//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6. Gotta Pay the Bills 
// Story: Dust on the Wind 
// by Sparky Brony 
//------------------------------//

As always, five o'clock in the morning comes way too quickly. I have always been a night owl, and ever since getting in the trade, I've had to fight my tendency to stay up late because I have to get up early. I pondered the Jim problem on the flight home, and I was barely aware of my wife coming home. But that damned alarm, that woke me up. The screeching alarm on my phone silences with me pressing the power button. It's Tuesday. I was able to send an email Sunday night saying I wouldn't be in Monday. But Tuesday is here, and I know the company can run just fine for a while without the boss, but I am needed there. Today I have a client meeting. So I get to let my employees know that I'm now a pony, but my clients will find out as well. I sigh as I strap my phone on next to my shoulder and clip on my Bluetooth headset. Though with this new body, I'll have to talk to my crew. That sends a tingle of fear down my spine. What if they can't accept that their boss is now a pony? I've gone from a 6'8" 300lb electrician to a four foot tall colorful pegasus. I think they could accept me having a sex change operation much easier. I laugh quietly as I nudge my wife.

"Honey, want to take me to work?"

She opens her eyes groggily. "Huh?"

"Something normal might be a good thing, honey. I'll lock myself in my office while everyone comes in, then you can send them up to the conference room, I'm talking everyone, office staff, diggers, everyone. And once everyone is assembled, I'll come in and talk to them."

She smiles. "Let me hop in the shower."

I grin right back. "I need a shower too."

I get a salacious grin in response. I love this woman.

***

An hour later we are downstairs, I'm eating a big bowl of alfalfa pellets. I never knew how tasty some of this food could be. I tried cropping grass like horses do, but the dirt taste really ruined it for me. I'll take feed over grass. But it's nice to know I can eat it when I have to. I haven't mastered brushing my teeth as a pony, so my wife got to help with that. I have to laugh, or I'll cry. I don't think I would be sane right now if it weren't for that beautiful blonde haired woman sitting at the kitchen table.

"So, are you looking forward to seeing the crew like this, Lightning?"

I sigh. "I'm actually kind of scared, Helen."

She cocks her head to the side. "Why?"

"What if they decide they can't work for a pony? What if I'm too weird for them? I mean if the company fell apart like that, our finances would be fine for a while, though you would probably have to work full time."

"You think I'm worried about money for us?" She laughs.

I nod.

"Honey, when we were dirt poor, I was finished college, and you were supporting a family of three on eight dollars an hour, how did we survive?"

"You."

She chuckles. "Yes, me. I pinched the pennies so hard Lincoln screamed. Don't worry about money for us. There are over a hundred people, and you can triple that or more when you account for their families that depend on Lightning Electric. You might lose a few guys, but the company will be fine."

"Are you sure?"

She laughs at me. "You are so cute when you do that sad little puppy dog face. But yes, I'm sure."

"Fine, you know best, honey."

***

It's before 6:30 in the morning when we get to the shop, I'm happy to see that no other vehicles have shown up yet. I hustle into the building and head for my office. My wife sits in the break room, to greet the guys as they show up.

I fire up the computer and get used to using a pencil in the mouth to type. Yay, I've gone from seventy words a minute to about twenty by hunt and peck. This is so awesome. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. I notice a purchase order for a new switchgear for the PWI, that's good that my report made it to the shop and they are working on it.

I hear the door opening, and I hear the roar of diesel pickups outside. All of my journeymen and about half of my apprentices take their work trucks home daily. I simply do not have enough room for all the vehicles if I did it any other way. It's a cold day still, so I hear all those pickups idling. Well, the first hour of today is going to be billed on shop time, can't bill the clients for me telling my crew that I'm a pony now. I chuckle to myself. After the normal morning greetings and drinking of coffee, I hear my wife clear her throat.

"Mike wants everyone in the conference room, apprentices, digging crews, office staff. Everyone. So let's go up there." In moments I hear the thunder of feet on the stairs up to my massive conference room.

It's go time. I exit my office, hovering to not make a racket on the slate floor tiles in the break room. I push the door open, and slide up the stairs. In moments I'm sitting by the door to the conference room. My ears swivel forward and I can hear my wife quite clearly.

"This has been an interesting weekend."

I hear some chuckling from the assembled crew, one guy pipes up, "Yeah, having a switchgear explode right in front of your boss can be pretty interesting."

"Amazingly, I'm not talking about that," my wife says, I can just picture her right now, she is very rarely unsure, but I can tell she's having trouble saying what we talked about.

"About ten years ago, a television show premiered, it lasted about five years. It was a cartoon designed to sell toys to little girls. And it gained a huge following."

I hear another voice, "Mikes coming out as a brony, isn't he?"

I hear my wife laugh. "Not exactly." Her voice nears the door and it opens. I trot into the room and move over to my regular chair. A quick hop and flutter of wings I'm in the chair.

"Hi." I wave a hoof at my assembled crew.

Dead silence. I think everyone is holding their breath. I look at the assembled faces.

The silence stretches to be absolutely uncomfortable.

I look around. I think shock is the prevalent expression on their faces.

I let the silence draw on for a few more moments, though I can tell my wife is starting to sweat. Hell, I'm starting to sweat.

I finally break the silence, "I was Mike. I'm not anymore. You can call me Lightning Dust."

I think I broke them. Well, nothing to do but soldier on.

"I have had the weekend from hell, guys. Friday I noticed weird tattoos on my legs." I point to my flank. "My hair changed color, then I grew these pony ears. I hid my ears under my hard hat and my new eyes behind sunglasses while I did that service call. But over the next couple of days, I turned into the pony you see now. Yesterday I've been learning how to fly. And today, well." My ears droop, and I hang my head. "I need you all to know what's been going on."

I feel my confidence starting to return, "That all being said, Lightning Electric will continue on. I'm still in charge, for the foreseeable future. I may be a pony now, but I'm still the electrician many of you guys knew when I was a journeyman sitting next to some of you. My skills are the same. Though my ability to hold a wrench…" I hold up a hoof, "may be a bit impaired. But my goals are the same, I'm going to take care this company."

I hop off the chair, and spread my wings to their full extent. "I'm not going away. And if you feel you can't work for this company knowing that your boss is a technicolor pony. I won't do anything against you. But if you want to keep working for me. Then let's keep making Lightning Electric the best oilfield contractor out there."

Silence. A few guys stand up and walk to the door. As the door is opened one of my other guys leaps up.

"You would leave because the boss has had some problems?" A fourth year apprentice, Sam, speaks up. He walks forward.

"You are acting like racists from decades ago, not wanting to work for a black person, or a Hispanic person. I don't care what color our boss is, and you shouldn't either."

The first one walking to the door, the older journeyman from the CO2 plant, Bill, points at me. "I could handle if my boss was black, white, yellow, whatever. But my boss isn't human anymore."

"It doesn't matter, Bill," Sam retorts, "So long as the paychecks come in on time, and we keep working our tails off, my boss can be a polka dotted monster from Mars." I like the fact that quite a few heads nod in response to Sam.

"I'm sorry Sam." He looks at me. "And I'm sorry Mike, or whatever you are. But you should be locked up, not running a company." He walks from the room and down the stairs, followed by three apprentices, and two diggers. I look at the remaining crew.

"So, you guys will stay with me?"

Slowly smiles spread across the faces of the assembled guys and gals. The same electrician who acted as the spokesman on my birthday stands up. "I think I can echo Sam's words. So long as the job continues, we get paid, and we keep busy, we are in." A chorus of nods. And I feel tears start to leak from my eyes.

"We were loyal to our last boss, and I'm so happy to see you guys are staying loyal to me. I couldn't ask for a better bunch of guys, thank you."

It was really weird for me to shake every person's hand with a hoof, but I managed as they trooped down the stairs. Within about half an hour, trucks were on their way out to the field. I trot to my office and sit down in my chair. My wife joins me in the office.

"That went so much better than I thought it would," I say.

"Why do you think that honey?"

"I've been trying to hold a major freak out in for the last few days. I was scared that most of the guys would leave."

"The changes haven't happened to them, it's distant for them, and I guarantee you, they are all talking about today on the way to the jobs, and all throughout the day. I'm pretty sure you'll lose a couple more guys. But most of them are staying. You treat them right, and they will treat you right. No matter your species."

I smile at her. "Thank you honey." Then I sigh. "Now I have to deal with clients. They can be harder than my employees."
She takes her leave and in a few minutes Pat knocks on my door.

"I'll admit, when I read your email Monday morning, I was a little perplexed. Now I see you had a good reason to not come in yesterday." She smiles. "How are you doing with this change?"

I shrug my wings. "I'm dealing with it, I don't have a choice in it, so I'm doing what I can to make things work. Though I'll tell you, the planned expansion and buying the roustabout company is on hold for right now."

She smiles. "I'll admit, this is completely weird for me, I mean, my boss is now a pony, that can talk, and can fly. But I love working here, and I'm not leaving so long as you'll have me here. But I have to ask you a question, can you really fly?"

In answer I flap my wings and slowly hover above my chair. Her eyes get wide and she looks back, the other office staff are crowded in the doorway, watching me fly. I slowly drop into the chair again, adjusting my tail so I can sit comfortably.

"We are going to have to order some unusual FR clothing for you, you know tha," Rose says.

I sigh and nod. "I suspect my measurements are a bit different than they were Friday." I get a few chuckles out of that.

A good portion of the morning is taken up with me talking about my weekend with my staff, I tell them about my memories of fighting Discord, I tell them about Maddie, I tell them a lot of things. One thing I'm certain of, this is a small town, by nightfall, everyone will be talking about the pony who owns Lightning Electric.

***

Around noon, it's time for my client meeting. I grab the paperwork for my bid, and place everything in my laptop case, I have shortened the strap and it goes around my body snugly. I stick my head in the main office. "I'm off to the meeting with Snow Oil."
Pat looks at me, a questioning look. "But Mike. Don't you want to send someone else? We can call in one of the guys."

"If I'm going to continue running Lightning, I have to meet with clients, no matter what form I'm in, I'm still me. I'll get the job. Though I think I'll create a bit of a sensation when I come in." I chuckle as I exit the building. Spreading my wings I fly quickly to the Snow Oil offices, only about half a mile from my shop, they've been clients for years.

I time it perfectly, as someone comes out the door, I hustle through, then, using my wings for height, I take the pencil for their sign in sheet in my mouth, something I've had to practice is mouth writing like they do in the show, I'm able to scrawl out Lightning Dust, Lightning Electric and the time. I ask the receptionist if the superintendent is free, she doesn't even look up from her phone as she answers. I trot through the hallways, casually ignoring the uproar from everyone seeing a pony walk among them. I get to the end of the hallway and hop up on the chair, turning around, I fold my tail to the side and sit down in the chair.

"Afternoon, Anthony."

He's looking over a paper spread sheet and not even looking up. I smile. With a flick of my wing I slam the door. He jerks up and looks at the slammed door, then at me. He does a double take, then he sits there, jaw hanging loosely.

"Uhhh,"

"We've scheduled this meeting to go over my bid, Tony. Are we going to do this or not?"

Silence from him.

"So, I'm guessing you are wondering about my appearance. I know you aren't going to believe me, but I have been a pony for over twenty years before I came to this world. I've been cursed as a human being for the last thirty five years, and over the weekend, the curse has lifted, leaving me the pony you see in front of you."

"Huh?"

I extend my wings and hover to be closer, I wave a hoof in front of his eyes. He flinches. I smile, this is fun.

"Hello, Tony, is anypony home?"

He shakes his head. "Who the fuck are you? I was supposed to be meeting Mike Shaw."

"And I'm here. But I've had a bit of a change, you can call me by my name that I've have before I was Mike. I am Lightning Dust." I let my rear hooves touch the floor and place my front hooves on his desk. "Are we going to plan out this bid, or not?"

"Mike?"

I smile again. "It's Lightning Dust now, but yes, it's me."

He squints. "I swear, you have some of the same facial expressions as Mike despite being a horse."

"It's because I'm the same guy. And I own the same company that is doing work out in the field for you right now."

"But you are a blue pony." He looks hard at me. "With blonde hair, and wings."

"What does that matter? Listen, Tony. We've been friends for years, since I took over Lightning. You know the work we do. Can you just look past the fact the company owner is going through a bit of an identity crisis right now?"

He looks at me for a long time. "I know Lightning Electric, I've trusted your work for years. But you are certainly different. What am I supposed to think about that?"

"Evaluate me like you would if I were in my old body sitting in front of you, Tony. You know I'm not going to be going out and doing the work. I have my crew, and they will take care of you like they always have."

He looks thoughtful, "I don't know Mike. It's kind of hard for me to get past the fact that I've got a winged pony…"

"Pegasus, Tony. I'm a pegasus."

"Fine, a pegasus sitting in front of me instead of the guy I've known for ten years."

I smile at him. "That's the thing, Tony. I'm the same guy. Yes, the body is different, but the skills, the time spent in the trade that I've gone through over the last fifteen years is the same. I am here. And I'm not going away. So,  are we going to deal? Or are you going to lose your best electrical contractor because you can't get over what he looks like?"

He sighs, after a moment. "I don't want to lose you guys."

"Good."

***

After about three hours hammering out the details, the two and a half million dollar expansion project is in my hooves. I have the paperwork, I scrawled out my old signature and shook Tony's hand with my hoof. "Pleasure doing business with you, Tony." I say as I grab the knob in my teeth and open the door. To my surprise there are a half dozen Snow Oil office staff crowded around the door. They back away slowly as I trot out the door, calling over my shoulder, "We'll have lunch some time, Tony." I trot to the reception area. I feel hands reach out and touch my tail. I look sharply at the young man who just grabbed my tail.

"May I help you?"

"I can't believe Lightning Dust just came to my job,” he murmurs. Ahh, we've got a brony.

"Yes, and if you are wondering why I'm here, you can thank Discord." He recoils back.

"So what happened in the finale happened for real?"

I nod my head. "More than you will ever know." I trot past the receptionist, who is still enamored by her phone, and press the crash bar on the door, and my entourage follows me outside. I turn and look at them. "Anyone got a smoke? Left mine back at the shop." Amazingly three packs are offered to me, I take a white cylinder and accept a light. I inhale deeply and blow smoke.

"Amazing," one of the office workers says, I know him, he's the HSE for Snow Oil.

I look at him. "Let me guess, you've never seen a talking pegasus before?" Silently laughing at the looks on all their faces. I see a cell phone being brought out, "If you take a picture of me, I'm going to buck that phone into pieces." The phone is rapidly put away. I sigh and look at all of them.

"A matter of days ago, I was a human that all of you know. Mike. And now I'm Lightning Dust. I just want to live my life, and I know people are going to know I exist, and that the events of My Little Pony happen to be real. But that being said, I don't want too much fanfare. I know there are plenty of ponies out there. And for the most part, they are laying low. But I want to help them. Just keep an eye out, if you hear of anything strange that suggests that a pony is around, give them the number to the shop, I'll take care of them, understand?" I have a feeling I'm going to be repeating that speech quite a bit.

I do enjoy my time talking with them. After a few minutes they truly realize that I'm the same person they knew. I ask about children, their lives. Just the usual small talk. Once I grind my smoke into the ground, I take off. And in moments I'm back at my shop. I go into Pat's office and toss her the paperwork. I smile at her, "We got the job."

She smiles at me. "As if there were any doubt."

"I'm going home, if there are any problems, I'll have my phone on me, as always.” I trot out of the office, then a thought strikes me. I turn back. "Pat, do we have any employees that are in their mid twenties, and their birthday is within a few days of today?"
"I know we have one, but he was one of the people who quit. Let me look him up." I wait for a few moments as she pulls up files on her computer. "Ah yes. We've got Victor. His birthday was yesterday, and he's…" she scans for a few moments, "twenty five."
Gotcha. "Is he married? Living with parents?"

"No, he's living in the housing you subsidized to help get more guys to live here. Since he quit, he will have to move."

"Don't do anything with him, yet. I have a feeling that things are changing for him as well."

"How many ponies have turned, Lightning?"

"I know the mane six from the TV show are here. I haven't seen them, but I'm certain they are on Earth. And my sister, and a friend of hers. And I suspect Victor. I'm going to head to his place right now."

"Let me know, Boss."

I smile as I head outside. In moments I'm in the air, and landing in front of the apartment complex I built. To protect my employees from the wild prices for housing around here, I built this place, and about forty of my guys live here. They pay a much more reasonable amount of rent than the thousands of dollars per month for a one bedroom in other parts of town. I trot for a few minutes, and finally am knocking on one of the doors.

"Go away," I hear a muffled voice.

"Please let me in, I suspect the same thing is happening to you that happened to me."

"Please, go away." I hear a muffled sob.

I sigh. "I want to help you. If you are an Equestrian and you were banished as well, we need to stick together."

"Please. Just leave me alone." I can hear more sobbing.

I put my head on the door, "Victor, I can help you. Please let me."

"I don't need any help, just leave me alone."

"Victor, you know where I live. If you need someone to talk to, I will be there or at the shop. I know you quit on me, but I can help. If you are going through the same thing I went through, I can help ease the problems. It's very scary changing like this. But, in the end, it's for the best. Just remember, you can talk to me any time. Understand?"

"Fine, whatever."

My ears and head are down as I trudge away. I'm not happy about this change, but I want to help. If he truly is going through these changes, I hope he opens up. Finally I flare my wings and head home.

***

"Hi there Jim, or should I call you Lightning Flash," I say as I trot in the back door. Transportation is so much easier as a pegasus, just fly wherever you want to go.

He's fully a pony now. "I guess it's Lightning Flash, since we both are Lightning's, I'll call you Dust, you call me Flash, I think we did that back in the Wonderbolts."

"Sounds like some of your memories are coming back."

He nods. "Bits and pieces."

"Same here." My ears flatten for a moment, I'd like to know more, rather than vague recollections and pieces of my former life.
I hear the clop of hooves and Soarin comes in.

"Hey bro."

"You know, technically, we aren't related anymore, Lighting Dust."

"I'm not going to forget twenty five years of having a little sister just because we turned into ponies."

That earns me a chuckle. I turn to Flash. "So, what is your sad story? How do you know Maddie?"

He looks at Soarin. "We were in college together, Texas A&M. I was in ROTC, and she was in a few of my classes. We got to talking one day after class, and ended up friends."

I know the corps at A&M. "Did you join after the corps of cadets?"

"Served two years with my brother, marines. Deployed in the middle east."

I sigh, that part of the world has continued to be torn apart by war even after nearly twenty years.

"And what brings you here?"

He looks unsure. "Well, after Irony changed, I got the cutie marks on my legs."

"Hold on a minute, Irony? As in Princess Sparkle's personal guard? The earth pony?"

He nods.

"When did Irony change?"

"His, I mean her, birthday was the 25th of April."

I growl a bit. "Discord must have wanted her out of the way. Not many other ponies would be qualified to stay with Princess Sparkle. She hated having to have a personal guard. But Irony was an excellent leader, and ferocious when it comes to fighting. I always respected her."

"Well, she's exactly the same as she was then. We had a bit of an issue before I left."

He spends the next few minutes telling me about their adventure at the chop shop.

"So, Irony's recreated her armor and mace." I laugh. "I feel sorry for anypony that stands in her way." My ears fall flat and it's time to get serious. "I remember being briefed on Irony's abilities as a member of the Wonderbolts. Dash knows, and so does Soarin. I wasn't told anything about how she has those abilities, just that she does. Do you know?"

Flash shakes his head. "No, I don't. I just saw her do it that one time, and she was still in the process of transforming to Irony from being Henry." He looks down and his ears flatten. "That is part of the reason I ran away."

"Judging mby how much you've eaten last night and today, you've been on the road since you found your cutie mark," Soarin adds in to the conversation. Flash nods sadly.

"I said some things I shouldn’t have. Henry was my brother. Even after he changed, I still love him. I didn't know what to do. He turned into a fucking pony. And finding out that I'm going to follow in his hoof steps, I freaked out. At least I stayed male. Holy shit!!!" He jumps off the chair and starts pacing.

I look at Soarin as he looks at me, I raise an eyebrow. Huh?

Soarin asks, "What's going on Flash?"

"Sherry. Damn it all. I just left. And we were just really starting to get serious."

"I'm sorry to hear that Flash. Want to call, see what's going on with them?"

A look of fear passes across his face, he lays down on the floor and puts his hooves over his head. "She's going to hate me now."
I think of some of the stupid things I did in regards to my wife before we got married, it's amazing we actually did tie the knot, I smile at Flash. "I wouldn't count her out. Might want to give it a shot."

Soarin shifts in his seat. "I do want to know what was going on with your human life, but you survived nearly twenty four hours more than Dust and I did. How?"

"When we scattered, we went in every direction. I headed south. I ended up near Appaloosa, I saw a caravan I knew. It was Trixie. You know the Trixie from the show?"

We both nod.  "Well, I told her what was going on, and we tried to get away from populated areas. We hoped Discord would finish his tricks." He sighs. "We were wrong, he had a lot of ponies he wanted out of his way. Near the end of that day we were resting a bit, galloping that long is hard, and I couldn't fly, staying with Trixie. Discord appeared in front of us, I'll never forget what he said, 'Ahh, Miss Lulamoon, you will not believe the trouble I went through to track you down.' Then he looked at me, 'And you, little Wonderbolt, your team is gone and your precious princesses are done for.' He smiled the most evil smile I've ever seen on any face in my life. Trixie shouted to me to fly away as she sent some kind of magic at Discord. I'll tell you, she was actually a very good magic user. She kept her cool and sent spell after spell at Discord. He batted everything she did away, and when he fired his spell at her, I jumped in front of her, if only to give her a few more seconds to maybe come up with something to stop that monster."
I hopped off the chair and moved over to him, putting a wing over him. "I don't think anypony could have stopped him. He already took out the mane six from the show, and we were mopping up operations." I sigh, I notice another wing folding over mine. We just sit there for a long time, hugging each other and remembering.