It's been a long day, but this is the kind of day where I am happy to be a mare. Dr. Ray and Star Shine are both sleeping, exhausted after, servicing two very intense mares. The mares of the family are downstairs, the TV is on, but is being ignored.
Irony looks at Moon, "Did you get Mindy to cast the no-foals spell on you? Or you Dust?"
I shake my head, "Dr. Ray said that I was too injured to have foals, so it's not a worry for me."
Moon shadow looks really small, "I forgot, I knew it was coming, and I planned on asking her last night, before we went to sleep, I thought I would wake up ready, and boy, did I ever."
Irony sighs, "Moon, do you want foals? It's a bit early being here to think about foals."
Moon Shadow looks unsure, "Well, before the change, to be honest, I wanted Henry's children."
Irony blushes, "I never knew."
Moon Shadow blushes as well, "I never told you, love."
"You should have gotten the spell though, we don't need any more foals yet."
I pipe up, "And why not? I guarantee you if Moon Shadow ends up with foals, they would be loved, just as much as Dot and Cloud Burst are loved, just as much as my Dylan and Hannah are loved by all of us."
"But…"
I interrupt her, "If you are worried about money, Lightning Electric is doing great, we had a busy winter, and the spring is heating up, profits are high right now. No worries."
She looks ashamed, to my shock, "Dust, we don't want to have to depend on your income."
I leap up, "Irony, damn it all. You are a member of my family, so is Moon, Star, and Dr. Ray if he wants to join. Money is not a problem in this family."
"I…"
I cut her off, she's not going to go all noble on me, "Damn it Irony. I love you, I've been the provider for this family for fifteen years. I wanted you to join the family, I've already added you all to the joint bank accounts, I've had credit cards issued in all your names. And yet, I watch the financials." I turn to Moon Shadow, "You haven't spent a penny, neither has Irony. And Star has barely spent any money."
Irony and Moon Shadow murmur.
I scoff, "You have your own resources. That's all well and good. You can do two things with them, add them into the joint bank accounts, or leave them to not be used. I expect you to use the resources I work my plot off to provide."
I quiet down a bit, "Irony, Moon, this family is in the top tenth of a percent of income earners. We are rich, and despite what the media wants to say about the rich, we are anything but idle. All I ask is if a purchase reaches into seven figures, clear it with me first."
Irony looks confused, "So, you are saying if we spend a million dollars, make sure it's okay."
I nod.
"So, if I want to spend a hundred grand on a weekend in Vegas."
"You have my blessing."
Moon Shadow and Irony exchange looks, "And you would…"
I smile, I know what they are going to say, "I would be happy that the ponies I love are enjoying the fruits of my labors." I look slyly at them, "Though I would hope that if you plan on spending a hundred grand in Vegas, that I would be invited to join in."
I'm swept up in a hug and a very thorough kiss from Irony, "I was starting to get a bit worried, we've burned through a lot of our savings the last year or so. I always kept money on hand, but the account back home was getting a little lean."
"How much was it?"
She names a figure, I trot to my office, gesturing for them to follow.
She stammers as I write out a check, "Dust, you don't have to do it."
I spit out the pen and gently tear the check from the register, I hoof it over to her. "This is double the amount you told me. Put it in your bank account back home, then leave it alone. I'd transfer some over to a money market account, and let it grow, but it's all yours."
She stammers again, "Irony. For one, I know that your pride isn't allowing you to tell me how much money you've spent, and for two, even if your account ends up with more money than when you started this little adventure, I don't care."
She cocks her head to the side, "Don't care, this is a lot of money Dust."
I shout loudly, causing both their ears to fold back, "I don't give one single rats ass about money, Irony. Ask Helen, she's tried to make me care about how much money is in the bank. But she gave up once there was over a million dollars in the checking account. I don't care. I never have, I never will. As far as I'm concerned, money is means to an end, I work hard for two reasons."
I put up one feather of a wing, "I enjoy what I do, no… I love what I do. Running this company has been the most stressful and wonderful thing of my life." I hold up a second feather, "I love being able to provide for my family. As far as I'm concerned, you don't have to do anything."
"You know we can't do that."
I smile, "I know, but it's good to know that whether you eat or not, or whether or not you have a roof over your heads isn't dependent on your work. It's taken care of. By one who loves you all more than anything else in the world."
Irony shifts and reaches over my desk, picking me up. I'm kissed very thoroughly by the midnight blue mare, then again by Moon Shadow.
"We will not have to worry about resources for the kids, or our needs." I hop back into my chair and turn the computer around, a moment of work has logged me into my personal financial accounts.
Irony gives a low whistle, "It's not Bruce Wayne kind of money, but at the rate it's growing, you might be able to give Batman a run for his money."
I chuckle. "Irony, I don't really care about how big that number is. As long as our wants, needs, and desires are taken care of. It's all good. Remember, Irony, if that check isn't deposited, I will know."
She looks at the small slip of paper, "I promise, Dust. It will be."
***
I'm sitting in my office at work. It's been a long day. I hired two new journeymen, and their trucks are outfitted and ready to go. Pat walks into my office.
"We have a visitor, Dust. I know that you've told me that the humans changing to ponies have pretty much tapered off. But there's a pony out here that I think you need to see."
"Really? Bring them in."
A chime of magic sounds and the door opens, revealing a pony I actually know. With her golden fur and an orange and red mane, and that distinctive cutie mark. I sit back in my chair, "Sunset Shimmer, so he got you too?"
She smiles slightly, "Yes, Discord got me. I finished changing yesterday, and I got your address from Equestria Daily."
"It's been over a year since we all changed."
"I know. But I remember it vividly, after I destroyed the mirror, Discord appeared in front of me. He didn't even bother torturing me, he already knew about the mirror." She looks down, "I was wrong. But at least I kept it out of his claws until the Mane six were able to reopen the gateway."
I hop off my chair and fold a wing over the unicorn, "It's alright. The portal will open up, and you can go back to Equestria, or you can step through, and come back as your old self. A new lease on life."
She looks at me, "I only have some memories, will the rest come back?"
I nod, "It was a long process for most of us, but being around ponies has been a great way to let the old memories resurface. It wasn't all at once, just bits and pieces over time."
"I was Celestia's star student, until Twilight Sparkle."
"I know, I watched the movie."
"Just one of them?"
I chuckle, "Yeah, just the first, I had too much else to worry about."
"You should watch the second, I think it was pretty good."
"Were you a brony?"
"A pegasister would be more accurate, I would think."
I laugh, "Well, at least you didn't have to go through a forced gender swap."
She looks shocked, "You were a guy before?"
"What I was before no longer matters, Sunset. I've made peace with the changes, and so should you. From what I've been told, you were instrumental in helping reopen the portal."
She sighs in relief, "Information on the ponies is rather limited. Most people know that humans turned into ponies, but we don't know which ones. You are saying the Mane six made it back home?"
"Oh yes, they made it home, and found the elements of harmony, with new bearers, they used the elements to strip Discord of most of his power, and that affected the part of him here."
"I saw the video, that's why when I got my cutie mark, that I looked you up. You have a lot of ponies here in Montana?"
"About twenty five thousand now. I've been talking to a few of the other places the ponies have made sanctuary, all in all, best guess is Discord banished about a hundred thousand ponies, a couple of thousand went through the portal the last time it opened, and there will likely be tens of thousands ready to go home the next go around."
Her jaw drops, "That many? How have you been keeping secret?"
"We aren't actively hiding ourselves, and the government has finally admitted we exist, but the information is not spreading very fast. We were a curiosity in the news for a while, and people in a couple of cities talk about pegasi moving clouds around. Though I have to laugh at that, those are pegasi from here, manipulating the weather to benefit the humans."
"You are controlling the weather?"
"Yes, in Denver, and Los Angeles, and a couple of other cities we have contracts with. Down in Texas, the sanctuary there is controlling weather for a good portion of the state of Texas. We've got a few ideas, by the end of next year, we should be able to control the weather nationwide."
"You guys are going to put a lot of meteorologists out of business." She laughs.
I smile, "They never did a good job anyway."
"You know it." She finally gives me a real smile and follows me out of the shop. She hops in a beat up old pickup truck, "I follow you?"
I nod and take to the air. And in just a few minutes, we are at my house. I open the door, "Hey, guess who followed me home?"
Sunset follows me into the house to a very surprised herd.
"Holy shit, it's Sunset Shimmer!" Irony says as she hugs the golden yellow mare.
Moon Shadow comes up, "How nice it is to finally meet one of Princess Celestia's star pupils."
Sunset rubs the back of her neck with a hoof, "You know what I did, right?"
"What happened in the movies?"
She nods.
A rich chuckle from Moon Shadow, "We don't know all the details, but what happened in the movies."
Sunset looks down, "The movies had a lot wrong with them, but they got some important parts right."
Irony's jaw dropped, "So, you actually turned into a raging she demon?"
A nod.
"And Twilight defeated you with the elements?"
Another nod.
"And she used the book to reactivate the portal?"
"Yeah, it was about six months after."
I break in, "Wait a moment, Twilight used a book to reopen the portal?"
All three ponies nod. I shake my head, "Can we get a message to Twilight? Let her know how many ponies will be coming through, and maybe get the portal opened up again?"
Sunset shrugs, "I don't remember what I did with the book, it is likely back in Dubuque. "
I look at Irony, "I'm thinking of a road trip."
Sunset looks sharply at me, "Given the chaos in Equestria, it's very likely the other book was destroyed."
I grin, "We won't find out unless we try, right?"
I get nods from all around, I turn to Sunset Shimmer, "So, are you up to a road trip?"
She looks unsure, so I pull out my heavy arsenal, my best lost little puppy dog eyes. She wilts under the onslaught, she rolls her eyes, and grumbles, "Fine."
I jump up and head to the garage, and am stopped in my tracks, "But I'm really tired, can we leave in the morning?"
Oh drat.
***
I peek my eyes open to a magenta face bouncing in front of me.
"Mindy, are you serious?" I look at my phone, "It's five in the morning." I turn over, "Give me an hour."
Is there any denying Mindy? I'm picked up in her magic, my covers falling on Irony as I float out of the room and down stairs into my office, she even sits me down in the chair.
I roll my eyes, "Mindy, what was so important?"
She looks at me seriously, "Spectrum."
That gets my attention, "As in the asshole who had me under his control?"
She nods. Fine, I can handle being woken up for this, "What do you have?"
She hops up and down excitedly, "I've got Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth coming over for kid duty. So no worries there, but we need to go to Australia."
I furrow my brow, "That is a long flight, even for me. You think the chariots can make it that far?"
"Oh, they can. But we aren't using the chariot, we are flying. I've arranged a plane."
"You've gotten us tickets?"
She giggles, "No, silly Dustie, I arranged a private plane, I'm assuming we are taking Sunset Shimmer. So it will be five ponies and Helen. Though there are some ponies at the farm that I would like to bring along."
Oh no, "Mindy, if there is even a chance of fighting, Helen isn't coming with us."
"Oh, I don't think any fighting will be necessary, because this trip is twofold, we will be fulfilling a request of the US government, specifically the President who has been very nice to us, we are going to be meeting with ponies that live in Australia. The government there isn't all that happy with ponies there, and are trying to pawn them off on us. The President thinks that would be a mistake, so we are to help the ponies there, and let the Aussie government there find a way to accept the ponies."
I cock my head to the side, "But if they aren't being accepted, why force them to stay?"
"Well, most don't want to move. That's a start, and two, there's about ten thousand ponies there. Some of them are from the aboriginal tribes when they were human. Let's just say the change to technicolor ponies has been a bit of a trauma to many of them."
Damn, Discord sent a lot of ponies down under. "That's rough. Are you sure we can help?"
She hops up and down in the chair, "Of course I do, Dustie."
"And what about Spectrum?"
She smirks, "They had a lab down there, it's been closed down, but some of their computer systems are still active, I think an in pony search would yield some results."
We chat for a few more minutes, then I end up knocking on the door to Sunset's guest room.
After a few moments I hear a mumble, I knock again, "Yeah?"
I push through the door and look at the prone unicorn. "I work in the oil field, I have for over a decade."
She nods, uncertain as to my point.
"Do you know what the number one way to start a conversation in the oil field is?"
She shakes her head.
I smile brightly, "Change of plans."
This gets a bark of a laugh from the golden unicorn. I grin and continue, "If you want, you can use resources from the farm, and go and try to retrieve the book from Dubuque. Or you can come with us."
She looks thoughtful, I quickly continue, "You can take a little time to decide. I need to get breakfast started."
I quickly exit the room and make my way to the kitchen. With a hot waffle maker and the ingredients to make really good batter. I was a devotee of a show many years ago, called Good Eats, and Alton Brown, the host, had the best waffle recipe I've ever tasted. Along with a lot of other things he made. I'm quickly pumping out stacks of waffles, along with eggs, and sausage, and bacon. For those who like the stuff. Unlike Irony, I was never a fan of bacon, too many people overcook it in my view. It's an occasional thing for me.
"Something smells good." Damn she sounds just like her voice in the movie.
"We have some pretty good cooks here, my son is excellent in the kitchen, so is Irony."
"How old is your son?"
"Sixteen."
I think I surprised the unicorn, "Everypony else was twenty five when they changed, how did you get an extra ten years?"
I take a few minutes to describe the fight with Discord when I was banished.
A low whistle from Sunset, "So, you were pushed back a decade, and the spell lasted ten years longer?"
I nod.
"Damn, that's amazing."
I look over my shoulder and smirk, "Yeah, just so much more for my life to be disrupted by this change."
"Oh, your life wasn’t disrupted all that much."
I give her a sour look.
"I'm serious, Lightning Dust. You were a successful electrician, you own your own company, you have a family who loves you. What exactly has changed? Except for your family increasing in size?"
I look down, "Well, it doesn't help that I'm now a four foot tall quadruped with wings."
"And would you give up that body? Go back to your old one?"
I think hard, "I gave up the chance to go back to Equestria after we were able to defeat Discord."
"Why?"
I look down, thinking furiously, "Because I didn't want to abandon the ponies."
She chuckles richly, damn, what a pretty voice, I fight to control my wings, I can't be attracted to every mare here, can I?
Sunset Shimmer continues, "There is a lot more than that. I talked to Irony, and Moon Shadow after you went to bed last night. Your company is thriving, you've set up a sanctuary for the ponies. They are building their own town here. Yet you don't live there, you live in town…here. And you take care of your family, you don't want to leave your human members."
I look at her, "What about you? You left Equestria, you became human."
She nodded, "I did, and my memories from being human here are untouched, apparently Discord's spell only affects memories as a pony. I remember what I did. I remember how horrible I was, until Twilight Sparkle was able to save me." Her voice gets really quiet at the end.
I flip the switch on the waffle maker and turn off the gas to the stove, breakfast is ready, and the family will be coming down soon. "Sunset, what happened? Was there really a Pinkie Pie, or Rainbow Dash or any of the mane six here?"
She shakes her head, "No, not really, but there were some girls that had very similar personalities to those in Equestria that were friends of Twilight's. They helped me learn about friendship after Twilight left. They helped Twilight and I defeat the Sirens. But they weren't the mane six as you see in the movies."
I cock my head to the side, "You could have stayed here on Earth, an never gone back to Equestria, even when you found out about Discord."
She smiles, "Despite the fact that I abandoned Equestria, it was my home." She looks sad, "It still is my home. I don’t know if I'll be welcomed back to Equestria when the portal opens next. But I think I will go."
"Best of luck to you, Sunset. But you have sanctuary here for as long as you need it."
I sit down to eat my breakfast, I take two bites, then have to run for the toilet. I come back to the kitchen, and resume my breakfast. "Sorry, my stomach has been queasy the last few mornings."
Sunset smirks, "Maybe you are pregnant."
I laugh, "Oh Sunset, during my captivity, I was tortured, I can't bear children."
Her mood darkens immediately, "Irony told me some of what happened to you."
I nod, "And she probably sugar coated it, I would say it's at least twenty percent worse than what you heard."
"You are a lot like Rainbow Dash, Dust. I see why you were friends."
I smirk, "Those memories are pretty much back, yeah, we were pretty good friends."
I feel my ears rotate to the sound of retching from the upstairs bathroom. Dr. Ray confirmed her pregnancy two days ago. And apologized for it, but Moon Shadow and Irony were having none of it. Though that morning about a month ago really did help him to decide to join our herd. It's good to think that our herd is healthy, with two stallions, four mares, a human woman, a unicorn foal, a pegasus foal, and two human kids.
We've discussed with Helen whether or not to add a human man in for her, and for us. I have to grin, knowing that we are pretty damned horny even without being in heat, we keep our stallions very happy. Though Helen has refused, saying after Mike, meaning after me, she really doesn't want another man. As long as she's happy, I think things will be okay.
Magic caresses my wing, jerking me to the present, I see Sunset smirk as her horn quiets, "Having amorous thoughts Lightning Dust?
I look back, I'm saluting the sky, I feel my face burst into flame, "Uh, yeah."
Her ears rotate, "I'm guessing you are remembering when Moon Shadow was impregnated?"
I nod, I swear my face can't get any redder.
She looks sad, "I thought about having children when I was on Earth before. But I always planned on going back to Equestria, and didn't want to confuse them. No…" She looks sour, and angry, "And they wouldn't advance what I was trying to do."
I move next to Sunset at run a wing down her back, one good fondle deserves another, "Oh Sunset, you are a different pony now, and I have to add, any babies you have would be beautiful, and smart."
She watches me as I walk into the living room to greet the family coming downstairs. This time I'm careful to keep my tail covering me, I don't know if it's her having me so turned on, or my memories.
I hear a knock at the door, I look around, nopony else to answer, so I trot to the door.
An Air Force officer is there, judging by the rank insignia, he's a Colonel, a silver bird on his lapel, "Lightning Dust?"
I nod.
"I'm here to escort you and your companions to the airport, we have a flight to Australia ready for you."
I look at him, then back in the house, "Give us a few, everypony is still waking up, minimum of half an hour, k?"
He nods and walks to a blue SUV waiting.
I turn around…"Mindy!" I shout.