//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: Getting Pieces Back Together // Story: Pandemic: What you are Meant to Be // by Halira //------------------------------// As the sun came into view Mattie and Haley approached the church compound. There wasn't going to be any time to settle or even land as John spotted them in the air and went to meet them. "Haley, Mattie you brought her back with you to talk, thank you," John called to them. The two night pony mares gave each other a shared unreadable glance between one each other. Mattie gave a silent gesture to the same woods she tried to sleep in previously. This was going to be a scene, and there was no need to do it in the air where ponies in general could just watch it all unfold. Haley caught her gesture and curbed her flight towards it with Mattie following after. John followed silently after the two of them. The woods weren't dense or deep by any means, a mere acre or two deep barrier between where the where the frontage road was and the housing beyond. It was enough to provide cover for three ponies in need of keeping a conversation private. They all landed and Haley moved to put more distance between herself and John as he tried to walk over by her. He seemed to take the hint and sat down where he was. "I'm going to get straight to the point with no arguments. We're done John. I can't trust you to control your temper around me. I wasn't even in need of you controlling your temper, I could deal with yelling and I yell back, but hitting me is a line that has been crossed one too many times. I thought we were beyond that since becoming ponies, but I was wrong. We are done," Haley said out calmly and firmly, a forced calm, like she was just getting through reading a paper in front of an audience. "Haley, it was just one slip, and you were completely out of line. You can't expect me to be perfect all the time when you say and do such stupid things. You're overreacting," John said like he was lecturing a foal. "We didn't even argue this time. You heard me say something you didn't agree with and you decked me in the eye and took off without so much checking on me," Haley said in a rising tone. "You were doing something that was going to get us in trouble with the humans. You were being stupid," John said with a rising tone. "You didn't even try to talk to me about it. You just hit me and took off!" Haley yelled. "I didn't have time to deal with you acting like a foal. There was urgent work to do and you would have gotten in the way. If I had time to walk you through how you were wrong I would have, but stuff needed to get done," John hissed. "I'm not a foal. I'm a grown mare! And is that the way you would treat any foals of ours if we had them? Just give them a black eye if they say something you don't like?" Haley demanded. "Spare the rod, spoil the foal," John spat. "It's spare the rod, spoil the child. We don't have to ponify old sayings," Haley snapped. "We don't have to ponify old sayings," John repeated in a mocking voice. "This coming from the mare that wanted to let ETS just keep going and have all the humans ready to wipe us out because she never thinks." "I do think. Yeah, I'm not the smartest pony, but I'm not stupid. I can figure stuff out," Haley said with tears welling up in her eyes. "You aren't thinking now. You're trying to toss aside the only pony that will put up with you. No pony but me will be willing to deal with you acting like an idiot," John hissed. Mattie had enough at this point. This bastard was going to keep browbeating Haley, and Haley was right about his tactics. She was not going to let Haley get what little confidence she had shattered by this oaf. "That is enough!" Mattie shouted as she glared at John. "You repeatedly denounce her intelligence, have the nerve to make her feel like crap about herself, mock her, and try to justify hitting her. She doesn't need a horse's ass like you. She's not perfect but she doesn't deserve that, no pony deserves that. You're a night pony, you're supposed to protect ponies, but you've got her living in fear of you! Get away from this area." "It's no concern of yours, keep your muzzle out of it," John said as he spread his wings threateningly towards Mattie. "Are you going to hit me too?" Mattie asked with a glare. "If you can't keep out of other ponies' business I'll do far more than just hit you," John growled. "Don't you dare!" Haley yelled as she now took a fighting stance. "If you're so determined to just beat others into submission come at us. We might be smaller than you by a little, but there are two of us and one of you. I like our odds of shredding your wings." Mattie took her own fighting posture as well and she and Haley sat ready for any sign of attack from him. He glared between the two off them, seeming to weigh whether he could come out on top in this fight. "Fine, I'll leave. But we're done Haley. Don't you dare come crawling back to me hoping I'll take you back because nopony wants you. You made your bed, now lay in it," John say before spitting on the ground and launching himself in the air. He glared down at them for just a second more from the air before taking off further north. Haley deflated like a balloon once he was out of sight, laying down on the ground and wrapping her forelegs and wings around her face. Mattie could hear her crying. Mattie came over to Haley and snuggled her body close while laying down as well. She extended one wing over her marefriend's back and brought a hoof up to gently brush Haley's purple mane in a soothing gesture. Haley uncovered her face from her own wings and instead turned her head and buried it in Mattie's fur, still crying. "We don't have to go anywhere if you don't want to. We can stay right here and get some sleep. I know you're tired, and I'm well beyond tired myself. Hopefully sometime today the military will be showing up to keep the peace and we won't need to patrol tonight. I think we both could stand for a full night to just relax and take it easy," Mattie said as she continued to run her hoof over the other mare's mane. "I'd like that," Haley mumbled into Mattie's fur. Then pulled her head up and gave Mattie a quick kiss on the lips. "Thank you, for being there for me when dealing with him. We don't have to stay right here though. I'd like to get out of the sun, and not have to deal worry about bugs crawling on my fur." "If that's what you want I have no problem with that either. It's only a short glide back over to the church. We can see what ponies are up. If my mother actually wakes up early for once I can better introduce you to her as my new marefriend. She used to be a bit of a homophobe, but I'm pretty sure she has completely gotten over that since becoming a pony," Mattie said. "Are you sure she has? Ponies don't necessarily change. You saw that with John," Haley said with a tinge of anxiety to her voice. "I'm pretty sure in this case. The pony Tonya had sex with was my mom. Um, don't mention that I told you that to anypony. It really isn't anypony's business but theirs, but I wanted to make clear I think my mother is over her homophobia," Mattie said with a little shake of her wings. "Guessing your mom and dad's little fallout we were seeing when we helped you get her to the church never got any better," Haley said with lowered ears. "She basically told him she didn't want to see him again after they both finished transforming," Mattie said in a near whisper. She wasn't sure she wanted to talk about this, it hurt. Haley picked up on Mattie's mood and nuzzled her head up against Mattie's neck in comfort. Mattie couldn't stop herself, she started crying. She hadn't really cried about this yet, but it was coming now. As the tears started to flow Haley wrapped a leg and wing around her and pulled her close, reversing their earlier position of who was crying on who's fur. "What all happened? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to right now. But talking about it might make you feel better," Haley said in a soothing voice as she in turn started brushing Mattie's green mane. Mattie was quiet for a moment and just let herself enjoy the feel of Haley's wing embrace and brushing. It felt good to have a pony giving her this kind of comfort. It was something that she never had gotten when she was growing up. Her parents just didn't think that was something you did with males. Males were supposed to be strong and not show emotion and not need such comforts. They were supposed to just be the rock in the storm that didn't budge no matter what. She wondered if she had been trying to hard most of her life to live up to that kind of standard because it was what her parents expected of her. It was stupid, even if she were a male that was just going to make her emotionally stunted. She wondered how many others were like that. It was a cultural thing so it was likely an epidemic of its own. "My dad didn't take kindly to the transformation. He had a lot of prejudices that carried over with him. One of those was him insisting I was a male and that was what God intended. He called me an abomination, a perversion, and my mother didn't take well to him saying that," Mattie started to explain. "I thought you said she was a homophobe before. What made her suddenly get angry about this?" Haley asked. "She'd been a lot like him before, and I'm not exactly sure why things changed with her but didn't change with him. She took to the transformation itself like a fish to water. She embraced everything about being a pony, she figured it was what God intended. He on the other hoof resisted," Mattie answered. "She still feels that it was what God intended after hearing the news?" Haley asked with confusion. "It doesn't seem that she has given up that belief even after learning about Sunset Shimmer, she just shifted her belief to Sunset Shimmer was trying to do God's will. I think she thinks of Sunset Shimmer as some sort of prophet of God or something to tell the truth, despite the fact none of us ever met the pony and know next to nothing about her," Mattie said with a roll of her eyes. "I can't find it in me to hate Sunset Shimmer for making me a pony either, but worship of the mare seems a little extreme," Haley said with an odd smirk. "But even before all that she had changed her mind about me. She found out I was becoming a mare physically and I guess she just embraced that as God's will as well. My father called her demon possessed for that, along with her embracing being a pony; he said that we shouldn't be happy to be ponies, and should try to keep our humanity. The two of them fought and she told him she didn't want him around me or her anymore," Mattie explained. "So your dad rejected you?" Haley asked as she continued brushing Mattie's mane. "Yes, no, it's hard to say. He rejected the fact that I'm a mare, or at least that I should be a mare. He seemed to be concerned about my well being from what little I could tell. It's complicated," Mattie said with her face turned down and shoulders slumped. "Where's he now?" Haley asked. "My best guess? He went back home. If not he went to some other shelter then I haven't a clue which one. Most likely the elementary school since it's closest. We didn't really ask where he was going and not sure he knew either. He didn't seem to want to be around other ponies, so most likely just back home," Mattie said with a shrug. "I haven't met any ponies that wanted to just avoid everypony yet. It seems like we all have a drive to be around other ponies. I've seen ponies have no problem with just cuddling up next to a complete stranger as a pillow, and try to make friends with just about every pony we talk to. We night ponies even have it, and we're up all night while the other ponies are asleep. We're like the most touchy-feely creatures in existence by design, it's hard to imagine he would just avoid everypony," Haley said with slight disbelief. "He seemed determined to not be very ponyish. He was forcing himself to say human terms for things instead of pony ones. I know it takes me putting thought into it to say things like woman instead of mare, or boy instead of colt; it's hardwired into us, but he seemed to be doing it fine," Mattie responded with a glance in the direction she knew her old home was at, wondering what her father was doing now. "Maybe you can still talk to him, without your mom. Maybe since some time has passed he might be more willing to talk. Plus having him have to deal with you as a mare might make it hard to deny facts. I think it's at least worth trying," Haley said as she nuzzled Mattie again along the neck. "Maybe, not right now though. I'm way too tired for any more confrontations today. Let's just head back to the church for right now," Mattie said with a nudge to her marefriend to let her know that she was about to stand. The two stood up without any further discussion and Mattie took the lead back into the air towards the church with Haley following quickly behind. As soon as they came into view of the church they got a small shock though. There was a lot of activity going on at this early hour that must have just started in the last few minutes as it had not been going on when they first flew over the grounds. Every single last pony seemed to be up and active. The unicorns and earth ponies were working tirelessly to try to move the pavement back to where it belonged, which was not an easy task since it was mostly rubble. She could see them working in pairs to try to smooth it out, but it wasn't exactly working well. The earth ponies looked particularly unhappy as they worked as the area they cleared to farm was being covered again. The pegasi were hard at work trying to dive in and gather anything that might resemble food from the farms before the farms were gone forever. A few other earth ponies and unicorns were trying to deconstruct the barrier around the compound. "Maybe we should have just stayed in the woods. Actually, maybe we should find somewhere further away than that if we intend on getting any sleep. This looks like it's going to be a loud and noisy day here," Haley said as she stared at all the activity. "What're they even doing?" "I think they're trying to put the church grounds back in order. Not sure how they are going to end up doing that with all the stuff we did, or why the rush to do it now. There must have been a some news about the humans coming. Let's try to get some information real fast then we can figure out what to do about a place to sleep," Mattie said as she gestured towards the pegasi that were in the air. "As long as they don't try to rope us into helping too. I need my sleep," Haley said with a cautious voice as she continued to watch all the activity happening. They quickly found Tonya in the air looking a little lost about what she should be doing. The pegasus gave them a big smile as she saw them approach. "Hi! Wondered where you were off at. Not sure if you're getting any sleep today with all this noise, but you're welcome to try to find a room somewhere in the church," Tonya greeted them, giving a quizzical look at Haley's presence. "What is even going on? When we flew over just a few minutes ago this place was mostly still asleep," Mattie asked as she gestured down at the activity below. "Oh, guess you didn't hear. Humans are arriving this afternoon. We got the call really late last night. There's going to be a bunch of soldiers, doctors, census takers, and relief workers going to all the shelters. We're going to have like six trucks worth of humans and supplies coming specifically to us at our shelter," Tonya explained with excitement. "What's everypony doing though?" Mattie said as she gestured again at all the activity in case Tonya missed it the first time. "They said they needed us to make sure they had space to operate. Earth ponies are really grumpy about having to cover over their farming, but the government guys were really insistent. Everypony got up early to get to work on making sure things are ready. I'm kind of confused about what I should be doing right now though, seems the unicorns and earth ponies have this all in hoof," Tonya said as she continued to glance around with some uncertainty. "Maybe you can go around and make sure all the shelters know. No telling if anypony at each shelter took the time to actually stay near the phone," Mattie suggested. "That's not a bad idea actually," Tonya said as she looked up with a smile. Then glanced off in the distance at the housing. "Maybe some pony should go door to door letting anypony or human that's still out there that the government is on its way." "Maybe, but I would suggest doing that in groups. You don't know how the humans might react to a pony knocking on their door," Mattie cautioned. "Probably a good idea," Tonya said as she scrunched up her muzzle. "Completely off topic, what does your cutie mark mean? I know all about how you got it, but didn't ever ask what it meant," Mattie asked, stressing the part about knowing all about how Tonya got it. Tonya was visibly taken off guard by the question and looked very uncomfortable as she considered. "Um, this seems like a sit down and talk about it thing. Don't think we can do that right now. I promise to stay up and talk to you tonight about it though. You aren't...mad about the how are you?" Tonya squeaked near the end. "That part is none of my business. Just trying to understand some stuff is all," Mattie assured her. Tonya let out a visible sigh of relief. "Sure thing then. Talk to you tonight in the sanctuary. In the meantime you might want to go somewhere quieter. I suggest the duck pond. Nice and quiet and far from all the shelters. Has a little bit of bushes for cover too," Tonya said as she looked off in the appropriate direction. "We'll do that. Thanks Tonya," Mattie replied.