The Broken House

"Did'ja hear the gossip?" Carrot Top asked as the front door opened.

Cheerilee took off her sun hat, hanging it on the rack by the door as she kicked it closed with a back hoof, "No?"

"Flitter told me this morning," Carrot Top said casually, sitting back in her favorite recliner and watching Cheerilee as she came in, "Our neighbor's actually doing his lawn, and he scheduled work with the contractors in town to tear out all that water damage and black mold."

"Oh, that's great!" Cheerilee smiled, going over to the kitchen to grab a cup of water, "We should go visit him today! See how he's doing!"

"Should I bring my toolbox again?" Carrot Top asked, trying and failing to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

"Hey! You were the one who volunteered to go fix something last time!" Cheerilee retorted, the sounds of the faucet in the kitchen ending as she poked her head out through the archway. She gave a cheeky grin as she added, "I'll bring my own things to help out with as well."

It was a hot, summer's day at around four PM when they arrived at Lancer's front gate. The sun was still merciless, but was relenting more and more with each passing week. Autumn was only a month away now. The old, cold house watched them as they approached as it always did and watched as they clambered over the front gate, which was still too choked with weeds to be moved.

Things were different this time though. On the other side of the gate was freshly cut, if uneven, grass. One could even see where a few stepping-stones had been laid out in times long past, joining the patio steps to the front gate. Tall grass still flanked Cheerilee and Carrot on their left as they walked, but if they looked right it was almost like it was a normal, if scruffy yard. Carrot Top spared a passing glance towards a set of cellar doors in the side yard, which had been left wide open.

"Lancer! It's your neighbors!" Cheerilee shouted as they mounted the steps. Raising her hoof, she rapped on the door, which was now properly closed due to Carrot's know-how.

"Hey. I saw the cellar doors open. You think he might be in-" Carrot started, before stopping herself as hoofsteps sounded from beyond the door. Straightening up, she cut herself off, "Ah, nevermind."

Lancer opened the door. He was now wearing a dust mask, the cloth panels of it stained thoroughly with black and brown. His eyes were no longer red, his mane was cut shorter in a much more handsome, less vagrant-like fashion. Cheerilee might've even though he looked rather nice, if it weren't for the overpowering body odor drifting from him, and the grass stains almost completely covering his legs up to his hocks.

"Hi..." he greeted in his usual, quiet way.

"I see you started on your yard," Cheerilee smiled, "Looking good so far! Thought we'd come over and give a hoof!"

Carrot Top's eyes were caught by a red, motorized lawn mower sitting on the patio. Nodding towards it, she asked, "That looks new. Did'ja buy it for the lawn job?"

"Uh, yeah," Lancer nodded, reaching up and raking a hoof through his mane nervously, "But uh, it broke, I think."

Cheerilee blinked, looking at the mower as well, then back at him, "Well, that's not a huge surprise," she noted, "For grass this long, you should use a string trimmer. That kind of blade just won't do, and it's not like you're mowing a buckball court or something"

"A... string trimmer?" Lancer's face contorted in confusion behind his mask, "What's that?"

"Weedwhacker?" Carrot Top offered. At his continued blank stare, she fell to her haunches and used her forehooves to mime out its dimensions, "It's got a motor on the back, and then a long shaft leading to a head which has two plastic strings attached. The head spins and the strings cut through grass?"

"Oh," Lancer blinked, believing he'd seen it at least once utilized by the earth pony groundskeepers at the castle, "Yeah, okay I know what you're talking about," a pause, before he added, "Sorry. I don't have a lawn to take care of back in the city. The last time I had to mow a lawn was when I was still with my parents."

"No worries!" Cheerilee smiled, "If you want, we can fetch our string trimmer and help you out!"

"Oh, you don't need to do that!" he held up a hoof, eyes widening, "At most I'll just borrow your trimmer! I can handle my own yard."

Cheerilee shrugged, "Oh, I'm sure you can. But I'd like the chance to talk a bit more, and we may as well do some work while we're at it!"

"And I can help fix something if you want," Carrot offered.

At that, Lancer raised a hoof to his chin, "Your name's Carrot Top, right?"

Carrot nodded.

"And... your cutie mark is carrots."

Carrot nodded again.

Lancer narrowed his eyes, "What, uh, what about all that made you wanna become a handypony?"

Carrot Top's smile turned into a frown, "Does your cutie mark need to tell you what you do as a career?" she asked flatly.

"I mean, I guess not-"

"Does your cutie mark tell you to make shields with moon symbols on it? Or to go be a guard?" she pressed, "Does Cheerilee's cutie mark tell her to go and grow dandelions and smile all day?"

"No..." Lancer answered, wilting slightly.

"I like eating carrots, I like baking with them, I like my family who farm carrots. Doesn't mean I gotta go and grow carrots for the rest of my life," Carrot Top said, crossing her forelegs, before adding quietly, "Even if I might be anyway."

Cheerilee gave her friend a concerned look, before glancing between her and Lancer.

"I didn't mean any offense..." Lancer responded, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"None taken!" Carrot Top brightened again, a bit more determined, "Anything you need fixing?"

Lancer relented to the offer for help and looked to Carrot Top, "There is actually a pipe that was broken in the back yard. I switched the water off, but that also kinda switched off the water in the upstairs bathroom."

Plumbing was not exactly Carrot Top's area of expertise, but she supposed as long as it was just broken it couldn't be that complicated, "That doesn't... sound like very wise piping. Show me the broken pipe, I can fix it."

Lancer stepped past them, leading them down the patio steps and around to the side yard. Cheerilee frowned as the stallion suddenly froze at the sight of the opened cellar in the side yard, before he flew forward and slammed both doors shut. Looking back at them, he paused for a moment, before lowering his head and seemingly refusing to comment as he proceeded onwards to the back yard. Carrot Top and Cheerilee shared a look, before mutually shrugging and following.

A pipe sat in a pool of black, aromatic mud in the back yard. Closing one eye and peering at the jagged edge of the pipe, Carrot Top hummed, "...Looks like it was just really old when it was installed. Should be fixed if you just replace it. I uh," she looked to the toolbox on her back, "Don't make a habit of carrying around PVC piping of random widths with me, though. You'd need to find a part in town."

"Ah, well guess that's for another da-" Lancer began, before Cheerilee cut him off.

"Hey, here's a plan," she suggested, "You can get to town and back in a half an hour. Why don't we go back to our place and grab a ladder and our string trimmer while you run - or fly, rather - to the hardware store? That'll let me get the high-up windows and when you're back, you can use the trimmer while we're here to get some more progress on the yard!"

Carrot Top nodded along, "Just look for a few lengths of 15 millimeter PVC. I can cut it down once you bring it back, and we'll have extra for if there's any other leaks."

Lancer frowned, "You sure?"

Cheerilee nodded, smiling, "And we can start before you get back. It's faster to walk to our place and back than for you to fly to town."

"Okay..." Lancer nodded slowly, "Sounds good... I'll get my wallet and go. When you get back, don't go into the basement or any of the rooms upstairs... okay?"

Neither of them were planning to invade his privacy in the first place, but the mention specifically of the basement combined with the hurried closing of the cellar doors did pique Cheerilee's curiosity. Still, she simply nodded, "I mean, of course!"

Lancer took a quick trot back around to his patio, grabbing his stuff before dashing off into the skies. The two watched him go for a moment, before walking towards the gate to head back to their place. After they were over the gate, Carrot Top commented, "You think you could keep up with him if you two went steady?"

Cheerilee slapped Carrot Top on the shoulder lightly, "Oh phoo! Stop with that," she demanded as Carrot Top broke out into a fit of giggles. Tossing her mane indignantly as they started on the trail, she added, "And it's not even the first pegasus coltfriend I'd've had!"

"So you admit it then?" Carrot Top negged.

"No. I don't even know how he feels," Cheerilee dismissed, "Which might be for the best right now. He's got some of his own problems."

A twenty minute walk to their house and back had the two of them hauling their string trimmer and extension ladder back to Lancer's house. Lancer still wasn't back yet, so while Carrot Top re-stringed the trimmer's head, Cheerilee set up the ladder to access one of the second floor windows. Climbing up, she kept her saddlebags filled with disinfectant spray and cloths.

The thought came to her that the pegasus was probably better suited for doing the high up windows than she was, balancing on the top few rungs of a ladder. However, she also wasn't the biggest fan of using the loud, noisy string trimmer. Especially not after she watched a movie once where the strings knocked a rock through somepony's eye and killed them. With those memories swirling uncomfortably in the back of her head, she was satisfied with wiping down some glass and enjoying the view.

Sweat came quickly, exposed to the sun and working her muscles to scrub what had to be years of built up muck off of the windows. She got a total of two windows done from one ladder position, wiping them clear enough that it was only the gunk on the inside of the panes that were slightly limiting visibility. Descending again, she moved the ladder over to a set of two other windows and climbed to them.

One of the two was a small, slitted pane of glass that she assumed lead into a bathroom of some kind. The other one was a full pane, which she could see through the smearing as leading into a bedroom. Working on the bathroom window first and dumping a well dirtied rag into her bag, she took out a fresh cloth for the bedroom. She got a single section of the pane clear and began to work on the others, idly looking through the cleared section as she did.

Inside was a queen-sized bed, a writing desk, a wardrobe, a bean bag, and a closed door on the far side of the room. Not paying it much mind, she proceeded to finish the next section of the pane, before the flapping of wings and a hoof suddenly grasping her shoulder made her gasp in shock.

"Hey!" Lancer suddenly shouted, hovering right next to her, "What're you doing!?"

Cheerilee stumbled, but fortunately the pegasus grabbed the edge of the ladder, keeping it from wobbling as she regained her balance. The spray bottle fell to the grass below with a distant thunk. Looking towards Lancer in surprise, she said, "Cleaning windows?"

"That's her room! That's private. Didn't anypony teach you to not spy on other ponies secret stuff!" he shouted, nose almost a few inches from scrunching into Cheerilee's.

"Huh!?" Cheerilee asked, baffled as she descended down the ladder, trying to get back to the earth where she felt safer, "I was cleaning the windows! Like I told you I would!"

Lancer's mood seemed to flip on a dime as he peered through the half-cleaned window and he quickly seemed to become regretful. Raking a forehoof back through his mane, causing it to stand upwards for a second, he said, "W-Well... Stop! I mean, don't stop! I- I'm sorry. That was really rude..."

Now at the base of the ladder, Cheerilee raised an eyebrow, muzzle deep into a frown, "You know. Shouting at someone who's trying to clean for you isn't a really good way to get them to like you."

"That's- yeah, okay. That's just a- there's a lot of private stuff upstairs, okay?" Lancer winced, hovering back slightly, "I can do the upstairs windows myself anyway," a pause, before he repeated, "I'm sorry."

Cheerilee's eyebrow raised farther, "Ooookay..."

Carrot Top rounded the corner, the re-strung and fueled string trimmer along her back, "Everything okay over here?"

Lancer hesitated, leaving Cheerilee to be the first to answer, "We're okay."

"Well, uh, the trimmer's ready. I'm gonna go cut up the PVC that Lancer brought and get to work on tidying up that leak in the back yard," Carrot Top said, shrugging off the nervous looks the two were giving to each other and dropping the trimmer off by the wall.

As Carrot walked back out of sight, Lancer turned towards Cheerilee, "I guess I'll take over the upstairs window if you want to use the trimmer?"

Cheerilee grimaced, "I'm... rather scared of it, and I don't like the loud noise. I could do the bottom floor windows and maybe something inside?"

"Sure?" Lancer shrugged, "You don't have to do anything, y'know."

"Well I gotta stay until you're finished with our trimmer, silly," she snorted, "And I dunno. Your house is lovely and all, but the inside isn't exactly the best place to kick back and laze around. So, what else am I gonna do?"

"I dunno what they put in the water supply here to make you ponies so friendly, but I guess I'll take it," Lancer said, trotting over and foisting the string trimmer on.

As Lancer turned the trimmer on and started on the left side of the front yard, Cheerilee retrieved her spray bottle and got to work on the ground floor windows. The rapidly spinning strings at the head of the mower made headway much faster and easier than the ground-based model did. Shafts of grass fell in droves, and in ten minutes Lancer had made more progress than he had with the traditional mower in thirty.

Without the need to bother with the ladder, Cheerilee made much faster headway with the windows. One window in particular, the one leading into the kitchen, seemed to have already been cleaned from the inside and was completely transparent once she finished her job on the outside. Through the glass, she saw her winter rose, still green and leafy, sitting on the counter. She gave it a smile, and it almost seemed to perk up.

As Cheerilee rounded the corner to work on the front-facing windows and Lancer made his way halfway down the side yard, Carrot Top made an appearance, signalling to Lancer to cut off the trimmer as she walked up to him. As the angry, little motor died, her voice finally became audible.

"I replaced the broken section. Can you turn the water back on, to see if there are any other leaks further down the line?" she asked.

Lancer frowned, giving a look to the cellar door, just a few feet to his right, "...Is that really necessary?" he asked.

"Um..." Carrot Top blinked at the odd question, "Yeah? I guess? You're gonna need to turn it on anyway to take a shower, right?"

"Okay, uh..." Lancer looked over his shoulder to Cheerilee, who had paused her wiping of the leftmost window on the front to idly watch the conversation, "Why don't you check up on your friend?"

Taking the hint, no matter how weird, Carrot Top walked towards the school teacher as Lancer took off his harness and laid the string trimmer down. As she boarded the patio and walked up to Cheerilee, the sounds of the cellar doors squealing open coming from around the corner, she noted, "Sheesh. What's his problem?"

"I know, right?" Cheerilee said, slightly perturbed as she continued to scrub some more muck off the window.

"I'm half expecting he's hiding a body down there or something," Carrot whispered.

"Oh, probably not," Cheerilee shook her head, turning over her cloth to the non-dirtied side as she scraped some gunk out of the groove where the window pane met the sill, "More likely just something private."

"You know the clueless mares are always the first to have their hides stolen and sewn into sweaters, right!?" Carrot Top hissed, half-joking.

Lancer poked his head out from between the two cellar doors, trying very clearly to obscure what was down the stairs behind him, "I opened the valve!" he shouted.

"Okay!" Carrot Top said, going down the stairs and back through the side yard. After a moment, she shouted back, "Looks all good!"

"Great..." Lancer mumbled, pushing through the cellar doors and closing them properly behind him. Picking up the trimmer again, he was once again approached by Carrot.

"So, uh, anything else need fixing?" she asked, her toolbox back on her back.

"Uhm," he scratched the back of his head, "Do you do electricity?"

"I'd rather not do electricity, thanks," Carrot quipped, before adding, "But no, I'm not an electrical engineer."

"Oh, uh..." Lancer hesitated. He'd hoped she could look at the sparking kitchen outlet. Looking to the trimmer in his hooves, he asked, "Maybe you could take this, so I can do the upstairs windows?"

"Sure," Carrot said, reaching out a hoof to take it. It was far from her first lawn care job.

As Cheerilee continued with the downstairs windows, Lancer took flight and continued her work on the second floor. Conveniently, he started on the opposite side from the half-completed bedroom window, working his way clockwise around the house as Cheerilee worked in the same direction. The side yard was quickly mowed to an acceptable length, with Carrot Top taking a short break to fetch water and add new string to the trimmer before getting back to work. Cheerilee took a break while the back yard was trimmed, taking a drink of water from the kitchen faucet.

An entire two hours had passed since their first arrival when the engine of the trimmer finally shut off. The trimmer's strings couldn't whack closely to the grass choking the picket fences or the gate, but the entire yard was at an acceptable length. The only part that was an eyesore were the mounds of cut grass left over. Its pleasant scent filled the air as the last windows were polished off at around the same time.

"Wow..." Lancer breathed as he finally came to land, looking at the lawn, "The house looks completely different without all that grass."

Carrot Top, who had retreated to the patio with the trimmer to catch the shade and rest, commented, "You'll need another pass to mow a line around the outside of your fences, or else you're never gonna get those fences clear. But yeah, you got a really nice, big lawn here."

Cheerilee, for her part, looked up at the house itself, "You know, all it needs is a fresh coat of paint to look perfect... at least from the outside."

Indeed, while the fact that the fences were visible and the mown grass was light and green added a lot to the property's appeal, the grey, peeling paint of the house itself cemented an air of decrepitness and emptiness. Perhaps a red would stand out well against the rolling, green hills? No, that might make it look too farmhouse-y. She wasn't the homeowner anyway.

"You girls should really let me pay you back for this," Lancer said, reaching for his wallet that he still had on him from his quick shopping trip.

"You're already paying us back by fixing up this place. Everypony knows that having abandoned buildings nearby drops the property value," Cheerilee noted in an overtly serious tone.

Lancer seemed to nod for a moment, before he furrowed his brow, "Wait. Didn't you say you rented your place as housemates?"

Cheerilee gave a cheeky grin, causing Lancer to let out a soft chuckle. Looking over her shoulder, she said, "There's one more thing we just gotta do before we go home, though."

"...What's that?" Lancer asked.

"Cut the grass around this damn gate," Cheerilee said, turning around and placing a forehoof on the top of his front gate. Wiggling it back and forth, it refused to move from the grass tangling it, "I'd rather walk out of this place without needing to clamber over it like I'm the clueless sidekick of Daring Do stumbling into an ancient temple!"

"I'll do some raking, I guess," Carrot Top said, getting up and gesturing towards the brand new wheelbarrow and rake Lancer had bought the previous day.

Lancer got onto his haunches next to the gate to pull the grass trapping the gate by hoof, noting as he did so, "Okay. So what did they put in the water to make you ponies so industrious as well?"

That got a laugh from Cheerilee as she sat down as well, "Well we've already started on the lawn work. Why leave a job half done? We should probably do all the raking before we leave too."

Lancer grimaced, thinking back to all the jobs he'd left half done throughout his lifetime and keeping silent. He supposed country ponies were just built different. Bracing himself against a fencepost, he pulled at a bundle of grass. The thick, jungle-like mass came free, along with part of its roots and a good clump of dirt and nearly sent Lancer flying onto his back. Taking a breath and throwing the grass aside, he looked over to see Cheerilee yanking a similarly-sized bundle of grass clear and throwing it over her shoulder like it was nothing.

She took notice of his shocked stare after a moment and chuckled, "Hehe, don't feel so bad. You're not an earth pony, and this kind of grass is real hardy and unique to the Everfree area," she paused, before adding, "Oh and don't use it for hay, trust me."

"Wouldn't know how to do that anyway," Lancer commented, using two hooves to yank another bundle free.

"You're kidding, right?" Cheerilee paused, incredulously, "You know hay is dried grass, right!?"

"Made you think," Lancer smiled, feeling victorious at finally turning a joke back on the mare.

Cheerilee stuck out a tongue in a manner more befitting her students than herself. Raising a hoof to her mouth in embarrassment, she turned back to her work. After a while, it turned out that not all the grass could be removed from their side of the gate, and Lancer flew over to continue from the other side.

Looking up at Lancer through the gate, she said, "You know, there's a way you can actually pay us back."

"Oh?" Lancer said, not looking up from the nearly completed task, "I'm all ears."

"There's a barbeque down at our place on Sunday night, around six PM," Cheerilee offered, "You should come. There'll be carrot dogs."

Lancer's ears flattened and he paused his work, "...Will there be other ponies there?"

Cheerilee smiled, "Why? You scared?" she teased.

"N-No. Just, don't like big gatherings..." he mumbled.

"Well, it's your choice," Cheerilee shrugged, getting up as she yanked the last clump free, "It'll just be me, Carrot Top, her cousin and like... two of my friends."

Five ponies. Certainly less intimidating than the town-wide gathering that was his welcome party. As much as he wanted to give an excuse... his neighbors had done an incredible amount of work for practically no reward. He'd feel like a terrible pony if he refused to go to a barbeque with free food and no lawn work, the exact opposite of what all their visits to his house had been so far.

So, plastering on his best smile, he nodded, "Okay. Sounds fun."

"Great! See you there," she smiled.

The gate was wooden and wide enough to fit a wagon through. There was a simple metal latch that held it shut that, fortunately, was made out of a metal that wasn't able to rust. Swinging the latch open, he pushed the gate and it swung open, out into the yard where the cobblestones lead to the patio steps. Going to the trimmer, he started it and quickly chopped back the tall grass between the gate and the road, obliterating a few waterlogged pieces of fallen mail at the same time. Cheerilee took a quick trot out the gate and back in again, grinning.

"This really is like those home improvement shows," she giggled, "Too bad we didn't get any 'Before' photos!"

"Yeah..." Lancer gave a small smile, leaning on a fencepost as he watched Cheerilee's excited, little trot.

Carrot Top, drenched in sweat and hauling a wagon full of cut grass behind her, came around the corner and shouted, "You two gonna get a room or are you gonna come help deal with some of this grass instead!?"

The sun began to set as they cleaned up the cut grass. On the other side of the road from the house was a small but steep embankment, making for a convenient place to dump the detritus grass. An inedible haystack slowly grew as the yard was cleared, and finally the time came for the two neighbors to head on home.

Waving goodbye, Cheerilee shouted, "See you on Monday, Lancer!" as they started down the road.

Waving back, Lancer shouted, "I'll be there!"

He watched as they disappeared over the hill and into the sunset. Sighing, he turned around, allowing himself a stroll through his lovely lawn to the patio steps. As he entered his house, locking his door behind him, he went to the faucet to get a long, lukewarm drink after a long day of work. Taking a glass, he remembered to upend a cup of water onto the houseplant before he went upstairs to the bathroom.

After cleaning up, he went to bed. For once, he was asleep early.