Dust on the Wind

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 27. A Not So Typical Day in the Oil Field

"So, Mindy. Where are we going first?"

She giggles, "I have been talking to one pony online. He was able to steal a smartphone, and it's battery is about to die, but he first emailed Equestria Daily. Soarin's email traps caught it. And I was able to talk to him this morning. I told him we were going to come get him. He's really tired of being used as a pack mule. And any time he tries to talk, he's beaten. He said the only thing keeping him going is us coming to get him, so you need to get going."

She hoofs the address over to Winter Storm. She takes it gratefully.

"Winter." I call out. She stops in her tracks and looks back at me, "Since this will be your first full mission, we are going with you. But you will have control. You can call us for backup, but without your call, we won't do anything. You want to prove yourself. Here is your chance."

"Thank you Dust." She chirps happily. Trixie gives me a long look as she follows the rest of her team. This time, we are taking one chariot. Well, they are. I was persuaded to get on the damned thing once. Not again, any time soon. Those might be great for other ponies, but not for Lightning Dust. I move over to the pegasi who are going to pull the chariot.

"Keep it under ten thousand feet, boys. We are going to follow the rules of ultralight aircraft, we don't have to file a flight plan, and we must stay under ten thousand feet. I don't want any F-22's catching up with us while flying."

They both chuckle as the rest of the ponies file aboard. Except for Winter Storm. She flares her wings.

"Winter, ride with them, I want you fresh and alert when we get there." This causes her to wilt a bit, but she's not a speedster pegasus. This journey, over five hundred miles, will have her exhausted. In minutes, we are in the air.

***

It's getting late, and I'm in my home office. Winter Storm is sitting across the desk from me. I can see she's nervous. I smile to assuage any fears, "So, Winter. Tell me what went right. And what went wrong."

"Ma'am, pretty much everything went right. The humans didn't have any fight in them once we stormed the front door. They didn't have any weapons, and they were using physical intimidation to subdue the pony. We got in, we got out. Nopony or human was hurt."

"How do you feel about a mission like this, Winter?"

She smiles, "If all of them are like this, there are no problems."

I frown, "You know as well as I do that not all of the missions will be easy."

She nods, "I know. But we have to save ponies that are captured. If they want to come with us, and this pony obviously did, we need to just find them."

"What about if they don't want to go with you?"

"If it's a dangerous situation, we will need to back off. It's not worth us getting hurt to save a pony that doesn't want to be saved. But if at all possible, persuasion is our best bet."

That gets a smile from me, "And how do you plan on persuading a pony that doesn't want to come?"

She giggles, "That's easy, Dust. I just have to tell them what happened to me. And how much happier I am with the rest of the ponies."

I nod. She does have a good point there, "You did a wonderful job, go back to the farm, get some rest, and check with Mindy if anything else comes up."

As she leaves I finally am able to climb the stairs up to my bedroom. Helen is sleeping, Irony and Moon Shadow are curled up in the bed with her. Helen has told me that the bed is a lot more comfortable with more ponies in it. I suspect she likes how soft our fur is. As I climb in, I see her head is on Moon Shadow's flank. I'll agree, sleeping like this is very restful. I sigh and let my eyes close.

***

The alarm jolts me out of a dead sleep. I look over, five AM already? Ugh. I hit my phone with a wing, silencing the alarm. I look around, Irony's apparently up. But Moon Shadow is snoozing quite contently with Helen. I gently kiss both of them then hop off the bed. I disconnect my phone from the charger and slide it into its strap on case. I slide the stylus where it belongs and I'm ready for the day. Today's going to be a little different. Ever since I bought Lightning Electric, I've always made sure to spend a day with a crew on the job on a regular basis. And since we have hired a couple of pegasi now, I should spend today helping the line crew string some lines. My wings ache from the thought, I knew how hard that crew was when I was a human. Though now, I don't have to climb poles. I'm going to be spending all day on my wings I'm pretty sure.

"Morning Irony." I chirp as she slides French Toast towards me. Then settles into the bowl of fruit she prepared for herself.

"Ya know something. You pegasi got it easy."

I cock my head to the side, "What are you talking about, Irony?"

She chuckles, "I had to give up meat with my transformation. I can tolerate eggs, but I have no appetite for them. You, on the other hoof, get to eat pretty much whatever you want."

"Yeah, and it all goes to my flanks." I laugh.

She laughs heartily, "Yeah, sure Dust. With all the flying you do, you would probably have to eat ten times the calories you do to gain a pound."

I dig into the French Toast, "I wish I had this metabolism as a human."

Her turn to cock her head to the side, I chuckle as I continue, "Irony. I was in my mid thirties, I wasn't skinny. I wasn't super heavy. But I wasn't a healthy weight for my height. I was pre-hypertensive, I was approaching middle age. And now I've got the body of a consummate athlete. One who is on her way to the top of her game." I spread my wings, "With these wonderful wings. Exercise isn't the chore for me that it was when I was human. I really am happy in this new body."

"Wow, so you really meant it didn't you?"

"What?"

She sighs, "Going through the portal would be a one way trip for you, Dust?"

I nod.

"You know, you would likely get a brand new female human body. One that will likely be as toned as the one you currently have. Don't like that idea?"

"No, Irony. I already had to endure a gender swap becoming a pony. I want to think in the back of my mind that male body is back there somewhere. Coming back with a human female body would probably be super depressing."

"Even if you had big tits?"

That gets a sharp bark of laughter from me, "With my luck, I'd have training bra size tits."

She chuckles again.

***

Breakfast over, I'm at the shop by six after a quick fly. Long enough to get the blood pumping, but not enough to get sweaty. Though I did like the fact that I wasn't alone in the air. Many of the pegasi of our weather team are early risers. As a courtesy, we've been controlling the weather around town as well. And published in a few places in town is when the rain is going to happen, and detailed forecasts for the rest of the summer. Far better than any meteorologist would be able to produce. The posting even had an email address for any special requests. I settle into my office chair and start on my daily email binge before everyone showed up at the shop.

By the time seven AM was approaching, my crews were showing up. The lineman crew was heading north, only about thirty miles, I elected to fly with the pegasi and start setting up for the day. The previous day they had finished the last of the poles on the seventy miles of high voltage line we were going to string for a set of new wells. This part of the project was going to be a couple of days. Stringing lines used to be a real pain, setting up pulleys on all the poles, then getting the guide wires in all the pulleys, followed by pulling the steel wire. Then the insulators would be installed and the wire tightened and everything tacked down. It was a labor intensive process. But having pegasi made the job faster. We would just string out the line on the ground, and the pegasi would lift the wire onto the pulleys, removing part of the workload.

"MDU is going to come out here today." One of the pegasi said as we were getting the big spools ready, in anticipation of the rest of the crew showing up, MDU being the utility company

I look at the pegasus, "Really?"

He looks really excited, "Yeah, with pegasi, we are easily twice as fast as any other line crew, they want to see what we are doing to get lines strung out so quickly. They don't know about the pegasi yet."

That gets a chuckle out of me, "How much you want to bet they are going to be trying to hire some pegasi to work for them?"

"Well, they do pay more than you do."

"Not by much."

He chuckles, "True. I'd rather stay here anyway. It's nice having ponies around."

I nod as I roll a spool into place to be picked up by the spool trailer. A minute of work and the axle is in place. We are ready.

I look around, "Where's the rest of the crew?"

One of the mares responds, "They have to go the long way, we get a break until they get here."

Fine with me, we keep talking for a while until a blue Dodge service bed truck comes over the hill on the right of way.

The next few hours are quite strenuous as the pegasi get the lines strung down the line of poles. I spy an MDU service truck bouncing over the uneven ground. One of the pegasi gets a bit frisky and buzzes the truck a few times, prompting laughter from the human crew, and myself, of course. Finally the truck stops and three humans exit the truck. I land with the other three pegasi on the line crew.

I trot up to the humans, "Hi there, I'm Lightning Dust…" My words trail off as I recognize the face of the driver of the truck.

"I remember you."

I remember him to. I was in a playful mood at the time, not so much now.

"Um, er… eh." Is all I'm able to get out.

"I remember what you said, and it really stuck out, I tried to remember who said that all the time." He stops and then laughs, "I'm guessing you were a fan of Animaniacs."

I nod.

He crouches down to eye level with me, "Nice to actually meet you, Lightning Dust. I must confess, I wouldn't have given the rumors of colorful ponies cropping up all over much credence if I hadn't had a face to face encounter with one."

"Yeah, about that…" I rub the back of my neck with a hoof, I finally am able to spit it out, "Sorry about that."

He smiles brightly, "My kids didn't believe me. So, if you would, can I get a picture of both of us so I can show them?"

I laugh, "Of course."

We end up actually taking a pretty good picture, I'm standing on his shoulder, wings out, big grin on both our faces. I even have them take a video of us just talking, it's harder to fake a video than a picture. He ends up with my phone number and a tenuous promise to visit him sometime and say hi to his kids.

I actually had a good time at work, though when it was time to head in for the day, I accepted a ride. All the pegasi did.

Comments

[PiMan]

Could someone please point back to where Dust previously encountered this MDU guy? I don't remember it.

[Sparky Brony]

The end of Chapter 8. Where Dust perches on top of a pole and talks to the guy in a bucket truck. In fact, a commenter said I should have Dust and him meet again, so I thought this would be funny.

[Phenrys]

4990105
What, can't two, or three, full grown ponies enjoy themselves?

Just wait until I post the corresponding chapter from Irony's perspective. Muwahaha!

[redspark]

=D

[cyanblur]

Kool

[Jirodyne]

4989329 That commenter was me 4660715 see?

[exsnaggerwes]

Is it just me, or is Dr. Ray inexplicably absent from the pile?

4990425 oh Phenrys you tease I can't remember why I didn't see this a while ago lol, and now I'm anxiously awaiting every detail

[CitrusWishes]

4989329 Dust and who? I'm confuzzled. And dumb. It's probably staring me in the face

[Chrome Masquerade]

I dig into the French Toast, "I wish I had this metabolism as a human."

Amen to that.