Dust on the Wind

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 7. An Officer and a Gentlepony

As always, the alarm jolts me awake. There are times I hate waking up so early. Oh well. I give my wife a kiss, knowing she doesn't have to work today, part time is good enough for her, in addition to tax preparation for the company, and I'll tell you, that is a nightmare every year. She snuggles further into her covers. I head downstairs to the kitchen, and I see I'm not the only one awake.

"Morning Soarin, morning Flash."

I get a plate of scrambled eggs slid over to me for my trouble. Winning.

I dig in, and after I'm able to swallow a few bites I look over at Soarin. "Want a morning flight before I head off to work?"

"You know it.," from Soarin.

"Of course," from Flash.

I wolf down the rest of my breakfast and head to the door. After a moment of consideration, I turn to my guests. "I have an idea."
They look at me expectantly. "Today we need to focus on two things, I'll check on one part at work, but I want you guys to check on the internet today, look around and see if you can find any indications of ponies. The closer the better, but we need to let them know that there is a safe haven for them here."

That gets enthusiastic nods, then Jim looks troubled. "But Dust, if there are a lot of them, your house is in town. You have five bedrooms here, which is nice and all, but you don't have the beds for a lot of extra guests."

I smile. "Already thought of that, my job will be to buy some land, and preferable a farmhouse and maybe get some construction going on some kind of barracks. If we have a lot of ponies, we'll need the space."

"How much land are we talking about Dust?" Soarin asks.

"At least four sections, maybe more."

That gets a low whistle from Flash, "Four square miles, must be pretty spendy."

I shrug my wings. "First off, land here is relatively cheap if it doesn't have oil underneath it. I'd like it to be somewhat close to town. And second, I'm not going to have it be idle, and the ponies aren't going to be idle. Our roles will be similar to back in Equestria." I pause for a moment, I almost said home. I feel my ears droop for a moment. Boy our bodies are more expressive than our human ones. I perk up quickly though. "The pegasi will handle the weather, the earth ponies who show the aptitude will help with farming, and unicorns will help with everything else."

"You are going to be on the weather crew?"

I stop and think about it for a moment. "I'll help out in a pinch, but financially, I've got to keep Lightning Electric going."

They look at each other. "What about defense?" Soarin asks.

That gets me to snort. "We aren't setting up an independent nation here, guys. We might patrol the borders a bit, just for peace of mind and to alert the ponies when humans come to visit." I guess there have been more mental changes than I thought, I'm starting to think of humans as aliens, and a potential threat. I think about my wife and kids, nope, not them. Good. "We will work to be safe, but I hope we can contract our abilities out to farmers in the area."

Now I get confused expressions from my compatriots.

"Think about it, as a farmer, how would you like to know when the rain is going to happen, and you can ask for more over certain crops, and you can have dry conditions when you are harvesting or need the fields to be dry?"

Two pairs of eyes widen. "That is fucking genius, Dust," Soarin says.

I shrug my wings again. "It's what we did back home." I trot out the door.

We start our workout with wing ups, and they are surprisingly hard to do. I manage fifty, barely. I vaguely remember in a previous life a hundred wing ups were a piece of cake. Gotta work on conditioning. And then we fly. We do circuits around town, just enough to warm up, and as six o'clock approaches, I peel off and head to the shop. Then I discover I've got a problem. I didn't grab my keys. That is fixed by a quick flight home and back. Then I discover, using keys without hands is a real pain in the flank. After about five minutes of me trying to open the door with the key I hear a truck bouncing down the gravel road to the shop. I turn and see it's one of the early risers of the crew, in moments I'm in my office firing up my computer.

***

The morning meeting went off pretty well, overnight we lost another journeyman and one of my hydro excavators quit as well. Well, replacing them will be a pain. I sigh at the resignation letters sitting in front of me. My wife proved true, like she usually does. I'm busy when I'm interrupted by a knock on my door. I've found that keeping the door closed prevents gawking, my employees are still human, and it's a novelty to see a pegasus sitting at their boss' desk. I look up.

"Come in."

Instead of one of my office staff, or one of the apprentices I've had working the shop, it's a tall man with a gun belt and a badge. He's Bill Connelly, the Sheriff.

"Morning Bill."

"Morning… uh…"

I laugh gently. "Lightning Dust will do. But you knew me as Mike. We've always been on a first name basis, and this transformation doesn't change that in my view."

He looks unsure, but he does take the visitors chair when I indicate with my hooves.

He continues to look uneasy. "There is a lot of talk around town, uhh, Mike."

I sigh, I expected this, though not this quickly. "I'm not really comfortable with this change either Bill. I'm just trying to take it one day at a time."

"It's not easy over here though, but I have to remember you have always followed the law, and you've paid your taxes, and been an overall upright citizen. Hell," he rubs the back of his neck and chuckles, "You've even generously donated to my re-election campaign."

"And you've been a fair sheriff. A fair man in office always gets my support."

"But you aren't a human anymore."

"I, more than anypony else around here, am quite aware of that fact."

Silence. I look at him expectantly,

He shifts uneasily under my gaze. "Well, I'm trying to figure out exactly what to do with you."

"And you are asking me for my advice?"

"Well, now, I wouldn't say that."

"So you've come here with your mind made up then?"

"Damnit, Mike. That's not the case either."

"Then what is it Bill?"

"Well, there's talk of just booting you out of town and letting the federal authorities take care of you."

Ahh, people certainly have been talking. Time to nip this in the flank. Before reactionary opinions hold sway.

"And what exactly has changed since Friday?"

"Damnit man, you are now a girl pony. And you are sitting there in your desk, pretty as you please. You are acting as though nothing is going on."

I slam a hoof on the desk, and it's a measure of how uncomfortable he is that he jumps. I look down at my desk, which now has a clear hoof impression on it. Damn, I must be angrier than I thought. "Bill. I look at this two ways. First off, very big things have changed. I'm now a four foot tall, light blue pony with wings. And I've gone through an unwilling gender change in the process. But on the other hoof, nothing important has changed. Lighting Electric is still here. We are shy a few bodies, but we are always needing more bodies anyway. Our guys still head out in the field every Monday through Friday, and even most Saturdays. I wasn't at church last weekend, but the fact I went through a major change kind of excuses me from that I would think. But I plan on being there this Sunday. And I'll still get to watch you sleep through the sermon." Which earns me a bark of laughter. I continue. "I'll still be paying my taxes, I'll still be contributing towards the economy of this town. Remember, about three hundred citizens of this town are my employees or their families."

I stop for a moment, gauging his reaction. "Bill, we've known each other for years. The important things haven't changed. I'm still here, we are still here, and actually a wondrous thing has happened. We just found out there is a whole universe out there that has intelligent life." I smile at him. "What you are looking at right now is a being that was banished from her home by an evil spirit. And another amazing thing, magic is real."

Amazement dawns on his face. I unfurl my wings. "Look at me, I weigh more than any bird, and my wingspan isn't much more than some of the larger falcons or eagles. According to aeronautics, I can't fly. And yet I do. And if that isn't evidence enough, if and when I find a unicorn, we will see even more magic done."

He sighs. "Fine. I've made a decision. As long as you follow the laws and be a pony like the man you once were, I'm going to treat you like any other citizen. Last I checked the Constitution, it doesn't specify human beings, merely citizens. And as far as I'm concerned, you are a citizen."

I smile. "Thank you Bill. I knew I could count on you." I hold out a hoof.

After a moment of staring at my hoof, he finally shakes it. "It's been a pleasure, as always, uh… Lightning Dust."

As he gets up to go. "One more thing, Bill."

He turns and looks at me expectantly. "If you hear of, or see any other ponies, with the exception of the two living at my house right now, let me know. I want to help them through this transition. And if any get in trouble with the law, I'd appreciate a heads up. Just so you know, my life before coming to this universe, I was a military member. I can take care of any problems you may have. Ponies are a bit stronger than humans, I don't think your cuffs will hold them, but I can make sure they are taken care of. Because I'll expect them to follow the same laws every human has to. That will go for any ponies I find."

"How many of these colorful equines do you plan on gathering together, Mike?"

"As many as I can find."

He tips his hat to me as he leaves my office. Now, back to searching.

***

Early afternoon comes around and I've found what I'm looking for. A farm. A large farm, or enormous would probably be a good word. Ten full sections, with lease options for grazing on another forty. It's only ten miles out of town. I think about it for a moment, the owner, I remembered him, I attended his funeral a few months ago. And his kids apparently didn't want it, so they are selling everything, the whole kit and caboodle. It's got the farmhouse, numerous outbuildings, and all the farm equipment. I look at the price. It's spendy, more spendy than I was wanting to do, but it's perfect for our needs. I check my accounts, I can transfer the money today and have enough operating capital until invoices come due at the end of the month. I send off an email to my lawyer. He's not in town, so probably has no clue about the fact that I'm a colorful equine. I smile. Lightning Electric is going to be the owner of a large farm. It's going to complicate the taxes a bit, but my wife will be able to sort it out. I stop for a moment. Glancing at my closed door, I swivel my ears around, I can hear the office staff chatting in their office, and I can hear movement out in the shop, no trucks coming in though. One thing I really like about this is how sensitive my senses are now. I flutter my wings a bit. I lean back in my chair and sigh.

"This shit is permanent, isn't it?" I say to no pony in particular. My oversized head sinks to the desk. I have to let the floodgates open once again. Damn it, I'm thinking about taxes, I'm thinking about long term as a fucking pony. I try to keep my sobs silent. For a long time I successful. But after a while I feel a hand on my back. Causing me to jerk up, Rose jumps away at my sudden movement.

"I'm sorry to bother you, er… Lightning Dust. But I heard you when I walked back to the PLC assembly shop. I wanted to know if I could help you."

I feel my entire face is wet, I've got snot running out of my nose, in other words, I'm probably a sight. I sniff a few times. I can't talk yet. She leaves the office, and then returns with a box of tissues. Grabbing one I blow my nose. Definitely a feat when you've got hooves instead of hands. She notices my trouble, she kneels down in front of me and helps me clean my face.

She smiles. "I didn't know ponies can blush."

"Well, apparently we can."

She moves over and sits in the visitors chair, "Something I can help with?"

I sigh. "No. Not really. I'm just thinking, this damn thing is permanent, isn't it?"

"Do you not like it?"

This causes me to pause to think. Do I like these changes?

After a few moments. "Yes, and no. I love being able to fly. I am actually growing to like this body. It's actually pretty amazing." But then my ears drop. "But I miss my hands. I am actually pretty bothered by some people's reactions to me now. It's scary, what if people decide I'm no better than a pig, or a cow."

She looks sharply at me. "Lightning, I can't believe I'm hearing that from you. Since we found out yesterday, this whole town is abuzz with what's going on to you. And a few people saw you guys flying this morning. I won't lie to you, some people are weirded out by this. But damn it, I've been talking to you, and you are the same person that you were last week, the week before, the last few years. You are still the same man that hired me, and trained me to do HSE work. Just keep doing what you are doing, you'll win them over. And as to the future, you'll figure it out. You were able to scrape together ten million dollars to buy this company. You've been busting your ass since then to pay off those debts, and you did it in eighteen months. All the guys love you, I talk to them out in the shop. A few were surprised about your change, but the consensus among the guys is the same as the morning meeting yesterday, as long as you keep us working and the paychecks keep coming, they are with you, hell or high water. Don't worry about the stragglers, some will come around, some won't. But you are doing wonderful."

"Damn it, I want to be human again."

She smiles. "Lightning, I don't care what you are. You are a good person, and you should be happy with that."

I sigh. "Thank you Rose."

***

I'm still working as the trucks start rolling in from the day's work. I smile as I hear the diesel pickups rolling in. I swear they all coordinate when they are going to arrive, because they are scattered to over a dozen work sites and yet most of them get in within about half an hour of each other. This time I keep my door open. I see the guys filling out the invoices and their time cards, and all the other paperwork that my office staff has to keep track of. I get the normal greetings, though I can tell that every so often they find a reason to walk by my door. I sigh after a bit and walk out to the crowded break room.

"Hey guys." I smile.

One of my senior journeymen comes up to me. "Uh, hey. Boss. A lot of us have been talking, and the office girls got to see, but…"

"You guys want to see me fly?"

That is just what the doctor ordered. I think I'm going to give them a show. "Give me a few." I trot into my office and place a quick phone call. And then we get outside, the shop has completely emptied out.

I look to the south and I see a speck on the horizon, in moments, Soarin is standing next to me. I smile at him, and get a big grin back. I turn to my guys.

"Back before we came here, we were members of a performance team, it was called the Wonderbolts." A few nod their heads, either closet bronies, or more likely, they turned on netflix last night. "And we did air shows. Now, there are just two of us, but we'll show you a few things."

I turn to Soarin. "My memories of the formations are pretty foggy," I whisper.

He smiles. "Mine too, let's just have fun up in the air."

We move to have enough clearance for our wings and we both spread them wide. Power takeoff time. I tap a back hoof and we both take off like bullets straight up, I know they hear a sonic boom as we accelerate, I've found, pegasi are fast. We spend the next half an hour doing a performance that would have had Rainbow Dash screaming at us for being lazy and forgetting everything. But I think we did a pretty good job. And judging by the applause as we landed, both breathing heavily. We impressed the humans on the ground. Though I noticed a few more cars parked and quite a few more faces among the watchers than when we took off. Apparently we were visible for quite a distance, and some curious onlookers decided to drop by. I smile at Soarin. "Thanks bro. Seeya at the house." In moments he's once again a speck on the horizon. I look at the assembled faces.

"Well, don't expect an air show every day." I get plenty of laughter from that. Then the sound of a truck bouncing down the gravel road gets my attention. I know that truck, it's Sheriff Connelly. I tell the guys to finish up and they head back inside, and the curious onlookers, for the most part, head back to their cars. The sheriff hits his brakes hard and slides to a stop.

He sticks his head out the window. "Lightning, I need you to come with me, it's serious."

I frown as he reaches across and opens the truck door, I clamber in and awkwardly close the door. He immediately flips on his light bar and floors the pedal. Not even waiting for me to get my seatbelt on, but then again, I'm not certain how I'm going to do that. I just hold on as best as I can as he blasts the siren to clear out the little bit of traffic in town. In a few minutes he pulls up to my apartment complex. One of his deputies pulls open my door and I hop out. I trot behind Bill up to an apartment. Oh no. It's the apartment I visited yesterday. He barrels through the door, with me in hot pursuit. Entering the bedroom he turns and looks at me.

"Lightning, you said that anything pony related I should keep you in the loop on. Well, some kids were playing outside, and they saw through the window… this." He moves aside, and I see a gruesome sight. My gut was right about Victor. He was about half turned into a pony, his hands were still hands, but his hooves were dark green with lighter green fur. I didn't recognize the cutie mark, but I did notice he had a unicorn horn. I flap my wings to gain height. It looked like he looped a rope around the ceiling fan. I'm surprised it held his weight. His face was purple, he suffered as he died. I saw the kicked over chair next to him, his feet were less than a foot from the ground. He was apparently one who had to go through the gender change, for some reason, he wasn't wearing any clothes, and the fact that he was now female was readily apparent. I looked at Bill. My ears drooped. No.

"Oh, Victor. Damn it!" I moan.

I feel an hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry Lightning, we didn't find a letter or anything, the door was locked and both sets of keys are inside. The medical examiner is likely going to rule this a suicide."

"Damn IT!" I shout as I buck as hard as I can. I hear the crack of breaking wood, and the shattering of glass. Victor's dresser is now good only as firewood. I feel tears stream down my cheeks. "God Damn IT!!!" I scream. I storm out of the apartment and finally end up by the sheriff's truck. Sobbing, and not caring who sees it. After a long time, I hear Bill come stand next to me.

"You need a ride home, Lightning?"

I shake my head and ruffle my wings. "I can fly home. Where I am going to get shit drunk."

He laughs and kneels down next to me. "I don't know if you ponies can get drunk, but if you can, have a few for me, I've still got a lot of work to do on this." He grabs my snout gently and turns it to where I can see him. "And I'll treat flying while drunk the same as driving while drunk, got it?" he says with a sad smile.

I nod as I flare my wings and take off.

Comments

[Phenrys]

Yes! Another five score side fic!

[PiMan]

I'll likely read it either way, but just a heads up please; how closely does this fic try to adhere to Five Score canon? Is the "inspired story" line suggesting that you'll be diverging significantly in some respects?

[Sparky Brony]

I'm trying to adhere to the cannon of Twisted Spectrum's masterpiece as much as possible. I've been in contact with him talking about the concept and the basic premise. I do plan on adhering to the chain of events, though from a different perspective.

[Lt Rainbow Slash]

*begins bad British accent* bravo good sir! Bravo...

God i suck a British accents!

Anyway, this is well written and I'm loveing it so far. This is actually probobly in my top five five score fics. The only problem is that there are so many that very few people are willing to give it a try.

Believe me when I say I will do my best to promote this.

[Sparky Brony]

4643119 Why thank you!!! I really do appreciate that. In fact, I'm collaborating with Phenrys on his Irony's Story, another 5 score story. Expect to see my characters pop up in his, and his to pop up in mine.

That being said, I wrote those 30k words in about 2 weeks. And I've got another story burning to get written as well, so I plan on going to my usual weekly update cycle for this and my next planned project. I hope you enjoy the updates as they come out. And THANK YOU!!!

[Sparky Brony]

Thank you for your honest assessment. I felt that the early part of the five score stories were a bit long and dragged out, and wanted to get to the meat of the story. This five score story isn't about the transformation, but more along the lines of what the characters will do with the fact that they have transformed. There is a lot more going to go on in the story, so I do hope that you keep on with the story, if not, it was nice to have you read as far as you have. I will adjust the 32 to 34. I must have gotten those confused, I thought I had adjusted that before, but it will get fixed. And you would be surprised that a man who works a physical job, wears a cowboy hat, and hunts would think in scientific terms when confronted with the impossible.

[Scarlet Storm]

plz continue your story

[Sparky Brony]

4647615 Fear not, this story will continue, I've been writing quite a bit today. And I'll be posting more soon.

[Stormcaller]

Just finished reading the last finished chapter and I gotta say this story is pretty good thus far.

However I have one thing I wish to bring to your attention, the pacing. It seems to quick too me, problems are resolved within a couple sentences with no sense of accomplishment for it. Its a common problem for a lot of us writers and Celestia knows I still find myself doing it two years later.

But again, all in all a very interesting and good story. I look forward to more.

[Sparky Brony]

4650547 The rapid pacing is actually intentional. I hope it's rapid, but not too rushed. I wanted Mike and company to be ponies fairly quickly, as the meat of the story is after they turn into ponies, and before the exodus to Equestria through the portal. I've got about a month in the story to play with, and I'm going to keep things going on that.

That being said, we will have to figure out if Lightning Dust is going to go through the portal, and what the consequences of her decision will be regarding the other ponies with her, and what happens here on Earth. Twisted Spectrum left plenty of loose ends in the story for others to work with, and I'm really enjoying the direction my story is going. But as always, comments and thoughts are always appreciated, criticism is listened to, and if possible, addressed. And overall, enjoy the story as I bring it out.

[exsnaggerwes]

I sigh. "Thank you Roseluck."

Just kidding. I couldn't help myself.

[Misty Horse]

I'm taking a wild guess at victor actually being lyra...

[harts fire]

I hate it when I miss a huge clue like this, Victor green unicorn = lyra harts string. or I am way out in left fielded with that one???
sparkle brony would you like to answer that one please..???

[Sparky Brony]

5142779 no, not Lyra, yes unicorn, yes green, but not any unicorn we know from the show.

[Cyan rainbow]

So after having read thus far I have concluded enough to give feedback, both what is good and what could use work. First, the good. Your character's development and reactions to their environment are excellent, both realistic and emotion giving. Your staying in character is also quite good. Second, despite this being based off another fic, I'm finding it to be more original than most fs/4 fics I have read, especially the dream scenes.

Now the improvements. You could use work on your descriptive words as well as comma splicing. Generally, a sentence shouldn't have more Two sometimes three sentence fragments or commas, unless used for description or pause moments. The last sentence, for example, has a pausing point after generally and after commas. Also, their shouldn't be more than one pausing point comma between fragments more than one or two words long, such as in this sentence. For description, you may need to improve your vocabulary, though one easy way to add description without good vocabulary is to add figurative language. Similes and metaphores especially can help the show vs tell factor, as well as the flow of sentences over the tongue when reading. Or at least I have found.

One more thing. Your pacing can tend to vary a lot throughout the story. While some points are very smooth and good-lengthed, others can be choppy or rushed. I recommend paying attention to the flow of plot if you or your proofreader go over chapters before posting.

Despite the things that could use improvement, this story is still very good. I feel the emotions of every character, especially depression and anxiety. This is overall very enjoyable, so don't let my feedback put you down

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Throne....

[WeepingDiscord]

After a few moments. "Yes, and no. I love being able to fly. I am actually growing to like this body. It's actually pretty amazing." But then my ears drop. "But I miss my hands. I am actually pretty bothered by some people's reactions to me now. It's scary, what if people decide I'm no better than a pig, or a cow."

What about your manhood