Tabitha awoke the next day. She made a quick breakfast, wishing she had access to her older, faster, food. Even if the food she made herself seemed healthier for her, there was the convenience factor.

Dressed, fed, and awake, Tabitha went hurriedly to the elevator to find a pony also waiting for it. It was Coco. "Oh, hello." She looked happier. "She took it very well."

"Got things straightened out then?"

"More than that," said Coco with building happiness. "She gave me a new job, which means I don't work for Polomare anymore. She's gone off with her friends, though I do hope to see her again. She's a much nicer peer than Polomare could hope to be."

Tabitha had never met the other pony, but that seemed an easy task. She stepped into the elevator with Coco and they both rode to the first floor. Coco trotted out the door as Tabitha headed for the office.

There were many sheets of paper that looked like they were shoved under the door the night before. She browsed them quickly and found many names, each more whimsical than the last. They had arrival and departure dates and she sighed at them. She would make money, but she'd have to earn it. "This isn't a damn hotel," she grumbled to herself, but she had no one to blame. She saw the money, and she took it. She only had herself to point a finger at.

At the bottom of the list, probably first shoved under the door, were two sponsor-level tickets to the event with a little note.

Thanks for making your building available for our con goers to use. We can't offer anything, as a con, except these tickets. You deserve more, but please accept them and know you made a lot of ponies of many races happy.

Keeping it Upright,
Manehattan Bipedcon

The letter had a stationery that showed all three types of pony standing upright and waving behind the words. She squinted as she imagined if people had cons where they ran around on all fours. That would be... curious. She set the paper and its tickets aside on her desk and fished out keys to go with each paper to plan for the future.

Plans had to be advanced... She moved out to the phone in the lobby and quickly called the repair crew. "Hello there. Look, I'm going to have temporary tenants, so I want the fixes to the visible things pushed to the top of the list."

"That'll be extra..."

Tabitha sighed, but it's not as if she hadn't used the exact same line. "Get on it."

"You got it. We'll be over in about an hour and get to work."

She hung up and nodded, that was one thing she felt confident in. The work done for the roof was solid and they all seemed dependable people.

The front door pushed open as Razz entered. He saw her and cringed. He edged around her. "I'd leave, um, miss, but I used the last of my money moving in here..."

The statement confused Tabitha a little. "How'd you end up with those tickets?"

He fidgeted in place, clearly hiding something.

Tabitha huffed. "Start being honest."

"Alright, fine... Some, uh, friends got them for me."

She offered him a hand and he quickly closed the distance and nuzzled it.

"Sorry," he said, muffled by the hand. "I... I'm not a pervert."

He really was like a big talking dog at times, or so Tabitha thought. "Look, it was the middle of the night." She waved back to the office. "I have over two dozen people that'll be here today. It was bad timing all around, but if you don't have a job, how do you plan to pay for next month?"

He glanced away and back up at her. "I was looking for a job. I could help out around here? I mean, I have wings, you, um, don't. Not ones that work anyway. I'll clean windows and clear gutters and..."

She leaned forward a little, looming over him. "What happened at your last job?" There was a lot that could be told about a person from how they went from employed to not, and he started to look quite guilty. "Did you slack off?"

"No!" He waved his wings in a sharp negative. "I was one of the best workers he had!"

"And yet, here you are, not working for him." He looked all the more miserable. "Truth."

"Truth," he sighed out. "I... let my friends do something they shouldn't, They kinda, um, took some things that didn't belong to them..."

It was all coming to a stark sort of relief. "Was one of them a unicorn, female, could paralyze?"

He blinked at that and rolled his ears back. "Wh-- I mean yes! Yes... truth, right?"

"Right..." She put a hand to the side of her head. "Your 'friend' tried to kill or kidnap me last night, not to mention stealing a ticket from a little girl." He sagged in place, looking quite miserable. "I'm alright." He perked a bit at that. "But that's beside the point. Why do you have 'friends' like that? It sounds like they cost you, and keep right on costing you, a lot."

He sat up tall even if he was silent a moment.

The front door pulled open and admitted the trio from the repair company. On seeing her, Heavy approached first. "Hey! We're going to go right down the list. You seem like an honest sort, and we hope we've proven reliable, so we'll give you bills as each thing is done. You have thirty days to pay, alright?"

Thirty days? She could work with that. "Go ahead. Thanks for taking this on with such short notice."

"It'll be on the bill," she reported cheerfully as they went off to get working on the building.

Tabitha looked back to see Razz smiling at her. "Hey. You have a lot of rooms that need cleaning. Can I do that?"

"We haven't finished this." She let it go though. There were too many things that needed doing. "Start with the first floor and we'll see how it turns before we consider the second, alright." She escorted him to the keys and gave him a door key to all the rooms except the one being lived in. "Dust, clean stains, keep it simple. I'm not asking for repair jobs. If you see something that looks like it needs fixing, let me know which room and what."

He gave a sharp salute with a wing. "I'll get it done before you even realize I'm gone." He dashed away before she could respond.

"You appear troubled." It was the monster from the second floor, gazing at her with his piercing eyes. "Did you find a troubling intersection?"

He knew? Of course he knew. "Look, can you tell me anything about this place? I mean, the building I grew up with didn't have spells on it or eldritch horrors behind random doors." A dangling thought bothered her. What if the repair ponies or Razz wandered into those horrors?

He nodded slowly. "You are unaware of what you guard? During the daylight hours, you are safe in part. When the sun hides, so should you. Do your duty as caretaker and harm shall avoid you." He turned to leave, offering no more answers no matter how loudly she asked them and was soon gone.

Tabitha let out a little sigh. It was clearly day, so the repair crew and Razz were probably safe, that was good. She owned a house of horrors, that was less good. There was still the question if the temp... Ah! She hurried to the office and got to drafting.

For each paper, she wrote up a quick and temporary agreement that required their signature. She'd make them as official as possible to make things move the way they had to. Having even one of them snapped up by a creature beyond comprehension would look bad for her and the building.

A soft clopping at the door made her look up to see a bright purple pony with a green unicorn and pegasus. They all came in and explained they were going to the con and would be staying together.

She found the paper for one of them, but it didn't have the other two... "I'll need you all to sign this, one under the other." She slid the paper to them, waiting to see if it worked.

The unicorn signed first, then gasped.

The pegasus tilted their head at the unicorn before signing and joining in the gaping at Tabitha.

The regular pony was last, shaking their head. "It's rude to stare." With a scribble, their name was added, only for the pen to fall to the desk. "Oh wow..."

Tabitha held up her hands. "Before you freak out--"

"Wow? Did you say wow?" asked the pegasus as she soared right over the desk. "Leave it to the con to get a real biped to run the overflow hotel! We really won out." She extended a hoof. "Nice to meet you, miss...?"

"Tabitha," she offered, having to shake hooves with each of them. They weren't horrified. They were delighted. One of them wanted to take a picture, but the picture just showed a pegasus with them. This made them sad, but it was Tabitha's first real chance to see her pegasus self.

Her wings were tucked in tight and she smiled the pony way. She wanted to know more about her pony side, but there was work to do. "Mind if I keep this?" They didn't care, since it didn't show the mythical human they were with.

No sooner did she send them off did the next pony come. She got many excited squeals, some cries of being a faker, and at least two marriage proposals. There was no doubt which convention they were all going to, as none of them left unhappy to see a human among them, even if some were convinced it was an illusion, magical or not.

Razz poked his head in. "First floor's cleared." He returned all the keys dutifully. "Should I start on the second?"

"Is this where the human's hiding?" asked a pony, head shoved right over Razz's and frowning as he saw a pegasus, not a human.

Tabitha waved a pen at the new pony. "Only temporary residents get to see that. Are you staying with us?"

"I have a room, thanks..." He wandered off with a pout, but it did prove one thing.

Tabitha imagined bits raining from the sky a moment. She would fill all her rooms for a few days, collecting half a month's rent for a few day's stay.

"Tabby?" Razz was still looking at her. He blushed. "S-sorry! Tabitha. Miss Tabitha."

She wanted to be angry at him, no, furious on some levels, but she just couldn't manage it on seeing his worried expression. "You're fine, Razz. I need you to double time it. You have permission to clean out the entire building, minus the occupied rooms. In fact, I have payment..."

"What? I mean, I don't need anything. Staying here is enough..." He shuffled awkwardly.

"That's not how it works." She slid a paper across the desk, a ticket attached. "You do the work, you get paid. I just have one condition."

His eyes lit up as he saw what the ticket was exactly. "Yeah?"

"No more of those 'friends' of yours. They're not friends. They're trouble."

He winced as if stung. "They are my friends... I knew them since I was a colt."

"Maybe as kids," She pulled the paper back. "You grew up, they went a different way. Do you really want a friend that'd steal from a little child like that?"

"Well, no..." He turned for the door. "Look, I'll get to cleaning, alright. See you later Tab-- Miss Tabitha."

Author's Notes:

We get tantalizing hints, and Tabitha becomes a new attraction, at least to ponies going to this convention. How many folks remember this con?

Why are relationships so full of typos!?