started hitting on you? or maybe even, Hey, Alfredo, how about a little pony ride? But she couldn’t say those things. She let out a flustered sigh and stared at the object of her desire.

Turning away, Holly lifted up her drink from the table beside her chair. Had she been paying attention, she would have seen that the magazine she had set her drink on was titled, ‘Pony Parenthood’ and had a picture of a smiling earth pony mare on the front standing next to a crib. She gulped down the rest of her gin and tonic as her whole body trembled.

“Madam, it is very, very cold out. Remember to bring your scarf.”

Clayborne and Gusty were covered in heavy overcoats and winter weather cloaks, so Holly didn’t know what they were wearing. She knew that something was up though, because both of them wouldn’t stop giggling together as they walked.

For being such a cold night, there were a surprising number of ponies out and about. No doubt, the subways were going to be crowded. There was something in the air tonight—several of Manehattan’s prominent theatres had a show that opened tonight, no doubt there was fierce competition.

“Ready to give what is sure to be a performance of a lifetime?” Gusty the pegasus asked as he followed along beside Alfredo. Toot Toot was a pretty pegasus tonight, wearing purple mascara, false eyelashes, and some kind of dark plum lipstick.

Holly thought he looked a little gothy, but she liked it.

“It is a small theatre trotting out a tired old show that refuses to die,” Alfredo replied.

Clayborne, wearing dark blue mascara, false eyelashes, and black lipstick let out a whinny. “Tired old show? This show was made for us. It is almost a religion… it is an institution. It gives ponies like Tooty and I a reason to get dolled up, go out, and have fun. Sure, I could go out and see ‘Mane’ or ‘Die Flamingos of Rammanboch,’ but I couldn’t go out dressed up like this.”

Alfredo smiled, but still somehow looked a little melancholy.

“This is gonna be the greatest night ever,” Gusty said, looking at Clayborne. “And when we get home… mmm…” The pegasus fell silent, leaving everything he might have said to the imagination.

Ice crunched underhoof as the group headed for the subway. The sidewalks were slippery and the wind was downright cruel. The cold, sharp as a razor, blew in from off the ocean and everything in the city was glazed over with ice.

“Holly, thanks again for having us as guests. It isn’t often that we get to do this,” Clayborne said to Holly as he walked.

“Yeah, it isn’t often that we get to dress up, be ourselves, or even have some private alone time.” Gusty snorted, sending a spray of snowflakes and ice crystals flying from his snoot. “Um, uh, are you sure you don’t mind if Clay and I, uh, have a nice time?”

Giggling, distracted, Holly looked over at her friend and fellow firefighter. “You need your hose unrolled.”

“I sure do,” Gusty replied, “I sure do.”

Clayborne eyed his longtime companion, then eyed Holly and Alfredo. He nosed his pegasus mate, cleared his throat, and fell back a bit. Gusty, understanding what Clayborne was getting at, fell back with the love of his life and leaned up against Clayborne’s side as they walked together. By doing this, they left Holly and Alfredo walking together side by side. Clayborne gave his pegasus companion a wink, followed by a swift kiss upon the cheek.

“Hey… hey… don’t get fresh with me… you’ll smear my makeup… do you know how hard I worked to look pretty for you?” Gusty narrowed his eyes at the mustached unicorn wearing lipstick beside him.

Clayborne began to chuckle and he watched as Holly moved a little closer to Alfredo. “Oh, I plan to do more than smear your lipstick later, my lovely little pegasus…”

Chapter 28

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As it turned out, Claybourne and Gusty both were wearing lacy lingerie. Tight bodices or corsets or whatever they were called were cinched around their bodies. Holly had never worn anything like that and she wasn’t sure what they were called. They were also wearing fishnet stockings over their legs. They both looked amazing and Holly could understand why they kept flirting with one another.

She was giddy with anticipation about seeing Alfredo.

The Stony Scary Cinematic Revue was a bit odd so far, but it wasn’t bad. There were two strange ponies with stranger names; Brad and Janet. Holly had a vague recollection of what a brad was. It was a small nail with a tiny head. Why anypony would be named ‘Brad’ was a mystery. One might be mistaken for a pinhead with that sort of name.

The audience kept hooting and hollering. It was a very different sort of show. Holly was under the impression that with most theatre productions, the audience was expected to keep quiet. With this audience, they were expected to interact. Everypony was dressed up and Holly could not help but feel a little self conscious and out of place. But nopony seemed to mind… everypony was far too busy having fun.

One of the mares on stage was a lot like her. That is to say, the mare on stage playing Columbia had a full figure. She was also smoking hot and Holly couldn’t help but feel a little attracted. It wasn’t often that she saw a full figured mare being shown in such a positive light. She moved as though she was weightless, her dancing was indescribable, beautiful, and perfect.

When Claybourne hooked his foreleg around hers and gave it a tug, Holly glanced at him. His lipstick was a little smeared. He was grinning a crazy grin and he waggled his eyebrows at her.

“Here we go, Holly!”

The music swelled and Holly could hear Alfredo’s unmistakable voice as he sang, “How d'you do, I see you've met my faithful handypony... he's just a little brought down, because when you knocked... he thought you were the candypony…”

Holly’s mouth fell open in shock and she felt her nethers clench. Alfredo as Doctor Wienerschnitzel was absolutely stunning. He too, was wearing a corset lingerie thingy, and fishnets, and his mane was all done up in curls. Whatever crush or sense of infatuation that Holly had been nursing ignited into a full blown lusty inferno—a five alarm fire. The reaction was so strong that it scared her. A fire like this one demanded a good hosing.

“...don't get strung out by the way that I look… don't judge a book by its cover... I'm not much of a stallion by the light of day, but by night I'm one hell of a lover!”

The outfit, Alfredo’s strong singing voice, the music, the lights, the heat and smell of the bodies all around her, it was almost too much. Holly felt herself swooning. She started sweating, she couldn’t help it, but she couldn’t muster up enough concern to feel self conscious about it.

She couldn’t help but feel that Alfredo was singing to her. He was looking right at her, at least, she thought he was. She was right there in the front row and there could be no doubt, he was looking at her. He was looking at her and singing to her.

There was a loud squeal that made Holly’s ears stand up and it took her several long seconds before she realised that she was the squealing like a filly. Her cheeks blazed, almost matching the warmth in her nethers.

“I'm just a sweet transvestite from Transexual, Tramplevania, ha ha!”

At that moment, Holly discovered that she could, in fact, have it all. Alfredo was the perfect stallion, and when dressed up as a mare, something about him mashed all of the right buttons. It was the perfect storm of attraction, no—of lust. Her heart fluttered in her chest and she was perched on the edge of her seat. Claybourne was still holding her foreleg and she could hear his deep, throaty laughter.

Holly wasn’t certain she could bear watching the whole show with her heart in her throat.

The show was exhausting. Holly had laughed, she had cried, she had screamed a few times, and every muscle in her body ached from sitting on the edge of her seat and trying to balance. Now, she was in some sort of hazy afterglow. The heat from the lights, from the bodies all around her, the sound, the overpowering sound… she felt dizzy and her ears were ringing. She could feel the blood flowing through her veins and she could not recall a time she had ever felt more alive.

Alfredo and the others were bowing while receiving their accolades from the audience. Holly felt like she was a mess. Her mane was plastered to her neck and she felt absolutely knackered. The roar of the crowd was almost deafening. And no matter how he moved, she could not help but feel that Alfredo was still looking right at her.

And she stared back. There might be other actors on the stage, but Holly couldn’t see them. She didn’t see the set. There was only Alfredo… even though he was as sweaty and disheveled as she was, he still somehow looked fabulous. His curls hung limp around his face and neck. His ears were slick with sweat—salty sweat—and Holly found herself wanting to lick one.

And then, without warning, the curtain closed…

The hallway was long and narrow. Holly recognised it as a fire hazard without even thinking about it. It was so narrow that the doors that opened up into the hallway blocked it completely. The roar of the crowd was behind her and there was laughter ahead of her. Claybourne and Gusty herded her along down the hallway as they followed after an understudy that had come out to fetch them.

The hallway opened into a vast space behind the stage, a hidden place, the place where the magic happened. Stage and set pieces were everywhere. There were ponies laughing, congratulating one another, and drinking. The nose tingling scent of champagne was heavy in the air, along with sweat and the sickly sweet smell of clove cigarettes. The area was dim, lit only by a few lanterns and a whole bunch of beeswax candles. After being under the searing lights of the stage, nopony wanted electric lights back here.

There was no sign of Alfredo. Holly came a halt and stood there, looking around, uncertain of what to do next. Claybourne and Gusty didn’t stop, but kept going. The pair of them approached a zebra mare who had been in the play, and she laughed as they approached. She was still sweaty and her mane was strange and rope-like. Holly knew there was a name for what she saw, but she couldn’t remember what they were called. A big pair of white framed sunglasses were still perched on her nose.

A loud pop startled Holly, she jumped, but then realised it was just somepony opening more champagne. She wondered where Alfredo was. She looked around, taking in the sights, this wasn’t all that different than the aftermath of the roller derby. A lot of ponies drinking, smoking, and congratulating one another. It didn’t smell that different either.

There was a squeal from behind a nearby door, followed by a giggle, and then the unmistakable sounds of two ponies celebrating in the best way possible. Holly blushed but couldn’t feel it. She had blushed too much already this evening and was too hot to even feel it.

After a few minutes of listening, Holly realised that there were two stallions behind the door, celebrating. She stood there, taking in the sounds, feeling more than a little aroused, and trying to imagine what must be going on in there. She closed her eyes so she could visualise everything just a little better.

“Holly?”

Opening her eyes, she turned her head and saw Alfredo. He was dripping wet and looked as though he had just stepped out of the shower. He was sleek looking, perfect in every way, and being dripping wet was somehow even more appealing. There was a very satisfied whinny from behind the closed door and Holly realised that she had been biting her lip this whole time.

“You were amazing,” Holly said in a voice that she almost didn’t recognise. She coughed, cleared her throat, and blamed the clove cigarettes as she tried again. “Alfredo, you were amazing.”

“I really felt the magic out there tonight.” Alfredo blinked a few times and then looked around as he flicked his waterlogged mane out of his eyes. He looked at his fellow actors and actresses. “Everypony gave it all they had and then some. I’ve never seen a production like this one.” He kept blinking and focused his squinty stare on Holly.

“You okay, Alfredo?” Holly took a step forwards, concerned, and feeling just a little bit of worry.

“I’m worn out and dazzled by the lights.” He blinked his eyes again and Alfredo smiled. “I got used to the gas lights at home… the electric lights feel so much brighter now. I’m exhausted, Holly… and truth be told, I don’t know if I am up for the post production party.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I think a little celebration is in order,” Holly said, sounding coy without realising that she was doing so. She batted her eyelashes at Alfredo. “Plus, you don’t want to go outside while you are sopping wet. Nopony wants a frozen noodle.”

When Alfredo chuckled, Holly froze, horrified by her own words. “I… I… I…” She stood there, stammering, feeling flustered and aroused. The sounds of the two stallions celebrating was distracting. “I mean, because of your name… Alfredo… I didn’t mean… I didn’t mean—”

“You stared at me the whole production.” Water dripped and ran down Alfredo’s sides. “There were other actors you know, fantastic actors who put on quite a show. You didn’t see them, did you?”

“No.” Holly bit her lip and then made little hoofy kicks, her hoof scraping over the old, worn out grey boards. “There were other audience members… did you see them?”

There was no reply from Alfredo, only an amused smirk.

“I knew it!” Everything around Holly faded away. The sounds, the scent, the cigarette smoke, she lost awareness of all of it. “You were staring at me.” Without warning, Holly was a filly again. She didn’t know what to say, she felt like she was going to hiccup or throw up, and she didn’t know how to talk to colts. She stood there, now mute, her tail swishing from side to side.

“Is it so hard to talk to me?” Alfredo asked.

“Yes!” Holly’s words came out as a filly’s whine. “Yes it is! You’re so beautiful and perfect and I’ve never met anypony like you and everything is complicated! I don’t know what to do and I don’t know what is right anymore.” She stood there, staring at Alfredo, unaware that quite a few ponies had fallen silent and were now looking at her.

“Is it because I’m the help?” Alfredo asked.

“Maybe.” Holly closed her eyes and shook her head. “It’s crossed my mind. I don’t know what the rules are and I didn’t want to risk our friendship.” She heard a soft sigh and opened her eyes. Much to her surprise, Alfredo was now standing inches away from her nose. She looked up at him and felt her breath catch in her throat. “I didn’t want you to feel pressured, or obligated, and I didn’t want to mess with your sense of professionalism because I know how much that means to you.”

“Doctor Wienerschnitzel, professional transvestite!” somepony shouted and there were giggles and snickering all around Holly and Alfredo.

“Quiet, you mug, this is serious!” a very husky but feminine voice responded. It was impossible to tell if the voice was male or female.

“Everything is so complicated,” Holly squeaked.

“It doesn’t have to be.” Alfredo’s voice was a soft whisper.

“How do we fix it?” Holly stared up at Alfredo with wide, expectant eyes.

Alfredo’s sides expanded as he took a deep breath. “How about we go out for a little dinner and a few drinks… we’ll make it a double date. I know a place right here in the theatre district. And then we’ll take it from there, okay?”

“Okay.” There was a pause. “Alfredo?”

“Yes?”

“I have a confession…”

“And that is?”

“I think I’ve grown up, Alfredo. It scares me. I don’t want a fling. I don’t want to fool around. I’ve never had a serious for realsies relationship before. I don’t know what to do or how to handle it.” Holly bit down upon her lip and made more hoofy kicks.

“It isn’t all that different,” Alfredo replied. “After a really nice night together, you wake up the next morning and you stay together.”

“Yeah, but that’s scary.”

“I suppose it is.”

“And you’re okay with this?” Holly looked Alfredo in the eye.

“I’m up for trying,” Alfredo replied.

“That’s fair and honest.” Holly nodded her head. “Now, how about dinner? I’m starving!”