After many hours of watching the news, and endless commentary, most ponies had finally had enough and gone outside. Mattie was far too tired to go outside and socialize though. She had been up far too long into the daylight hours, and her circadian rhythm was punishing her for it. She couldn't even manage to bring herself into a hover as she made her way to the AV room so she could fall asleep in peace.
Once she reached the room, and went inside, she found John passed out already, drooling in his sleep. There was no telling how long he had been asleep. The projector was still displaying the news on the screen out in the sanctuary, and a smaller screen within this mirrored it. She figured she should probably turn it off, but she had no clue how any of this equipment actually worked. She didn't want to risk damaging something out of ignorance, so she just let it continue to play. Hopefully some other pony who knew what they were doing would come by and switch it off without waking the two of them.
She briefly wondered if Luna would visit her again when she slept. It seemed unlikely, at least for today. If she was a princess like Twilight Sparkle she was likely far too busy right now dealing with government officials to bother to follow up with one otherwise inconsequential pony out of half a billion. Luna might find her a curiosity, but Luna was likely being drowned in curiosities right now.
She carefully stepped over to where John was passed out, and very gently settled down next to him so they could be snuggled close together. One of the great things about being a pony over a human was you could do something like this with your fellow ponies and nopony thought anything about it. They all enjoyed their closeness with one another, and understood physical contact didn't imply anything sexual in nature. She had just spent the last few hours in a large room where ponies piled on top of one another without thinking anything unusual about it. If they were humans they would have treated it like they were having an orgy or something. Perhaps it was just the fact ETS had altered her thinking, but she found humans, at least the ones in her previous culture, were strange pricks like that. Maybe they were better elsewhere in the world.
She got herself in a position where she and he could use each other as pillows and let her eyes finally close and herself drift off to sleep.
It felt like she had just closed her eyes when she found herself being shaken back awake. She knew she had to have slept some, but it was nowhere near enough.
"Dad, let me sleep five more minutes. I've got the snooze alarm set," Mattie said without opening her eyes.
"Very cute, or at least you would be if not for the cutie mark on your flank that says you're an ax murderer or something. Come on, we need to get up so we can patrol. The army isn't here yet to keep the peace, so we still have a job to do," she heard John say.
"What time is it?" She opened one eye halfway as she asked.
"A little after nine. We slept in by an hour or two," John answered as he looked at the clock hanging on the wall.
"Speak for yourself. I don't think I went to sleep until around six. I spent basically the whole day awake," Mattie whined.
"Sounds like you just have to deal with the consequences. I was asleep well before that. I remember the President's speech and waiting for that pony to come out to the podium, but don't think I made it to her ever coming out," John said.
"Think that was around four, not sure," Mattie said with a yawn as she slowly pulled herself to her hooves.
"Well, you can catch me up on her speech as we patrol. Normally I would be patrolling with Haley, but don't think she and I are on speaking terms after yesterday," there was a hint of regret in his voice.
"Why were you two always together anyway?" Mattie asked.
"She is...was my fiancee before ETS started. Not sure she is now, boxing her in the eye isn't something she is likely to get over," John said.
That made Mattie's eyes pop open wide. She had a lot more sympathy for Haley, rather than wishing she was getting what was coming to her now. Somepony really needed to check on her to see if she was alright, and not in terms of the black eye. She had her differences with the mare but..crap. Mattie wasn't sure she wanted to patrol with John either now.
"I think we should patrol different areas for tonight. I am going to go see Haley," Mattie announced.
"Are you going to talk to her for me?" John asked.
"I'm not sure if I'll be saying anything on your behalf or not. That was your fiancée, and you hit her. That is not cool, that is not okay. It doesn't matter what I think of her as a pony, that is simply not okay. You god damned bragged about it too. Ponies are not supposed to do this kind of crap," Mattie said heatedly. "I do know she is likely hurt, confused, angry, and afraid of what comes next, and she needs somepony that isn't the focus of all that to talk to her."
"But the patrol...," John started.
"She's a night pony, she'll be on patrol, it's in her blood. She and I can talk and patrol at the same time. You just focus on this area," Mattie said harshly. John lowered his ears and nodded his head in response.
Mattie left the room without so much as another word to John. She needed to get something to eat and think before she went out to patrol and find Haley. She decided to see if her mother was still awake.
Walking into the sanctuary she found a number of ponies had re-entered it for the night. Her mother was easy to spot up by the altar, flipping through a Bible with her magic turning the pages. Mattie flew over to her.
As she landed she noticed a change in her mother. On her mother's flank now was the image of a Bible being gripped by two pony hooves. Her mother caught her staring at it and gave her a smile.
"Seems to be the day for earning cutie marks, a lot of us got them today. I think seeing all the stuff on the news made us think about who we really are," her mother said in a contented voice.
"I'm glad you found what makes you happy. Want to tell me about it?" Mattie said with a smile.
"Not much to say, it's pretty clear with me. I'm a pony dedicated to her faith and determined to spread it, using whatever tools I have. Once I focused on that fact the mark came. I've decided to take up a new name as well, Sunset Blessing," her mother said as she continued to smile.
"Naming yourself after a pony that most consider to be a terrorist might not be the best way for us to endear ourselves to others, particularly the humans or the Equestrians," Mattie said apprehensively.
"I'm making my beliefs clear as crystal with my name. I believe we're all better off as ponies, and I want to encourage the humans to want what we have, and to not be afraid of it. There is so much peace between us all, the old prejudices are gone, everypony just naturally wants to help one another and be kind to one another," Blessing said with enthusiasm that she rarely used in the past.
"Can't humans do that too?" Mattie asked.
"We also have all these new abilities that we didn't have before. The pegasi were making rain earlier today, actually making it! Those crops the earth ponies are tending? They are growing already after such a short time, in soil that has no business sprouting anything because it just got dug up under a parking lot. You can touch the dreams of others! I may just be turning pages in a Bible right now, but I could feel before I even saw the news that there could be much more I could do with my horn; seeing what the Equestrians were able to accomplish with their magic excites me, and makes me wonder what we can do in the future," Mattie's mom continued on extolling the greatness of ponies.
"But why name yourself after that terrorist?" Mattie asked.
"She wasn't a terrorist, she was a pony doing God's work, and I name myself after her because I want to see that work continued. We can find a way to make transformations happen again in the future, once we learn enough, and we can do it a better way. It might take us a long time to learn how to do it, perhaps longer than I'll be alive, but we will figure it out, someday," her mother..Sunset Blessing said with excitement and conviction.
"Just be careful, we don't want to make the humans uneasy. Maybe focus on the Blessing part more than the Sunset part. At least until things settle down," Mattie replied. She didn't want her mother getting herself into trouble; she agreed with her mother on some things, but caution was needed. Sunset Blessing, as she called herself now, was a little too in-your-face about things that had every human fearful.
"I don't want to be misleading about what I believe," Sunset Blessing said firmly.
"You don't need to be, but we need to be settled and find out how things are going to go now. See where we will be living, and all that. I doubt that we can just head home after this is all said and done, our house isn't built with ponies in mind. Not to mention the fact dad's name is on the mortgage," Mattie said.
"Oh, I was trying to put him out of mind," Sunset Blessing said with lowered ears. "I had thought we could stay here though."
"Mom...we are on private property. I'm already starting to worry that the church is going to freak out when they see what we did to their parking lot after letting this place be used as a shelter. The church staff is not here, they fled, and I doubt they expected us to start doing massive remodeling to the grounds. It isn't likely that they are going to allow us all to just keep staying here when they come back," Mattie explained patiently.
She had a suspicion that a lot of ponies seemed to have lost the concept of personal property somewhere along the way. In the last few weeks there had been this sense that all the old world was just going to fade away so there was no need to worry about who owned what. She knew she had lost it herself, and had only regained it as she started considering how things were going to go now with the end of ETS.
"So where do we go?" Sunset Blessing said with lowered ears.
"I'm sure something will be worked out. All the ponies have this kind of problem. Even the ones with homes to go back to can't possibly keep up with house payments now when most of us won't be able to return to old jobs. All of us need somewhere to go. They won't leave a quarter of the population just homeless," Mattie said as she looked at the other ponies spread about the sanctuary.
"I hope they don't," Sunset Blessing sighed sadly, as she continued flipping through her Bible.
"I need to ask. What...happened with you and Tonya?" Mattie said hesitantly. Her mother blushed an even brighter red as response.
"I am not judging you," Mattie continued. "I'm just trying to understand why. You were one of the ones condemning people on the streets for being gay or lesbian, and the day after you sent Dad away you are suddenly having sex with a mare half your age."
"It's complicated," her mother said as she laid her face down on her Bible.
"Try to explain it for me," Mattie insisted as she walked over and cuddled close to her mother.
"It is a lot of things. I'd just lost my partner through life. I was feeling like no pony would want me that way anymore. I was talking to Tonya about all the stuff I didn't feel comfortable talking to you about, and I don't know how it escalated to that. I was also talking about how I had spent a lot of my life hating ponies that I didn't understand, and feeling so emotional, and she was there, and she had all this obvious sexual tension in her that she was trying her best to not show. I just out of nowhere kissed her, and the next thing you know we were rolling around in one of the private rooms of the church. I won't give you the full details on that part," Sunset Blessing said, using only one or two breaths to get through saying that.
"So are you into mares now or something?" Mattie said, feeling uncomfortable discussing her mother's sexuality.
"I don't know, perhaps my beliefs blinded me to being open to those kinds of relationships for myself. I'm not certain if I was closeted like you, but it is a possibility. I'm not checking out mares as I look at them, if that is what you mean," Blessing said with a flick of her tail.
"But Tonya? She is three months younger than me. You condemned her for being trans for years, even if you recently apologized," Mattie said, still feeling disbelief about the situation.
"I don't think that is the beginning of any sort of relationship, or anything like that. Just the two of us giving each other something we needed right then. It was a one time thing, and I don't regret it. It was a needed release," Sunset Blessing said with a shrug.
"Oh," Mattie said, not sure what to say about all that. Again, this was not something a foal wanted to think about in regards to a parent. It did drive home the fact that it was over between her mom and dad though.
"I don't think there is anything else to discuss about this particular subject. I don't think it matters who either one of us decides to spend that kind of time with, though I do hope I get some grandfoals out of you eventually. Have you eaten anything yet?" Blessing asked, deftly pivoting the conversation away from the subject. Her mother had indeed come up with an excellent way of escaping the conversation. Food sounded like a great subject over the prospect of continuing the discussion and talking about the possibility of grandfoals. She just got the capability to have foals this week, she wasn't ready to actually think about having them.
"Yeah, food sounds great, if you can get a can open for me. I need to get out patrolling soon. I'm going to be outside the normal area tonight, I have somepony I need to attend to," Mattie said, hoping her mother wasn't going to push the subject of grandfoals.
"Somepony somewhere else? Who? We haven't really gotten to really go anywhere since the transformation completed," Sunset Blessing said with confusion as she began walking away from the altar.
"I need to talk to Haley, she and John have some..issues that I found out about. It is kind of a private matter, and I doubt either of them want me talking about it to anypony. I doubt Haley is going to be happy I know," Mattie said as she hovered along with her mother, the lower part of her body hanging limply as her wings carried her along.
"Well, if it is private why are you putting your muzzle in it?" Blessing said with a raised eyebrow as they walked by the pantry and she grabbed up a can of food in her magic, sliced peaches in this case. Mattie scrunched up her muzzle as she looked at them, she longed so much for fresh produce.
"I think they really prefer I not say. I think it is important enough that I need to do something though," Mattie said simply. She wasn't ready to break her mother's belief in ponies being perfect beings incapable of doing horrible things to one another. The idea that she was dealing with a pony that hit his fiancee deeply bothered her. She supposed that while the transformation had gone a long way to make them nicer to one another it didn't fix all problems, her father was another example of a pony that still had a streak of cruelty about him. Deviations from the norm they might be, but they still existed.
"Well, don't stress them too much if they tell you that it is none of your concern. I know you were sleeping, but wanted to let you know we haven't really heard anything about when the military is supposed to be getting here yet. Some pony is sitting next to the phone just in case some government person tries to call the shelter," Blessing informed her as she passed the now open can of sliced peaches to Mattie.
Mattie nodded agreement as she stuffed some of the much too soggy peaches into her mouth using a wing. All the while she sat and tried to think of what she was going to say to Haley.