A lot happened after Crown Jewel died.

I hadn't heard it during the fighting, but the cops had arrived in force. Apparently, a mole in the F.C.P.D had lured Calla and Cammy into an ambush by Nightingale's colts. They'd managed to grab Calla, but Cammy's tougher than she looks; she knocked the crooked cop on his ass and took off. Once she got back, the department was ready to go to war with the Union, but Cammy thought fast and grabbed my case notes from my office. With everything pointing at Crown Jewel, the chief leaned on one of the judges and got a warrant for his arrest.

When the doors to Crown's private sanctum burst open, I was expecting a mob of angry and heavily armed guards. Instead, it was Cammy and a squad of the colts in cobalt. I'd never been so happy to see a heartless adulteress in my entire life, and I told her so. (She wasn't appreciative.)

Nightingale got pretty banged up in her fight, but she gave worse than she got. By the time Boulder and Hornet pulled her off of Blackguard, the big unicorn had gotten himself a permanent lazy eye and a whole bunch of internal bleeding. She stopped by to visit me in the hospital as she was being checked out. She made fun of my fighting skills and called me a cream puff. She also told me I'd held up my end of the bargain, so we were even...but she'd be keeping an eye on me.

Calla was pretty well traumatized by the whole ordeal, and it didn't help when Silver's body finally turned up in the Starswirl River. However, she got a pretty nice consolation prize: Silver had thought to update his will before that fateful night, and he'd left his entire estate to her. She'd lost a brother and gained a fortune.

Hot Air got to walk. I didn't say anything about his involvement in Crown Jewel's scheme; it was the least I could do for saving Calla's life. He stopped by to apologize to me on my last day in the clinic, and said that he had a lot of soul-searching to do. He wanted to live up to the examples the Coins had set. I read in the paper the next day that he'd liquidated all of his assets and given them to various city charities. Then he vanished without a trace.

I, meanwhile, returned to my office a week later. To my surprise, it was clean; cleaner than it had ever been. The walls were freshly painted, my filing cabinets had been scraped free of rust, and somepony had even replaced the ceiling fan with a newer model that didn't creak so damned much. Even the frosted glass on my door was fixed, though the font spelling out my name looked a bit classier.

I paced around the office in wonderment, not sure what to make of it all. I didn't even realize I wasn't alone until somepony coughed politely.

There stood Calla Lily, clad in a simple but attractive white dress and matching purse. She sauntered towards me, a mischievous look in here eyes.

"Calla," I said in surprise. "You did all this?"

"Well, I hired the ponies who did it, yes. I'm rich now."

"I'd heard." I settled back against my desk. "What can I do for you?"

"I came here to give you this." She reached into her purse and placed a small envelope on my desk.

I looked at it in curiosity, opened it, read it, and immediately dropped it in surprise. "Calla, you don't owe me that much-"

She put a hoof to my mouth. "I owe you everything, Mr. Glass. I owe you my life."

I rubbed at the back of my neck, my cheeks flushing in reaction to her closeness. "I just did what I had to do. Besides, it was Hot Air who-"

She pressed her lips to mine. I went rigid for a moment, then relaxed and sank into it, just enjoying the kiss. We separated a small eternity later.

"Uh, well," I stammered. "Okay, I guess I can accept it, but it's really gonna play hell with my tax return-"

"Shut up," she told me, and we kissed again.

They call Fillydelphia the City of Filial Love. It's a long way from that. But for all the problems this town has, it's my town. And underneath the dirt and grime, if you look hard enough, you can find something worth living for.

Just stay away from the freaking politics.