Yo-Yo Spinners looked out over Manehatten from the roof of the second tallest building in the city. A faint glow of orange highlighted the star studded sky, making the night appear like a sunset in one of those greeting cards. To his left sat his friend and former co-owner High Rise. They had met a few years earlier and started the Yo-Yo and Rise emporium of candy, toys and military grade munitions. The last one wasn't one of their smarter ideas. High Rise was currently curled into a fetal position, crying and mumbling about fate and how destiny hated him. Yo-Yo thought he could do with some cheering up so turned to his friend.
“Beautiful night sky, don’t ya think?” he said to his roof mate.
High Rise, still in the fetal position, turned his head and glared at Yo-Yo. Well, at least he wasn't rocking and mumbling anymore.
“What?” asked Yo-Yo in response to the glare, “You can’t say its not pretty.”
“Pretty!?” said Rise, fuming as he moved towards Yo-Yo. “You think the sky is pretty? What about the sky is so damn pretty, hmm?”
Yo-Yo stepped back as Rise began prodding him with his hoof.
“Please, tell me what is so pretty. Is it the stars? How about the city? Or, I don’t know, the glowing ball of fire and death encompassing this building and trapping us on the roof?”
“Well, it does kinda make it look like a sunset.”
“How can you think about the sky in a situation like this? WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!!!”
Rise began panicking and running back and forth on the roof. trying to spot an escape from the impending death-ball-of-fire climbing its way up the building.
Yo-Yo rushed over and grabbed his friend. “Calm down colt, get a hold of yourself,” adding a slap for good measure.
Rise stood wide eyed for a bit, a hoof holding his cheek. He turned to look at Yo-Yo. “You're right. I can’t panic at a moment like this.”
“Right? That’s my partner”
“If I panic, I won't have time to beat you senseless”, Rise jumped at Yo-Yo and tackled him to the ground. “This is all your fault. I said it was a bad idea to add munitions, but no, you said it would be fine.” Yo-Yo wrestled with him as he avoided punches aimed at his head. “You said it would put our names on billboards across Equestria. Yo-Yo and Rise on all the street corners. I should have never listened to you”
Yo-Yo managed to kick Rise off and put some space between them.
“Well, when you put it that way it sounds bad.”
“ARRRGHHH!!!”
“AGK!"
Yo-Yo jumped backwards from the lunge, but High Rise still managed to wrap his front legs around this neck.
"OK man, get off. I get it, OK? It’s my fault that we added that branch. It’s my fault we won’t have our names on billboards across Equestria. And it’s my fault we are stuck on the roof waiting for the building to collapse and kill us.” Rise let Yo-Yo go from his attempted headlock and lay down beside him. Both of them lay there and take a moment to catch their breaths and after a minute or so Yo-Yo turns to face his friend.
“I’m sorry.”
“...”
“You can keep hitting me if it will make you feel better.”
“No.”
“Oh, good cause I think it was starting to hurt there towards the end.”
Both sat there in awkward silence, until Rise just starts to chuckle. Yo-Yo gives him a befuddled look, and soon finds himself joining in. They both roll on the roof, with death mere floors below them, laughing like they had just heard the funniest joke in the world. After what seemed like hours, their laughter dies down to slight chuckles and then to just two friends smiling at nothing at all.
“I’m sorry too, Yo-Yo”
Yo-Yo turned his head, “For what?”
“I lied to you all these years. I was so desperate for someone to help me start my business, and after so many attempts I just changed it.”
“I don’t follow. Changed what?”
“My name isn’t High Rise, it’s High Low.”
“So that's why you wanted me to put my name on all the documents.”
“Yeah. Seems like my name is appropriate though. Reach a high point and life just has to bring me low again. Sorry I got you caught up in all of this.”
Yo-Yo lay still for a moment, then leaped to his hooves. “Nope, I don’t believe it.”
“It’s the truth Yo, I’m sorry.”
“Not that. I don’t believe that life has fated you and me to beaten like this. This is our lives, and destiny or fate can go buck itself if it thinks it can break us. We still got so much live for and ain’t nothing gonna stop us from living it.”
Rise looked over at his friend, a smile spread across his face. “Yeah, buck destiny, buck fate, and buck having to hide my name. I am High Low and we’ll make sure the world never forgets it.”
“That’s the spirit,” said Yo-Yo, pulling his friend into a tight hug. After a few moments they pushed apart.
“Well, I feel better, but we are still stuck on the roof about to die.”
“Oh yeah.” Yo-Yo chuckled.
“Hello up there? If there is anyone on the upper floor or roof, this is the Manehatten Fire Department. We have set up a landing pad, so you’re going to have to jump since we can’t get to you.”
High and Yo-Yo looked over the edge and see a large X marking the landing pad.
“We’ll, if we’re gonna get our names know throughout Equestria, we're gonna have to jump.”
“Yeah, time for Yo-Yo and Rise Emporiums to take that next step.”
“Nope, Yo and Lows Emporiums, right partner?” Yo-Yo held out his hoof. High Low looked at, then smiled and gave him a fist bump.
“Yeah, Yo and Lows. I like the sound of that.”
The both grabbed the others hoof, turned towards the edge and jumped.
Fire Chief Tall Blaze looked up at the towering inferno encompassing the upper floors of the Manehatten skyscraper. The buildings listing marked those as rented out by some start up producer of candy, toys and military munitions. Years of experience helped him know the cause almost instantly and he shook his head at how easily this could have been avoided. It's against fire code to produce stuffed bears so near rainbow gumdrops, but they went one step further and added unicorn dolls and rainbows...on the same floor. If it wasn't for the munitions production floor set between them, the whole building could have exploded. Fortunately it was a weekend and the building was empty save for the owners of previously mentioned company.
Tall Blaze put all that to the back of his mind, he had a job to do. He turned towards his pegasus squad and prepared to order them on an extraction mission to the roof where they believed the two occupants had fled. Before he could give his orders, a loud pop and a bright light temporarily blinding him.
"I'll be taking over here," came a voice from where the noise had originated.
Tall Blaze rubbed at his eyes to clear the spots and managed to finally see who had caused the commotion.
"Princess Sparkle!" he quickly bowed.
"Please don't bow, there is no need," she said as she walked towards him. "Who is in charge here?"
Blaze raised himself back to standing, "That would be me. Tall Blaze, fire chief of the Manehatten Fired Departement, East Division." He gave her a salute.
"Very good. As I said I'll be taking over the operations here. We will not be sending in a pegasus rescue squad," She took the time to survey the fire as she walked beside Blaze.
"I don't understand? We believe there are two citizens trapped on the roof, why are we not sending the pegasus squad?"
"Simple chief. What we have up on that roof is a F3 friendshipping event, and we need to ensure it doesn't get interrupted."
"Friendshipping event?" he asked puzzled.
"Thats right, and we need to make sure it completes itself. Thats why we will be using this," with that she pulled a tarp out of thin air and placed it near the base of the building. A few moments of magic later and it was completely inflated to the size of a small house, with a giant X marking the top.
"What do you plan to do with that? You don't seriously expect them to jump, do you?"
"Oh, I predict just that."
"But thats insane. They wouldn't survive a fall from that height even with that bounce house under them," said Blaze in exasperation.
Princess Twilight turned towards the chief, "Do you realize how powerful a near death experience is in building a friendship? It's basically the only way I build friendships now, it's that powerful." Twilight leaned forward into the chiefs face as she continued, "If we send a pegasus squad up there, they will be rescued and might end up as friends for a time, but they will slowly drift apart. Their friendship will not be as strong as it could be and it will break. They will go their separate ways, causing a weakening in the harmony of Equestria. If that happens, the elements might not be as powerful as they once were, resulting in them being unable to beat the next foe who wants to conquer equestria, plunge into eternal night, and cover it in low fat spaghetti sauce. Do you want to be the cause of Equestria being covered in spaghetti sauce?" Twilight poked Blaze with her hoof for emphasis.
Chief Blaze meekly shook his head.
Twilight smiled and gave the fire chief some space, "Good, now lets get this show on the road. I'm going to need you to read this into that bullhorn you have." She handed him a piece of paper.
Chief Blaze took his bullhorn and began, "Hello up there?" He gave a sideways glance at the princess, then continued, "If there is..."
Author's Note
Made because:
You'd also think that a fire department would, oh, be composed of weather pegasi who could just fly them off of the rooftop
So this chapter is for you horizon :D