The two left the church and were in the air within a minute and a half, with Haley guiding the way. The flight to Hannahan was longer than any previous flight that either had done, but not by any extreme amount.
The flight took them over the hospital and university and Mattie saw that the relief crews were having all the problems that she expected them to have with that area. There were a lot more trucks than at the church, at least twenty, and they were all on the opposite side of the interstate over the bridge from the hospital and surrounding shelters because the roads were completely impassable on the other side of the bridge. There was a great deal of foot traffic by humans going back and forth over the bridge, and Mattie had to take a guess there was almost certainly a doctor that was still up and alert in all of this. It was going to be a long night for these humans, and likely a few long days until some sort of order was in place. She could see that they were trying to take census but the overtired ponies weren't helping matters. She had nothing but sympathy for human and pony alike dealing with that mess.
It wasn't Mattie or Haley's concern though. They flew on past and crossed over the actual Goose Creek. Haley had to pause in the air and look around as seeing the area from up above was much different than seeing it from the ground, and while she realized that just going the normal way wasn't the fastest route, landmarks looked very different and had her lose her sense of where she was at from time to time.
Eventually they finally flew into Hannahan and found the apartment building. It took longer than it should have due to trying to figure out topography from the air, but they still managed to reach the destination in about twenty-five minutes of flying.
The apartment building complex was a group of about eight buildings, all two story, with all the apartments having exterior doors and no interior corridors. That was the way most apartments in the area were but there were a few exceptions. Mattie breathed a sigh of relief that they didn't have to go walking through narrow hallways with the possibility of running into who knew who along the way.
Haley silently landed on the second floor of one of the buildings and Mattie landed right after. Their landing was soft enough that it was unlikely that any of the residents had heard it, and they didn't see any residents out and about around the complex at this hour, human or pony.
Haley looked at one of the doors warily and Mattie walked over to her and have her a comforting nuzzle, bringing a small smile Haley's face. The blue night pony took a deep breath and walked over to the door with the grey night pony trailing close behind. With a moment's more hesitation she finally raised her hoof and knocked on the door.
The door swung open almost immediately, startling both the mares. Standing in the doorway was a middle aged Hispanic man with short cropped hair, glasses, and a clean shaven face. He was wearing a Clemson University t-shirt and a pair of baggy sweat pants, all of which looked like they hadn't been washed in days, and the scent coming off them more or less confirmed it. Be stared down at Haley for a long silent moment, taking a quick glance at Mattie, and then returning his gaze at Haley.
"Papa?" Haley said hesitantly as the silence stretched on.
The man's face lit up with a huge smile after Haley spoke and he reached down and grabbed her up in a tight hug.
"My little dust bunny! We were so worried about you. Sorry I was silent, I was just processing the change," the man said happily as he gripped his daughter in a tighter and tighter hug.
"Ack Papa! I like breathing! And no calling me dust bunny in front of my marefriend! You'll embarace me," Haley said as she was caught up in the grip. She didn't seem to be putting up any actual fight to escape the hug, much the opposite despite her protests. Mattie giggled at the nickname and wondered what had earned Haley that one.
"Roger! Bring them in, don't keep your daughter and her partner sitting outside the door. Where are your manners? Bring them inside so the rest of us can see them," came the voice that Mattie recognized as the voice of Haley's mother.
"Yes, right away," Haley's father, Roger, said. He seemed to hesitate about putting Haley back down and Mattie wondered if the man was just going to carry Haley in for a moment. He did end up putting Haley down and then stepped aside so the two mares could walk through the door.
As they walked in they were greeted with shouts of enthusiasm from most of the family at a volume that hurt Mattie's ears, and looked to hurt Haley's too. Standing was a middle aged woman, also with glasses, who was wearing a nightgown that was much cleaner than her husband's clothes. There was an extremely elderly woman who looked so withered that you could sneeze and knock her over. Sitting on the floor with a forgotten video still playing were two younger teen boys that looked like they could be twins. On a couch behind the boys was a green earth pony mare who's mane and tail were a very bright lavender color, she had softer facial features than typical for a mare despite her being mare sized. The mare too had her ears lowered like the volume in the apartment was hurting her ears.
"I am happy to see you all too, but..volume..," Haley said with a forced smile as she brought her wings over her ears.
"Yeah, not so loud. Pony ears, remember?" the mare on the couch whined.
"Sorry Haley, sorry Cathy, sorry Haley's girlfriend," one of the boys said in a much lower voice. Then volume from him picked up again slightly. "You have bat wings and can fly. That's so cool. Cathy didn't get bat wings."
"Cathy can probably bench press a car though so there is that. She is like the Hulk, super strong and green. I wish I could have gotten super powers too," the other boy chimed in.
"If you two keep comparing me to the Hulk I am going to show you how much of a rage monster I can be," Cathy snapped at her brothers.
"Catherine Abigail Martinez! Do not threaten your brothers. Miguel, apologize to your sister, you know she doesn't like that," Haley's mother scolded.
"But it isn't an insult! It is cool that she is super strong," the boy, Miguel protested.
"Miguel, now," Haley's mother said firmly.
"I'm sorry for comparing you to the Hulk," Miguel muttered to his sister.
"Just stop doing it," Cathy grumbled back. The mare then brightened up her face a bit and hopped down from the couch and trotted over to them. She grabbed Haley up in her forelegs and gave her sister a big hug. "I am so glad I am not the only pony in the family. Well, I knew you were going to be since you had symptoms way before me, but it is a relief to actually see you."
"I love you too, Cathy, but please ease up on the hug. You really are strong and I'm not as durable as you. I think you might be bruising my ribs," Haley said in a strained voice, clearly struggling to break her little sister's vise-like grip.
"Sorry," Cathy said as she broke off the hug suddenly and took a few steps back and sat down with her head lowered. "I'm still getting used to trying to control my strength. I have broken a few things by accident, but I am getting better at it."
"We just need to get you around a few more earth ponies so you have ponies as strong and durable as you to let loose with. I heard you were messing with Mama's potted plants too. I guess you are eager to try growing things too like all the other earth ponies. I can understand, even if those aren't my things," Haley said sympathetically.
"What are your things?" Roger asked as he looked down at his daughter. Mattie just noticed how all the family had been silent as the two sisters greeted one another.
"Um, kind of just being protective. Ponies for the most part sleep during the night, but night ponies like me and Mattie here stay up all night and just instinctively try to guard. We do a few other things that are really hard to explain, and I am not sure I should try to explain. Just count It as mysterious night pony stuff. We have our own magic and it involves things that I don't think a lot other ponies or humans would take too well knowing about. We protect ponies in lots of ways, let's leave it at that," Haley said with a shuffle of her hooves.
Mattie could tell what was avoiding talking about. Subduing nightmares and spreading the vision, those seemed like things that most humans would feel exceedingly uncomfortable with. It seemed to Mattie that most ponies should too, but she only had her mother as an example and her mother seemed not to care at all; if not fully endorse it. It also occurred to her then that she didn't know what Haley's current feelings on those things were. Haley had been a full advocate for them before her disillusionment, was she an advocate for them still?
"You haven't properly introduced us all to your girlfriend," Haley's mother said. Mattie stiffened up, unsure if she should be happy they weren't going to push Haley on what night ponies do, or terrified that her own time had come.
"Of course," Haley said with a smile, clearly happy she was off the spot. "Everyone, this is Mattie. Mattie this is my mama, Jean; my brothers Jose and Miguel, and yes they are twins; my abuelita, who is a lot tougher than she looks; my papa, Roger; and of course Cathy."
"Um, hi," Mattie squeaked, suddenly eager to just cover her face with her wings. Her wings actually did twitch to start moving up to do so, but Mattie pulled them back in time to prevent it.
"She is a little closed up, so don't be upset if she isn't very talkative about herself. We are working on getting her to open up a bit more. We are both kind of fixer-upers. She is much more talkative when she is concerning herself with others," Haley said with a smile before giving Mattie a quick kiss. Mattie couldn't help herself, her wings snapped open, prompting laughter from the family.
"How did you two meet? Was it at the shelter? What happened to John?" Cathy asked excitedly.
"John and I had..a disagreement, and John lost his temper," Haley said carefully. Her siblings didn't seem to catch it, but her parents' and grandmother's faces darkened, and Mattie could tell that both of Haley's parents were now carefully looking at the slight swelling still around Haley's eye with tightly controlled anger. They apparently knew what went on with John's temper. "After Mattie heard about it she came and tried to see if I was okay. We talked for a little while. Things just kind of happened from there. I expressed my interest in her, not even knowing for sure if she was into mares, and she ended up having interest in me. The next day Mattie stood by me as I kicked John to the curb, she gave me the confidence to say I didn't need him anymore."
"Well, it is a good thing that he is gone. I can say that is at least one change that is definitely for the better. You never should have gotten involved with him, you are better than that. If Mattie here helped you see that then she is starting off on the right foot..um..hoof with me," Jean said with a smile, though she still had a concerned look in her eyes as she looked at Haley's eye.
Mattie decided to address the eye without actually addressing the eye.
"We barely know anything about our own bodies, and are hoping those Equestria ponies show up here to explain things to us soon. I tried to get Haley to the doctor tonight, just to make sure everything was okay. There are a lot of relief workers that came to the shelter today. They said to come back in the day, which is a pain for us because we are nocturnal. We are going to go back in the morning and try again though," Mattie explained.
"Just dealing with some swelling since right before Mattie checked on me. I am okay, don't worry," Haley said with a single blink of her eye to her mother to cement what she was talking about.
Unfortunately this was all lost on Cathy.
"Swelling? You aren't pregnant, are you?" Cathy gasped.
"Pregnant? No! At least, I better not be. I definitely don't want to be having a foal right now. One of the benefits of being with another mare is I shouldn't have to worry about that," Haley said in a flabbergasted tone at her sister.
Mattie filed that away in her head as something to ask the doctors to check as well with Haley. Haley had been a pony at least a full day or two, if not more, before her falling out with John. She assumed that the two of them may well have done things in that period of time, and pony reproductive systems were one of many things they had no clue about yet. It was most likely not an issue, but better safe than sorry. For all they knew two mares could somehow get each other pregnant, unlikely as that seemed to be for a possibility. They really needed to get some of those Equestria ponies to give them full explanations of these things.
Things settled into just casual conversation for a while after that. With Haley's family recounting what it was like being isolated in their apartment, and the two older mares telling about the shelters and what they had seen flying around. Cathy eventually just fell asleep on the couch, far too exhausted to stay up. The two boys were ordered to bed, and it was just the adults left to talk.
"So Mattie, tell us more about yourself. What you were doing before all of the world just turned upside down," Roger finally asked. Mattie felt a surge of panic rush through her as she realized the time of her being judged had arrived.
"I worked at the local grocery store as an overnight stocker. It paid alright, but not nearly enough for me to get my own place, so I was living with my parents while I saved money," Mattie said, keeping to the safe parts of her former life.
"Were you in college?" River asked.
"No, never went. Never really had a pull towards any particular job field and didn't want to spend money on college if I didn't have some goal in mind. I heard horror stories all the time about people who went to college and were drowning in debt for the rest of their lives," Mattie said. Haley blushed at hearing this and Haley's mother sighed.
"Oh don't speak of that. We are all too aware of that with Haley. Girl gets a degree in Ancient History, not even archaeology. We tried to encourage her go on and at least finish her masters and then doctorate so she could at least teach at a university, but she got involved with John and that went out the window. Now she is saddled with student loan debt for the rest of her life and nothing worthwhile to show for it. What a waste," Jean said with an irritated huff.
"Maybe I could go back. I only graduated with my bachelor's last year, not much time has passed," Haley spoke up.
"Dear, you are a pony. I am not sure the universities will be willing to accept you because of that," Roger said in a sympathetic voice.
"I had an almost perfect grade point average, only classes I didn't have A's in were a few of the liberal arts core things that they make everypony take, like calculus, and botany. My history grades and writing grades were all perfect. None of it requires me to operate machinery or anything like that. I can still do it as a pony," Haley said defensively.
"Dust bunny, I know you loved history and invested a lot of time into it, but things have happened that make that impossible. Maybe if they come up with a way to change you back to human there might be a chance, but as a pony it just isn't going to happen," Roger said in a consoling tone.
"I don't want to go back to being human if there is some way they come up with for doing that. I want to be able to follow my passion as a pony," Haley said with her tone rising.
"You weren't so adamant about this when you were with John," Jean said.
"John held me back and I was a stupid filly that let him. Just talking about this made me realize how important that part of my life is to me. They have to integrate ponies into society, they can't just shove us all aside. I can find a way to make this work as a pony. I proved that I could do it as a human, I can prove it all over again as a pony. I want to learn all I can about ancient history and I want to get other humans and ponies to care about it," Haley said with passion oozing from her voice. Mattie could only smile as she watched her marefriend's flank briefly glow, and then leave behind the unmistakable declaration of Haley's commitment. It was a large clay tablet with writing in several different types of ancient scripts. Mattie recalled the object from her own history classes, the Rosetta Stone.
Haley looked around at her flank and grinned with victory as her parents let off shocked gasps. She then turned around and announced proudly.
"That confirms it. No going back. Think it gives me a new name too, Rosetta Stone," Rosetta declared happily.