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                          Changes                          
                     -by Sky Trotter-                      
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                             1                             
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1
        The day started much like most others in Sky Trotter’s adult life,  his alarm clock brought him back the world of the living with is quasi happy tune.  Rolling over Sky slammed his hoof down on the snooze button as he did every day.  He lapsed back into unconscious, only to be awakened again by the tune after what seemed like an instant.
        “Uhhhhhggg.  Go away morning I was having a nice time up until you came to ruin it.”  Sky rolled over and dragged himself out of his warm bed.  “I really don’t want to go to work today.”  Sky rubbed his eyes with his fetlocks in an effort to dislodge the sleep from them as he dragged himself over to the dresser to drag a pair of dress pants and a shirt from them, having had been to lazy to hang them up after his last laundry day.  He looked into the drawers and silently marveled at all the clothes that he owned. Most ponies owned two maybe three outfits for special occasions but he owned an entire dresser and closet full of them.
        Not that he had any real wish to own this much clothing.  He would have been much happier if he didn't have to have any clothes, but as it sometimes goes he had found himself in a line of work that demanded that he own a different outfit for practically every day of the month.  He worked for the Royal bank of Equestria as a Banker/Teller, his job entailed opening accounts for the various ponies that worked in the city and insuring that he was (as his Manager put it) professionally presentable.  All this meant was that he was expected to wear a suit and tie every day that he worked.  Which was more often than not, six days a week.
        Sky loathed his job.  Not only did he have to dress up every day but he was expected to sell extra products and services to anyone that entered the building when ever he could.  It didn’t matter if they only had a couple hundred bits to their name or if they were loaded with millions of bits. He was expected to sell.  His managers constantly told him not to think about it as selling.
        ‘Sky don’t think of it as selling,  think of it as offering additional things that they need’
        In his mind, if a pony needed something they would ask for it, but no matter how many times he brought up the fact that selling things to ponies made him uncomfortable it was always tossed back into his face that it was part of his job and that if he didn’t start making a dent and getting some ‘sales’ he was going to have to face disciplinary action.
        Sky made his way over to the shower in his apartment, making sure to not wake his roommate.  While Sky and his roommate Writers Block weren't best friends (at least Sky didn't think so) they had a good working relationship.  Having lived with Writer for so long, Sky no longer made the requisite jokes about a pony Author being named Writers Block.  He was actually quite good at what he did,  having read a number of things that Writer had written Sky found himself enjoying every piece.
        As far as roommates go, Writer was a good one.  He didn't make too much noise, he always paid he portion of bills on time, and best of off he had never once eaten anything that Sky had been saving for himself. But even with that, Sky still wished that he could afford to live off by himself.  Not that having company was bad,  but Sky had never really been too much of a 'Social Butterfly'.  He liked to be alone quite often and spend his time reading.
        After having moved away from his loving if not heavily religious parents, Sky had tried to go out to the parties that he had heard about in his youth,  but after having gone to a few he always found himself sitting in a corner  nursing a drink and socializing with the animals that lived in the house, more than the other ponies that were in attendance.  As such, he had never really gotten to know anypony in the city and subsequently had never really made any friends. To be fully honest with himself, Sky had only met Writer because of a news paper add that had been requesting a Roommate.
        Having finished his shower Sky donned his work clothes.  His smile faltered as he notice that they were beginning to feel a little tight around his middle.  The darkness at the back of his mind began to creep in, as it had so many times before 'you will never be happy' it whispered into the back of his mind. 'look at yourself you are getting fat, you have no special somepony, your cutie mark says that you could have been a great singer but that dried up once you got out of flight school'
        Sky shook his head and tried to clear his mind and steel himself to face the day.  “Well I guess I should get going.” he said more to himself than anyone else.  As he waited at the carriage stop all he could think about was the whispering voice in the back of his mind.  It had started some time during Flight school.  around his sophomore year.  He began to notice that things that once made him happy started to go stale.  His passions had begun to bore him.  Nothing made him happy anymore.  But the point when it began to take over his life was just after the end of Flight school right as he was beginning his adult life.
        She had been his Special somepony for over two years, while she had been two years younger than him he loved her with all his heart.  He had even been planning to ask her to marry him after she graduated.  All thoughts of that ended just one year before she graduated.  She had invited him over to her place to talk, of course being as dense as he was at the time, he didn’t think anything bad was going to happen.  She sat him down and told him right there and then that she was tired of the relationship and thought that they should break up.
        He sat in stunned silence,  not sure what to do.  So rather than let anything else hurt him.  He simply shut down.  His response was simply “okay”, after that he walked out of her house and when home where he sat in his room.  He spent a week there without speaking to anypony.  He simply existed.  A few months passed and he felt like he was kind of getting back to himself when he found out that the entire time that he had been with her she had been cheating on him with a large number of other stallions and even a few mares.
        Ever since then the ‘Voice’ always added its views on his self worth whenever he was beginning to feel a bit better about life.  Subsequently this had made any further attempts at relationships fail utterly.  Not that there had been many others.  He could only really name four.  Raven Rose, Brier Thorn, Sunny Days, and Leaf Chaser.  Wile Raven and Brier had both been mares, Sunny and Leaf had been Stallions.
Sky found had found out after Breaking up with her, that he enjoyed the romantic company of anypony regardless of gender.  However every time things were getting too good, too happy, the voice would come back. ' How did you think this was going to work out,  that you were going to live happily ever after, that you were going to have a family.  As if you could ever give anypony the attention that they need.  you will fail just as you always have.  Better to not even try and save yourself the agony of loosing somepony else.  Just give up and go to work like you do every day.'
These thoughts consumed him as he made his hour long trek to work. He kept his head down and insured that he didn’t make eye contact with anypony on his way there, easier said than done and he was at least a head and a half taller than most of the ponies that he had ever met.  Just as he did every day, he waited outside the bank for his manager to come out to tell him that he was allowed to come inside.
His manager walked out the front doors up to him, and said the same thing that she said to him every day.  “Good morning, how are you doing today?”  It was a standard greeting and it warranted a standard response.  He knew that she didn’t really care but still expected him to answer her.
So as always he gave his normal response “Good Morning, I’m doing ok,  how about you?”  He honestly couldn’t care less if she was doing ok but he knew it was expected of him to ask.
“Well Sky I am doing alright as well.”  her response lacked the normal… well not warmth,  it lacked her chipper attitude that she normally wore.   Not really thinking about it too much more than necessary Sky shrugged it off.
“Time to start another day.”  was his simple response.
Several hours had passed after opening the bank when Sky was asked to come to his Branch manager's office.  He finished up with his current customer and made the short walk across the bank and knocked on her door.  “It’s not normally closed,  this doesn't seem like a good thing.”  He thought to himself.
“Come in Sky.”  was the measured response from his manager.
“this doesn’t sound good either.” was all he could think,
'*You know what is coming,  You have known for a while now,  they are going to get rid of you.  You have out grown you usefulness just wait and see. It's over'*
Sky shook his head to banish the Voice again.  “You wanted to speak to me mam?”
“Yes Sky. Have a seat.  How long have you been working for us now?”
Sky thought for a moment and responded “It will have been two years next month.”
She looked at Sky and respond with another question.  “So two years now,  Now tell me, in all of that time have you ever been able to take home a bonus for Referrals or sales incentives?”
‘There she goes again with the whole sales thing’ Sky thought to himself.  “Well no I don’t think that I have.  But I know that I have been doing well in other areas of the bank.”
“I know that you have been doing well in other areas Sky, But the bank as a whole expects for their employees to makes sales goals, and  to this point you haven’t been making them.  You have been working here for almost two years now and not once have you made a quarterly sales goal.  I am sorry Sky but we can’t keep doing this.  I have told you in the past that there would be consequences if you didn’t change things around and begin to start making sales.  The bank has made the decision that your services are no longer needed. I’m sorry”
Sky looked at her with with dead eyes. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Sure he hadn’t been making sales goals but he had very good rapport with most of the customers that came to the bank on almost a daily basis.  Personally he believed that the major reason that he had such a good  relationship with the ponies that came to the bank was because he didn’t try to force more garbage on them that they didn’t need.  None of that mattered to the company. He wasn’t making them any extra bits so he was worthless to them.
Something inside him snapped.  All his self loathing boiled outward toward the mare that sat in front of him.  The mare that had told him countless times that she was on his side,  and now that he had needed her to make his case she had just rolled over and let the company fire him.  “Fine,  I guess that to the bank I am just a worthless pile of shit.  thanks for taking two years of my life and giving nothing but a shitty job and terrible case of stress induced  ulcers.  I guess unless I make the fat guys in the comfy chairs some extra money I should just roll over and die.  you know what, Go fuck yourself!”  Sky shook the keys from his foreleg and stormed out of her office not bothering to look at her shocked face.
He stood in the middle of the lobby as loudly as he could while still being understandable shouted “The Royal bank of Equestria doesn’t give a shit about any of you,  you are all just a bunch of numbers to them and they couldn’t care less of you closed your accounts and left”  He then stormed out of the bank and went home.
During his trip home he almost couldn't believe what had come over him. "What the fuck did I just do?  How am I going to get another job? I only have 3 months worth of savings built up at this point.  I am so Fucked"  Sky just let this line of thought consume him the whole way home.  Not even once thinking that maybe this had been a turn for the best.
Stumbling into the apartment, His roommate was already there waiting for him there.  “Hey Sky.  I have something that I need to tell you”  Sky looked at him and wondered what else could go wrong that day.  “So you know how the lease is coming up at the end of next month right?”
“yea, I know.  what about it???”
“Well some stuff has come up and I am going to move,  I found a Job in Fillydelphia and decided that I am going to move out there”
Sky looked at his roommate in shock.  'Now what am I going to do.  I just got fired, My roommate is leaving to move to the other side of Equestria and I only have enough savings built up to live off of for about two months.' He thought to himself.
“Sky are you ok.  you seem kind of out of it?”
“Oh yea.  I was just thinking about some stuff that happened today.  So when are you Leaving?”
“Well I know that this is short notice but I have a train tomorrow,  I will pay the last month of rent and leave a few extra bits for the power bill...  hey wait a minute why are you home so early?”  Brandy really looked at Sky for the first time after he had come in.  His coat was out of sorts and his tie was gone.  “Did something happen at the bank today?”
Sky looked at his roommate and thought ‘couldn’t hurt to tell him,  not like anything could get worse after today’.  “Well I got fired today because I didn’t sell extra useless shit to ponies that didn’t need it.”  Sky stated flatly.
“Fuck dude,  today has not been your day.”  Brandy looked at Sky and shook his head.  He now knew that Sky was hurting in a bad way.  “Listen,  I think I might be able to help you.  My cousin Berry Punch lives down south in Ponyville.  Maybe I could call her and see if she could use any help at her Distillery,  I bet she could use some help.  Would you like me to give her a call?”
Sky thought about it for a moment and sighed.  “That would actually be a huge help.  I don’t think that I will be able to get another job in Canterlot any time soon.  I kind of snapped at bank manager, I said some stuff that can’t be taken back.”  Brandy’s eye rose at he looked at Sky  “I may have told the bank manager to go Fuck herself when I walked out.”
“Damn dude.  That isn’t good.  Let me give my cousin that call.  Who knows,  maybe this is a blessing in disguise.”
Sky trotted over to his couch and let himself fall into it.  ‘Who knows, maybe Ponyville is where I belong after all.’  he thought to himself '*You know that isn’t true.  You don’t belong anywhere. Just wait and see you will fail there just like you failed here.  There is no peace for you'*
‘Shut up brain’  Sky told himself.  ‘I know that this is a long shot but I want to know what it is to be happy.  Maybe, just maybe I can find it there.'  Before he knew it he had drifted off to a fitful nap as his Roommate spoke on the phone.  His last thought before sleep took him was simply ‘It can’t get any worse now. Can It?’