(The Old Firestable) Dusty Expectations (Closed)

[CherryRie]

Below the ivory white towers of Canterlot castle, many older buildings stood testament to the city's noble heritage. Just as any living city, the capitol of Equstria had grown dramatically across the years. Once a quaint mountain town, now so grand that from the sky it looked like a fine tapestry of winding streets and gothic buildings. But not all of these were abuzz with activity. On the south side of the city, at the very edge of the overhang into the valley of Whitetail Wood, stood the ramshackle Firebarn that had once housed Equestria's finest firefighters. Long since sold off to pay for the swish new building on Pelham Lane, the once grand facade had long since fallen into disrepair. Windows that looked out onto the cobbled street were boarded patchily, some of the old wood having already fallen away or been pilfered for personal uses. Huge double doors that led to the carage stable were now left heavily bolted, warning signs hung on their exterior pointing out the dangers of the old crumbling structure. Centuries had passed since the last of canterlot's fire department had said a last good bye to their old home and with the passing of its last owner more than four decades ago, time had been a cruel mistress. Gaps in the floorboards and woodworm infested rafters allowed slender cracks of daylight to slink lazily through the tired halls. Motes of dust hung in the undisturbed air and whatever menacing shadows had once permeated the halls had long since given up all machinations of apprehension.

Into this sombre lifeless palace of heroes came the sound of cracking boards. Hazy beams of half hearted sunlight were suddenly joined by a new sibling, vibrant and untrained by the weathering of time. With the crashing of dry rotted boards, the virgin light began to grow, blossoming with every passing moment until, with a creaking groan of unloved hinges, a burst of dawn flooded across the floor and lit every corner of the world weary office.

Into this undisturbed relic, where in even the darkness its self felt aged and dusty, stepped a young Unicorn mare. Ahead of her a crowbar bobbed gently, held by a warm white aura mirroring that which emanated from the mare's horn. Unseen by the newcomer, hundreds of black pinpoint eyes observed her entrance from the rafters. Short and homely with a coat the colour of cream coffee, the mare's broad smile seemed to amplify the dawn light that now tested the corners of the darkened room. Both her mane and tail were golden yellow and swirled as though someone had stirred them with a long honey coated spoon. Setting down the hovering tool, the unicorn set about examining the room ahead. Clearly this had been some kind of waiting room and reception, broken furniture was piled in one corner while a weathered desk occupied the far end. Small clouds of dust spun from the floor in rivulets as she picked her way across the groaning floorboards, hooves clicking against the aged wood as she absorbed every detail of the scene.

'Oh my Celestia,' She giggled excitedly 'Would you look at this place!'

Trotting around the confined space, Maple Scoops turned back to the doorway, her grin as wide as a giddy filly on her birthday.

'Sweetie, isn't this incredable!'

[Pony_Sage]

The silhouette of a tall but slight stallion could be seen with light streaming in around him. The light charcoal stallion poked his head into the building and looked about for a moment assessing the stability of the floor and roof. He gently pressed his hoof onto the floor boards testing to see if they would support his weight. The swirling dust began to cling to his white mane as he gingerly entered the office like room with the floor protesting to his intrusion beneath his hooves. He surveyed the room; broken furniture, dust, some form of a desk at the far end, darkness and oh wait more dust. He sneezed as a dust-bunny sneakily darted up his nose.

"My dear, I am afraid that if we look to hard at this place it will fall over with us inside." The stallion said dryly at the small smiling unicorn that was standing before him. He smirked at Maple's broad smile.

He trotted in past Maple and over to the weathered desk. He stood behind it and picked up a dusty and grimy glass off of the floor. His horn glowed a slight grey colour as the glass levitated in-front of him. He pilfered an equally filthy rag from another corner of the room. He 'cleaned' the glass with the rag as he put his fore-legs up on the counter in an imitation of a bar keeper.

"Welcome to Wood-Worms R Us! What can I get'cha little lady? How about a dust-bunny smoothie?" he asked Maple with a slight fake accent. He smiled at the mare, this was going to be a fun endeavor even if it would be a tonne of hard work.

[CherryRie]

Maple chuckled and leaned on the counter, mirroring her spouse 'How about an elbow grease shake?'

Pecking Symphony on the cheek, she pushed away from the desk laughing. Pillars of dust broke away from the ceiling at the resonance, showering the mare and the surrounding room.

Shaking the dust from her mane, she turned towards the double doors that adorned one wall 'Oh gosh, it's huge through here! Come see!'

Though the doors, a short corridor opened out into the main barn. Racks of forgotten fire fighting Tack adorned a locker area along one wall, leaving the long floor almost barren aside from the occasional bench or broken piece of office furniture. Above, rickety walkways merged against a slightly rotted balcony, picking out the edge of the offices above the entrance area. Surprisingly even the poll was still there, running from the offices to the tack lockers. It was dry, dirty, a death-trap and totally perfect.

'Can you believe no one ever tried to sell this place? A lick of paint and an exorcism or two and we'll be in business!'

[Pony_Sage]

As Maple laughed the dust of decades passed that fell onto the room made Symphony sneeze again.

"Well if the ice-cream idea doesn't work out we could always sell dust . . . and broken chairs. Where the fireponies actually firebuffalo?" He said as he eyes a pile of broken chairs in the corner of the office. He shook the dust off of his already wild mane and slowly followed Maple into the other room. He was still unsure if the floor would give out underneath of him. As he poked into the larger room he was actually taken aback a little by the grandeur of the structure. His mind always on the task at hand Symphony stated,

"Now we could either sell most of this stuff to collectors and their like and make a few bits to put back into this . . . . place. Or we could keep some of it, clean it up, and hang it on the walls and such."ÂÂ

He walked a little further into the room and poked at some of the equipment. Dust flew in his face causing him to cough and back up abruptly.

"When you get that exorcist on the phone, make sure to ask him to bring an entire fleet of brooms and dustpans if you would."ÂÂ

Symphony looked all over the room, illuminating some corners with a lantern that they had brought. The gears in his head were turning, he pondered what it would look like when they were finished. This place was perfect.

[CherryRie]

'I can almost see it already.' Said the coffee coloured pony, craning her neck to look up at the walkways 'Buld up the far end a little for backstage, knock through the downstairs offices and make it nice and open for the cafe. OH! There'd even be room for that self service ice-cream machine you mentioned! And best of all-'

Turning to the huge double doors, Maple began rap her magic around the bolts that held the oak structures closed. Hinges groaned, metal creaked and sparks began to leap from the unicorn's glowing horn.

'-The.. Ugh, The Vvvview-gwahh!' With a twang, Maple's magic relented to the rusted iron seals.

Gathering herself, the unicorn cleared her throat as though the action was intended all along.

'Ahem, yes, the view; After we get the doors fixed... suppose that's the least of our worries though.' She added, gazing around the falaun structure. 'Never go after things half heartedly do we?'

For a moment the giddiness subsided as the full scale of the challange seemed to creep into the mare's thoughts.

'How in Equestria are we going to tackle this then?'

[Pony_Sage]

Symphony watched as the doors refused to budge, he made a mental note of that for later. He was compiling a list of things that they would need to get this place up and running, well at least so that it wouldn't fall apart if anypony talked too loudly. He watched the happiness slink away from Maple's countenance. A determined smile came across his muzzle as he walked up next to her.

"Nope, we never do, and we have yet to fail. We start with the small and move our way up to the bigger things." He paused for a moment as a load bearing beam groaned in protest of its burden.

"Actually, come to think of it we should start with some of the big things first." He said with a chuckle.

"Maybe you could keep your job at the sweets shop here in Canterlot for the time being, so we have some income. I could stay here and work on the barn. We will need: some 8x8 beams, lots of brooms and rubbish bags, nails, hammers, extra boards of all sizes, that exorcist, some elbow grease, and most importantly of all . . ." He hated to admit it, ". . . a little bit of help."ÂÂ

"Think of it as a an empty stave on a sheet of music. Just some lines not much to begin with eh? But once you start to fill in notes, it takes shape, the more notes the more clear the song becomes. And once all of the notes are filled in, you have a masterpiece and you didn't even know it! With some helping hooves, it will make the work go like you would not believe." Symphony continued.

He had never worked on rebuilding anything before, let alone an entire barn. He had lived a moderately comfortable life up until this point. Anypony looking at him though would have sworn that he had rebuilt many a home in his time. There was a look of determination emanating from him that could infect everypony standing with in eyesight.

"Hay, do you think we should take a look down the cellar?" Symphony asked Maple as he trotted over towards the rickety door which lead into the inky abyss of the basement. The door creaked open and almost fell off of its hinges.

"A-After you my dear." Symphony offered to Maple as he grimaced at the darkness.

[CherryRie]

'My hero.'

Maple sighed, rolling her eyes and taking control of the levitating lantern. With light source hovering a few feet ahead, the mare carefully examined the first few wooden stairs before stepping into the descending darkness. Chippings of powder like timber shed away from the unstable staircase with every click of her unshod hooves. Stone flags were steadily becoming visible when Maple spotted something twinkling in the pale light. Pausing to squint into the crevasse, a dozen tiny pinpoints stared at the visitor from the unseen floor below. 'What's that?' Curiosity clouding her judgement, the unicorn took an incautious step forward. With a scuttering of tiny feet the twinkling eyes fled in all directions

'Did you s-'

The lantern fell sudenly into the dark pressipice. Pulling on Maples tail, Symph dragged the mare back onto the remains of the stairs. Panting and clinging to her rescuer like her life depened on it, Maple stared at the hole through which she had almost fallen. Three whole steps had given way under her slight frame and now lay several meters below on the floor, along with the lantern.

'Blimy,' she chuckled, seeking solice in laughter 'That was a little too close.'

Briefly her horn glowed, lifting the lantern back up to their vantage. Its glass was cracked but thankfully the fireflies were still present, albeit buzzing furiously at the sudden shock they had just received. Maple glanced back down to the cellar floor, but the 'eyes' had vanished. Probably just rats. Big rats, but rats none the less.

'Maybe we should leave the cellar till later?'

Symph smiled uneasily 'Can I suggest a closer examination of the nearest exit?'

'I suppose that might be for the best' Maple conceded 'Well, let's at least have a peek upstairs first.'

With utmost caution the couple slowly climed the rickety stare case and picked their way back across the open barn floor. Next to the double doors through which they'd entered was another entrance to the offices and living quarters. There must have been two doors at one point, but one had long since deserted its hinges for a cosy retirement on the floorboards. As she thought about it, Maple realised there was a lot more space down here then there first appeared, the back portion of the building containing at least two separate offices and the old stairs up to the second floor. Thankfully these appeared to be in better condition than the last set they had encountered, though Symphony still insisted on going first to check the footing.

Within the upper level were yet more offices and a canteen. Given the gravitas the rest of the building seemed to hold these were all very plain, devoid of features or furniture and their windows boarded. Looking out over the barn floor was the balcony they had spotted from below, but this had clearly seen better days and Maple was unwilling to risk another fall.

All in all, the mare found herself quite disappointed given the excitement of their initial impressions. But the important thing was that there was potential here for something amazing... it was just, difficult to see at the moment. There was a lot more work that needed doing then she had realised, the whole place was falling down. Carpenters, architects, decorators and Celestia knew how many other hooves would be needed to get the Jam and Cream up and running. Maple could think of several offers of aid that would be snapped up the moment they got back to the apartment.

'Sorry, Sweetie. There's a lot more work to do than I thought there would be.' She muttered, offering a week smile to her stallion 'You're right, this place is falling to pieces. Maybe we should just see about the planning permission to have it pulled down, building something from scratch would probably be a lot easier than making this place safe.'

[sypmhs actions okayed by Pony_sage]

[Pony_Sage]

Symphony slowly walked around the room on the upper level. There was less dust up here but it was by far more frightening than the ground level. He gingerly approached the balcony and looked down.

"Oh my, this is an amazing view of the open floor of the barn, maybe we could put some tables up here as well." Symphony thought aloud.

Symphony's ears pricked back towards Maple as she spoke to him. She sounded even more uncertain now than she did before. He trotted up next to her and brushed against her side. He scanned the room again. There was a boarded up window that, at least Symphony thought, faced the valley and would look out over it. He walked over to the window and began to pry at the boards with the crowbar. They creaked and moaned as his magic pushed the tool against them. At one point it sounded as though the entire side of the barn would fall off into the valley below. Slowly but surely the boards came free and fell to the side. A soft orange glow filtered in through the broken and filthy glass that still hung in the window. Symphony sat down in front of it and looked over at Maple.

"I don't know about the whole tearing it down idea. I kind of like this old place. It has a certain charm to it, something that I can't place my hoof on." He said nonchalantly with a soft smile on his muzzle. He motioned for Maple to come take a seat next to him.