Why didn’t Dust tell me that there was this much paperwork? Granted, almost all of it is on the computer, but come on! I was right when I told Kendra that we wouldn’t be doing missions all the time, but this is ridiculous. After we got Maria up to New Beginnings, she’s been spending a lot of time with Kendra, and a few of the native elders from New Mexico. Six months have passed since she’s come to live with me. It’s been pretty nice, but I’ve had to learn how to deal with Dust’s company. Mischief is no help, any calls are met with laughter, and a quick, “You can do it, Loopy.”
I look up at a knock at my office door, “Come in.”
A large human walks in, he pulls his cap off of his head, “Sorry to bother you, Miss Loopy. I’m Randy, with the electrical contractor division. Well, I manage the division, and have been since I worked for Miss Dust.”
I nod, “I’ve been meaning to meet with you, I’m sorry, I’ve just been so swamped.”
He smiles, “I know, Dust told me I would have to deal with most things until you are fully dialed in. But I need your help.”
My eyebrows raise, “I’m not an electrician, I don’t know anything about construction.”
“Oh no, it’s not that, we’ve got staff handling the work, and getting the jobs. What I need from you is not something you would do from the office here.”
I frown, “Okay?”
He sighs softly, “Well, one thing Dust has done the entire time she’s owned the company, she’s gone on job sites and helped. Pulling wire, setting poles, helping with conduit runs, she made herself visible to the troops.”
My ears flatten, “But I know nothing about the electrical field. I’m not qualified.”
That gets a chuckle, “You just need to go to a few jobsites, help pull wire, just do things that require strength. You are a pony, you should be strong enough.”
I look at the computer, all the work I’ve got going on, “I’m working on the quarterly report. I have to make reports for Mischief and Dust’s herd’s kids.”
He nods, “I know, I had to prepare the report for my division for you to send to them. But I’m telling you right now, keeping morale of the employees high was important to Dust. She showed herself quite often. You need to do the same, Miss Loopy.”
My ears flick, “Well…”
He smiles and sets the tablet on the desk, “Here are a few places you can visit where our crews are working. In addition to places fairly close, we have a few crews that are all around. We have nearly a hundred ponies working for us. Dust pushed really hard to get ponies into the skilled trades, and she was successful. I would suggest you check out the job in Sidney, and a few places in Williston.”
That gets a smile from me, I get out and fly daily, but I never get more than a hundred miles from New Beginnings. My wings itch for a good fast flight. I look at my computer, and back at Randy, then I smile, “She did say to take care of the company.”
He smiles, “Good.”
A glance at the time on the computer gets me to hop out of my chair, “Well, no time like the present, right?”
He nods as I walk past him, I glance at Miss Harshwhinny, “If anypony needs me, they can call.”
“Very well, Miss Loop.”
A quick walk has me in the electrical division’s main offices, I walk around, looking at the various office staff doing their work. Randy walks past me towards his office. He’s only in it a moment before walking towards the shop, he smiles, “I do the same thing, I’ll be checking out a new substation being built over in North Dakota.”
I nod as I follow him into the shop, he gets in a truck and pulls away, one of the newest trucks in the fleet here, it’s all electric, with enough battery power to go over four hundred miles on a single charge, even with as large as the truck is. I turn and look at a group of younger guys, they are all working on a large piece of equipment. I trot up, “Hiya!”
One of the turns and looks at me, “Hi there.”
“I’m Loop De Loop, I have zero knowledge of being an electrician. Wanna show me what you are doing?”
He smiles, “Sure. I’m Alex. We are getting ready to install a VFD at a transfer station up north.”
I perk my ears forward and he starts explaining. The entire setup is quite fascinating as I’m given a novice explanation of the work, finally I look at him, “This is a lot of information.”
He chuckles, “We have a tendency to start apprentices with more than just sweeping floors and carrying water jugs. It helps weed out the ones that don’t have the aptitude. That’s how they trained me, and all the other journeymen here.”
I nod as we continue looking at the various equipment through the shop in various stages, he points, “Over there, they are installing the equipment into the PLC controllers. One thing we get apprentices working on pretty quickly is the computer controls that are the backbone of the facilities we work on.”
I smile, “Well, what Dust has been doing seems to work, so I’ll leave you to it. I’ve got to get to Sidney.”
He smiles, “Don’t be a stranger, Dust was around quite often.”
I smile as I turn to walk towards the door, and I can hear them talking as I walk slowly away, the one electrician, Alex, seems to be getting ribbed for sucking up to the new boss, but then I hear something that stops me in my tracks, “Well, she is really cute.” I flick my ears, and look back at him, he’s stealing glances as I resume my slow walk. Though I’m pretty sure my face is burning. He thinks I’m cute! That gets a giggle from me as I spread my wings and look to the sky. I take a moment to concentrate my power in my wings and I shoot off into the sky, doing a tight loop in the air before settling down on a northerly course.
***
It’s not long before I’m landing in Sidney, Montana. It’s not as big as Williston, but it’s still got nearly fifty thousand people in it. And the pangs of that rapid growth are evident in the relatively narrow streets of the old town. I’ve flown past here a few times, but never decided to stop, until today. I follow the GPS information I had loaded before I took off and I flutter down into the parking lot of the plant that I’ve been directed to. There’s a guard shack and I trot over to it. I rear up to the guard’s window, “Hiya! I’m Loop De Loop with Lightning Electric.”
The guard, an enormous earth pony, hoofs over a clipboard, “Contractors sign in here, you have a lanyard?”
I shake my head as I take the pen gently in my teeth, I scribble my name and the company name in the lines, then a lanyard with a badge is passed to me, the earth pony continues, “Keep the badge with you at all times, this is a food processing plant, so unless you have a spell placed on you that prevents any errant hair from coming off, you need to stay out of the finished products area.”
I nod, “Got it, I’m just here to check on the electrical workers here with Lightning Electric.”
He nods, “Well, we are ramping up intercampaign, so there are contractors everywhere. Your guys have two trailers set up, but at this time of day, they’ll be in the factory, working.”
I nod and smile, “Thanks!”
He smiles back as I push through into the facility itself. I take a few moments to chat with the plant operations head, letting her know what I’m doing here. She leaves the office for a few minutes, then comes back with a pony designed hard hat, she places it on me gently, “I know you pegasi are pretty hard headed, but a good hard hat is very helpful, it also can get pretty noisy in here when everything is operating.”
I shake my head, “They mentioned intercampaign, what is that?”
She smiles, “Well, during much of the year, we are producing sugar from the sugar beets that grow around here in the Yellowstone valley. That is the campaign. When we run out of beets, we pretty much take the entire factory apart, clean all the relevant equipment and upgrade what can be upgraded within that yearly budget, then we put it back together, test everything, and get everything spun up by the time the first beet drops in August.”
“Amazing.” I breathe.
She nods, “We’ve had Lightning Electric come here for over a decade, you guys bid pretty well, and we get some good crews, our E&I staff like having you guys here.”
I nod, “Where would I find them working?”
“Oh, they are all over, some are in the diffusor tower, they are replacing all the motors for it this year, and the lime kiln is also getting some new equipment. So, I’d check both places, do you need someone to guide you around?”
I shake my head, “Just point me in the general direction.”
She walks with me out of the main office onto the factory floor, I watch two humans with hoses washing down the concrete, “That’s our remelt area, if you look in that direction.” She points at a doorway with plastic flaps, “That’s the lime kiln.”
I nod and walk in that direction, electric motors are everywhere, along the ceiling power conduits run all over, along with much bigger piping for the different fluids in the plant, I push through the plastic flaps and look around. I hear grunting, but I don’t see anyone.
Then I look up, a pegasus is flapping her wings, she’s upside down, her rear hooves on the concrete ceiling, her forehooves have a hold of a rope coming out of a conduit.
I clear my throat, and the pegasus mare looks at me, she stops struggling, then she keys a mic of a radio hooked to her tool belt, “Hold on, Mel. I’ve got a visitor.”
“Roger.” Comes over the radio as she folds her wings and looks at me.
She cocks her head to the side, “Can I help you?”
“How are you…”
She looks at her hooves, her rear hooves are still on the ceiling, yet her wings are folded at her sides, she giggles at me, “My special talent. You know how pegasi can latch onto anything that’s flying?”
I nod.
“Well, I can pretty much maghoof to anything. And spare me the spider mare jokes.”
I suppress a giggle, she launches from ceiling and flips to land on her hooves on the floor, “I’ve been working to pull this wire. The electrician who ran the conduit was a dumbass. Put the junction box where it’s a pain in the plot to get to it. He couldn’t get to it with a lift and do anything meaningful with it, so I was asked to come and help.”
I look up at the box on the ceiling, it does look rather hard to get to with other conduits under it, making access pretty hard.
She turns and looks at me, “I’m Starry Dreams. I’m a fourth year apprentice here. And somehow, in charge of the wire pulling crew here.”
I nod, “When somepony, or some human, has the skills, Lightning Electric tends to push them hard. Or so I’ve been told.”
She huffs, “Tell me about it, they told me on day one that we are dropped in the deep end, but we can ask the more experienced for help when we need it. I’ve had some really good teachers.” She stops and smiles at me, “So, what brings our new CEO here?”
My ears fall and my tail clamps tight, I take a couple of steps back, “I’m sorry. I’m just trying to do what Dust did.”
She cocks her head to the side, “Still trying to figure out what to do with all of this? You’ve only been here about six months,
I nod, “I don’t know why I was chosen to do this.”
She chuckles, “Yeah, I have an idea. You showed promise, and Dust saw it. She is a very perceptive pony. She has done it quite often in this company.”
“Huh?”
“Lightning Dust has an instinctive ability to see the potential of those around her. I was too young when I first applied and interviewed with her. She told me to wait two years and reapply, that I would be a great electrician. And when I got into the trade, I found it was definitely for me. She said she’d have to watch out for me, I’d be gunning for her job.” She blushes a bit, “I don’t want the big company she’s got, but I’m going to get my masters and build my own company.” She looks up at the rope hanging from the conduit, “Well, I’ve probably bent your ear enough.” She walks over to the wall and places a hoof on it, and walks up the wall.
My mind takes a moment to reboot, “How are you…?”
She looks at her hooves on the wall, then giggles, “Oh, I forgot, yeah, my special talent.”
“I heard you, but how did you figure it out?”
She moves over to the conduit, “Well, when I was about eight nor nine, I wiped out in a landing, broke my wing. So I was out of the air for a while. Well, my family’s house is a typical pegasi only ground house. Not a single stair or ladder. If you can’t fly, you are stuck on the first floor.” She smiles, “My herd parents were so helpful, they made me a nice place in the living room, but I wanted my cloud bed. So, in the middle of the night, I…well…just walked up the wall.” She giggles, “My herd sire found me in my room, passed out on my bed. I had given them a huge scare, not only had I disappeared from the living room, but I’d gained a cutie mark while half asleep.” She points to her flank, the twin lightning bolts crossed over a field of stars. She smiles as she keys her radio again, “Mel, now you feed that wire or I’m going to fly over there and apply hoof to ass, got it?”
Apparently Mel is used to such outbursts, his response, “Roger.”
She starts pulling and the rope starts to move slowly, I leap into the air and grab the end of the rope, my wings flap furiously as we keep pulling.
After a few minutes of pulling, Starry calls out, “I’ve got the head.” She yanks hard, and I see the duct tape clad set of wires hanging from the conduit. She smiles at me, “Thanks for your help, I think we can get the rest.”
A few more hours of work at the sugar factory and I finally wing my way farther north. I follow the GPS directions on my ponypod and as the sun is getting low in the sky, I flutter down towards an oil transfer site. I can see the distinctive Lightning Electric trucks parked on the property, one of the larger ones, with a built in crane, is in position, it’s engine running as a few guys are working on a large piece of equipment. I walk over to a guy with a white full brim hardhat, which indicates supervisors, I smile, “Hiya, I’m Loopy.”
He stops, “Hi there, we are busy right now, would you wait in the motor control building?” He gestures with a chin as he takes a long bar and shoves the equipment over a few inches. One of the other guys, in a red ballcap brim hardhat reaches out with a tape measure. I turn and move into the indicated building. For a few minutes I watch them through the window in the door of the small building. They keep shifting the big enclosure a little bit at a time. I turn around and look, there is a set of switchgear in the building. I extend my wings and hover up to them, nearly all of the doors are open, and I’ve never seen the inside of all this equipment. Wires are all over the place. My ears flick as I can hear relays click, and the soft white noise of several cooling fans are clearly audible as well.
There are breakers in some of the buckets, fuses in others. I move over to one that’s up high, it has the wires coming in through conduits on the top. I guess that’s the feed for this entire setup. I lean a little closer, one of the fuses is solidly in the bottom, but not on the top. I know enough about things to know that isn’t right. I reach in with a hoof and push the fuse into place.
“What the hell, stop!” I hear a scream, causing me to jerk, my rear hoof taps the bare metal, completing the circuit.
ZAP!
My wings take over and recover from me being blasted back, I turn to look at the human, he grimaces, “This MCC is in operation. There is exposed power in here. What the hell were you doing?”
I shake my head, a little dizzy, “Huh?”
“Thank God you are a pegasus, and can survive direct lightning strikes. The problem is, you are carrying a big charge right now.”
I look down, and all my fur has poofed out, I can feel power running through my body, and crackles among my feathers announce the electricity bouncing around, “Oh, sorry.”
He backs up and opens the door, “Find someplace that is metal sunk into the ground. And ground yourself, with all that fur you are a big capacitor, and you’ll zap anyone around here, then we can talk.”
I follow his instructions and move over to one of the truck loading stations, a clip is marked vehicle grounding, and I hover over to it. A touch of a hoof causes the charge to drain from me with a soft pop and my fur lies back down how it’s supposed to. I take a moment to pull my ponytail back where it belongs and blow my bangs out of my face. I land and walk over to the control room again, where he’s standing there with a clipboard and a sour expression on his face, “Look, if you worked for me, you would be fired for violating safety rules. But since I work for you, I’m kicking you off the job site. I know you mean well, Miss Loop. But you need training before you are out in the field with the other electricians.”
I nod, feeling the tears starting to well up in my ears, “I’m sorry, one of the fuses wasn’t fully seated. I was just trying to help.”
His face softens and he kneels down to be the same height, “Well, at least you didn't say, I don't know what went wrong." He chuckles, "The rules are in place for your safety, we have them so everyone on this crew will head home at the end of the day in the same condition as they arrived. You may have experience in office work, but you don’t know what’s going on out here. I was told you would be doing what Dust did, helping the various crews. And I really do appreciate it, but until you’ve completed the necessary training, you are a danger to myself and my crew. Do you understand?”
I nod, reading his name on his hardhat, “I understand Mr. Rehm.”
Then he smiles, “We’ll be heading out for supper in about an hour, why not join us there. And since you are the boss, why not pick up the guys meals. They always appreciate free food.”
“Pizza?”
He chuckles, “I know a really good place in town, we will meet you there, okay?”
I nod as I take to the sky again.
***
Night Tide nearly breaks his door as he slams it shut. He shrugs out of his day bag and places his phone on its charger. He sits down in the entryway and sniffles a few times. He can hear his wife in the kitchen, even with his unpredictable hours, she always has supper ready when he gets home. He looks at his phone, she probably has something on it that alerts her that he’s getting close. That gets a smile out of him, he takes a moment to compose himself before trotting into the living room.
“Daddy!” comes a scream, he braces himself as his daughter crashes into him, he spreads his wings to wrap them around her as she crashes into him. No matter how bad a day he’s had. No matter how much crap he has to deal with, an enthusiastic greeting from his little girl always makes it better. Even if she’s fifteen now.
He holds his daughter close, “My little Typha.” He murmurs into her mane as he hugs her.
“Hey Honey!” His wife’s voice floats from the kitchen, “Have a good day?”
He growls, “No.” He squeezes his daughter tightly, getting a cute squeak from her, “But home is always better.”
The light gray unicorn with a much darker gray mane trots out of the kitchen, nuzzling him, “New case?”
He shakes his head, “No, continuing another one.”
She stops, “The one you talked about, the pegasus and the unicorn?”
He growls as he lets go of his daughter and spreads his wings, “Yeah.” He takes to the air and heads towards his room, “I need a shower.”
Apple Polish watches her husband as he retreats towards their bedroom. She looks at Typha, “Sweetie, get the table set.”
She bounds into the air herself, “Sure thing, Mom.” Her wings take her into the dining room.
In the shower, Tide lets the water play over his body. Steam immediately fogs up the mirror. He reaches out a wing and grabs the soap. He closes his eyes as he rubs the soap over his body, letting the suds work into his fur. After a long time enjoying the water, he sighs and turns it off. A good hard shake takes care of most of the wetness of his fur, he touches a pad and a blower roars to life, steaming him dry. Five minutes later he slides open the glass door and steps out into the bathroom proper. He takes a towel and clears off the mirror, looking at himself. He stares into his eyes for a long time, then he flaps his long ears a couple of times and puts on a smile. He opens the door and walks to the dining room, he takes his chair and looks at his family. While the norm in Equestria and with most earth bound ponies was a herd with multiple adults, Apple Polish and he have always preferred just the two of them. He keeps his pasted smile on his wife as he slips a spoon’s strap onto his hoof and digs into the vegetable stew. He takes a bite and the flavor spreads across his tongue, “So…” He looks at his wife, “How was your day?”
She shrugs, “It was normal. Spent all day on the computer, had two video conferences with clients, and just in general kept busy.”
“New clients?”
She nods, “Yeah, might turn into some pretty big accounts.”
He is able to make his smile genuine at this point, “I’m so glad to hear that, love.” He turns to his daughter, who is busily spooning the stew into her mouth, “How was school?”
“I can’t wait to graduate!” She growls.
He smiles, “You are pretty close to having the credits, aren’t you?”
She looks down, “I should have enough credits by the end of this semester.”
Apple Polish looks at her, “So, you are still planning on graduating early?”
She nods, “Yeah.”
“College plans?”
She looks unsure for a moment, “I was thinking of spending some time in Manehattan. There is a good university there.”
“So, you are going to Equestria?” Tide says softly.
She nods, “I think so. I’m not certain, though. I’m still trying to decide.”
Apple Polish sets her drink on the table and looks at Tide, “So, when are you going to tell us what’s eating you?”
He sighs, “This is an open investigation, Pol…”
She cocks her head to the side, “And you know I never discuss what you tell me with anyone at all. You know it helps you to tell your family.”
He sighs, and the rage he has been feeling for hours now bubbles to the surface, tears start to stream, “We had a third victim. We’ve had to notify the portal complex. A safety briefing is now required for all ponies coming through the portal to Earth. There is a serial killer on the loose, and they are after ponies.”
This get gasps from Typha and Pol, Pol reaches out a hoof and touches her husband’s hoof, he shudders as he continues, “This time, we got an earth pony mare. It was a body dump, just like the other two.”
Pol looks intently at her husband, “An earth pony, the first was a pegasus with the wings removed, the second was a unicorn that had her horn removed, what was removed from the earth pony, her hooves?”
Tide shudders and shakes his head, “She was ten months pregnant. The mutt cut her foal out of her, while she was alive.”
“I would love to get my hooves on him.” Typha growls, getting Tide to come back to himself.
He looks at her a long time, “Typha, this person is dangerous. I want you with friends any time you are outside.” He looks at Pol, “And Apple Polish, you need to stay home, do your telecommuting where you have to. But if you are outside, I want you with someone you trust.” He smiles a bit, “Like me, sometimes.”
She pushes his wing with a hoof, “I always like to be out with you, love.”
He pushes a tomato around the broth, “This person.” He slams a hoof on the table, “No… This animal, needs to be found and stopped.”
“Has anything been sent to the Princesses?”
He nods, “Yeah, they’ve been appraised of the situation, and the response was simple, ‘We have the greatest trust in the New York Police Department to catch this evil individual. Any and all requested help will be provided.’”
Pol’s ears flatten back, “That is pretty heavy, they’ll send you Royal Guards, either from New Beginnings, or from Equestria itself. You will catch him.”
He sighs, “That’s the problem, we don’t have any evidence, any clues, any leads to follow. This person is meticulous, he doesn’t leave any hair, any fingerprints, anything to allow us to identify him. We have no clue where he’s accessing the dating websites he is finding these ponies on.”
“Huh?” Typha says, “Dating websites?”
He looks at her, “Quite a few dating and matchmaking sites specifically designed to have ponies and humans, or equestrian ponies and ponies here be able to meet up. We found dozens of profiles that could be him. But our attempts to trace the IP address have been met with so many twists and turns, our best computer analysts couldn’t make heads or hooves of the results. We are essentially at square one, with three dead bodies, and more to come.”
Typha looks at her meal, “I’m done.” She announces quietly, “Can I go?”
Tide looks at her, “Of course, sweetie, but I want a hug first.”
She moves around the table and hugs her dad tightly, putting her wings around him and holding him tightly, “You’ll catch him. I know you will, you always catch ‘em.”
He squeezes her tightly, letting her know he heard her. Then she drops onto all fours. She trots up the stairs, two levels, to her room. She closes the door. Her homework beckons, but she has most of it done already, and she could always finish it up during study hall tomorrow. She pulls up the lid of her laptop computer, and takes a moment to log in. Her wings deftly typing on the keys, “Best pony dating sites,” She murmurs to herself as she types. The search engine automatically brings up a list of results. She scrolls through the results for a few moments, then one catches her eye, “Ponyfinder.com” She finds herself giggling, “Whether in Equestria or on Earth, ponies and humans can find love with each other.” She starts clicking, “Pony…mare…age…” She figures a little white lie would be okay, she adds three years to her real age, “eighteen…” A couple more clicks and she enters in her debit card information. She’s had her own bank account for several years now, money from her chores, as well as money for foalsitting and other odd jobs she has had over the years has her with enough for this. She enters in her tribe, and a few other bits and pieces of data. She has to laugh as she fills out that she’s looking for a human male. She likes humans, for the most part, but in an adult context, just ewww.
She scrolls through the results of her search, “I wonder if he finds them, or they found him.” She murmurs as she goes through the results. Quite a while of clicking around really yields no results. She finally pushes her chair back from her desk. She looks out her window, noting the sounds of the city that never sleeps, and she finally huffs and trots from her room, instead of down, she trots up the stairs, to the attic storage room, she slips out the door onto the large flat roof of her home. She looks at the garden her mother has been growing up top here, her mom really likes to spend time up here during the day, taking care of the vegetable plants she’s been growing.
She closes her eyes, remembering a conversation she had with her father. It was a few months before…
He looked at her, “Sweetie, you are aren’t batmare. You don’t solve crimes in the night.” He rubs her mane a bit, “You are a filly, and my little girl.”
She growled and pushed his hoof away, “I can help, I’m good at helping.”
Only to get gathered into his wings, he nuzzled her, “Sweetie, wait to grow up. You’ll have plenty of time to help. When you are ready.”
She opens her eyes, “I was ready then, Dad. And I’m going to help right now.” Night time isn’t ideal for pegasi to fly, they usually only prefer to fly during the day, so the skies are pretty clear of fliers right now. She spreads her leathery wings, her eyes widening to let more light in, her tufted ears flicking, noting every sound around her, she leaps into the air, her wings getting into a strong rhythm, not like a pegasus, but like the pony she is, a thestral, or bat pony. She scans the streets underneath her as she flies, “I’ll find you, you son of a bitch.” She murmurs as she heads towards the upper west side. Her dad is upset about ponies getting killed, well, she’ll help, wherever she can.