Rosetta's parents didn't just drop Cathy off at the front of the church as the couple thought they would. Instead the SUV pulled onto the church grounds and parked on the freshly made gravel. This wasn't a bad thing, as the family likely needed to be counted in the census and from what they had seen there was no location to do that at in Hannahan, on account that Hannahan had no actual shelters.
Despite the fact they were both up past their typical bedtime they weren't that tired yet, and Rosetta had an extra bounce in her step as the doors to the SUV opened.
"Hi Rosetta, hi Rosetta's girlfriend," Jose said as he was the first to exit out.
"You got my name right, good for you. But can you please start calling her Remedy or Phobia? Also the term is marefriend not girlfriend when it is ponies," Rosetta said good naturedly.
"Phobia, marefriend, got it. Sorry Phobia," Jose said with an extra wave at Remedy.
"No problem, Jose. You get an A for effort since you are trying," Remedy said with a smile.
"I thought this place would be more crawling with ponies," Roger said as he stepped out of the vehicle and looked around.
"The pegasi are mostly all out flying to different places and will be back later on. The earth ponies are off in the woods trying to do some farming without being noticed," Rosetta explained, then turned to Remedy. "I have no idea what the unicorns are up to, do you, Remedy?"
"I've no clue. I should've asked Tonya about it when I was just talking to her. I saw some of them go out, but most must still be in the church or other buildings," Remedy said as she looked back towards where the pegasus was now taking a report and giving instructions to a team of three pegasi lead by Joy.
"So where are the other earth ponies?" Cathy said excitedly as she hopped out of the back of the vehicle.
"I'll get you to them in a little while. We've got to get you counted in the census. Are the rest of you able to hang around long enough for that to do the same?" Rosetta asked.
"We were actually planning on spending all day here with her today. We all needed to get out and about anyway, and we want to try to understand our daughters a little better now that they're ponies. You kind of stressed that we didn't get you two at length last night," Roger explained.
"You're only going to get a little while with me. I've got to get to sleep eventually. This's going to be really late going to bed as it is for me and getting up early if I want to see you off. Called a night pony for a reason," Rosetta said with a glance up at the sun. "Not heading to bed yet though."
"Where do you sleep?" Jean asked as she stepped around the car.
"Remedy and I found a nice little clearing by an oak in the woods. That's kind of our private spot to sleep," Rosetta said gesturing north with a wing.
"You sleep in the woods? Like out in the open in the woods?" Miguel asked, the two parents looked concerned.
"I have fur and it is getting pretty warm, so sleeping outside doesn't bother me. Don't worry, Remedy is insisting we find somewhere indoors to stay after the migration so we aren't out in the elements when it isn't so nice outside," Rosetta said with a smile before going and giving a head nuzzle to Remedy.
"Migration? What're you talking about with migration?" Roger asked.
Rosetta looked to her marefriend to explain. Remedy already saw a potential conflict brewing as she took a breath to explain.
"The government is not really that keen on trying to keep us all around here. There have been some small towns that have expressed interest in letting large numbers of ponies move into them. Places where ponies would be more free to do their own thing, particularly the earth ponies who are bound and determined to farm and the pegasi who want to be able to control the weather. First ones are supposed to be meeting with my mom today to start discussing the move," Remedy said, and then waited for the reaction.
"So they want all the ponies to just leave the area?" Jean asked as she gazed Cathy.
"They are strongly encouraging it. Ponies won't be forced to leave, but if they stay here many will be very limited in what they can do," Remedy said, also looking at Cathy.
Cathy shuffled her hooves as she felt the gaze off her family on her.
"And earth ponies in particular are being encouraged to do this?" Cathy asked as she pointed a hoof back at herself.
"They are the ones that feel most confined and stifled here. Nopony is going to force you to leave though," Rosetta said sympathetically to her sister.
"Are you leaving?" Cathy asked.
"Probably," Rosetta admitted.
The parents looked between one another and their younger daughter with growing concern. They then turned to Remedy again.
"These towns will have humans in them as well though, right?" Roger asked.
"Yes, they will. They're all smaller towns eager to inject new population and business in, even if it is ponies. The town residents want to save their towns, not abandon them to us," Remedy said with a wide gesture at herself and Rosetta.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to borrow my daughter," they heard Blessing say from nearby startling them all. Remedy wondered how she kept managing to do creep up like that unnoticed.
They all turned to see Blessing with Number Crunch and the pearl white earth pony stallion in tow.
"What do you need me for?" Remedy asked.
"Reps will be here in about an hour. You're on the list of ponies they need to meet and I need to brief you all on some things before they get here. So I need to get you and Tonya," Blessing said in a matter of fact tone. She then turned to Rosetta. "Ideally I'd have you meet with them too, but I'm guessing you're dealing with family right now. I can spare you for that as long as I've got at least Phobia."
"I've got this, you're the one who has a bit more foresight about what to talk about with them anyway. I wouldn't know what to do with myself in a meeting like that," Rosetta said as she came over and kissed Remedy.
"You are Remedy's mother?" Roger asked. As he looked Blessing over.
"Yes, I'm Sunset Blessing, you can call me by either part of my name. I'm guessing you are Rosetta's family?" Blessing said cordially.
"Yes, we are," Roger said with an odd look. "You named yourself in honor of Sunset Shimmer?"
"I know what you're thinking. Don't worry, I'm not out to forcefully transform the world into ponies. Sunset Shimmer was a fool and in the wrong for that, such things should be a willing choice," Blessing said.
"I would say it a was a bit more than in the wrong," Roger said gravely.
"Regardless, her methods weren't something I agreed with or would want to occur again. I'm grateful to be a pony, and think all are better off as ponies, but you're free to feel differently about the benefits of ponydom. My current focus is making sure the ponies here can flourish. I'm sure you want nothing less for your foals," Blessing said as she glanced between Rosetta and Cathy.
"Perhaps we could sit down to a meal sometime and get to know one another better. We want to know about the family our daughter...filly...is planning on marrying into," Jean suggested hesitantly.
"Daughter works fine there, but that was an excellent attempt to use pony terms," Blessing said with a smile. "I confess I'm still very much in the dark about your daughter, though I've heard some positive things. I would like that kind of sit down as well. We'll see when something can be arranged. I keep fairly busy, but finding time for family's important."
"Let us know," Jean said.
"Of course," Blessing said, then turned to Remedy. "We need to hurry, there's things that really need to be discussed. God bless to the rest of you for now."
Blessing took off towards one of the side buildings of the church that she knew little about the use of. Remedy gave Rosetta's family a sheepish smile and wave before following, wondering how much more questionable her mom had made her look to Rosetta's family.
Blessing gathered up Tonya, leaving Joy to deal with Tonya's task while Tonya was away. They entered into the building and Remedy noted it looked like an extension of the school, or perhaps a building used exclusively for Sunday school. It was newer than the original school building, and still have that freshly constructed look inside. Blessing had them enter into one of the various classrooms and shut the door behind them all.
"Alright, what gets said in here stays in here, not to be discussed with the humans or other ponies. Everypony understand?" Blessing said as they settled into spots to sit.
With a few raised eyebrows by every pony but Blessing and Number Crunch they all nodded.
"We have reviewed the information for all the towns. The one we are most interested in for our needs is a town named Riverview. It has just under two hundred humans living in it, but once was home to almost five thousand as recently as sixty years ago. Lack of work as old factories closed, distance from the closest interstate highway, poor financial decisions by a string of town councils, and failure to keep up with modern farming methods till it was too late was the downfall of the town. This one most fits our needs in terms of area to develop and existing human infrastructure to re-purpose. It's also central in location to a few other towns, and if we have enough population there we could eventually incorporate them as well," Blessing explained.
"So we focus on this town's people?" The pearl white stallion asked.
"They are the ones we are most interested in, but don't neglect the others. We want to be appealing to all, and will want to have the ability to transplant smaller groups of ponies into those others near Riverview, as well as having fallback options," Blessing said.
"And what other than population are we bringing to these humans? They're going to want to know what they are going to get out of it," Remedy asked.
"Excellent question, and good foresight. First we will be revitalizing the farming in the region. The government has already discussed a contract with us for large scale exporting of our produce. This will open up the need for some of these factories again for the humans, as well as warehouses. We will also be trying to encourage some ponies to take up shops in their many abandoned ones to pursue some of their interests outside farming, and weather management," Blessing said with a smile. Then got a more serious expression.
"We also are in possession of a large amount of communal funds to start with that we will use to selectively re-inject into their economy and spend on behalf of our ponies. Only Number Crunch and I will be aware of how much, but the amount is considerable. This in particular is information that doesn't leave this room," Blessing said in a tone the allowed no argument.
"Where did we get these funds?" Remedy asked skeptically. The others seemed to have the question on their tongues as well.
"With as many ponies as we have in this region we were blessed enough that there were a fair number who had considerable wealth as humans. Many of them have generously donated the majority of this wealth into a communal fund for us. I won't discuss how much we have, but financially we probably have far more working funds than the South Carolina state government even before our government contracts begin. We don't wish the government to be fully aware of how much we have, and Number Crunch has devised some ways of masking how much we actually have. Again, this is for our ears only," Blessing said gravely.
This felt somehow dishonest. Why were they hiding how much money they had to work with? It wasn't greed that was the motivation. What other plans did her mom have that involved this money?
"Why are we hiding how much we have?" Remedy asked.
"Three main reasons; first, we want to make sure we have fallback options for funding if the government ever turns on us. Second, we want to make sure that we can help keep the humans in our community financially well off if a crisis occurs. Third, we want to be able to help secretly fund ponies elsewhere when it is needed without the government being aware. We have to always assume that the government may turn on us at any given time, even if we hope they don't," Blessing explained.
Remedy guessed that made sense. Hopefully none of those reasons would be necessary.
Blessing went over describing the town at length, and after about forty minutes finished.
"Alright ponies, they should be arriving any minute. Best faces forward as we talk to them," Blessing declared as she led them back out.