Pandemic: What you are Meant to Be

by Halira

Chapter 15: Census

The two of them ended up sleeping in an ditch area between several subdivisions that provided a little more space between the back fences of various houses. Almost as soon as they were able to find a spot that was likely to be shady through the whole of the morning and afternoon they were off to sleep, cuddled close to one another.

It felt too soon when Mattie was gently nudged awake by Haley. She stifled a yawn as she opened her eyes and debated in her head telling Haley to just let her sleep in. The sun wasn't even all the way down yet, surely she could sleep till full dark. She had been so far behind on sleep before this.

"Come on lazy wings, we need to get back to your church so we can see all these humans that have come in. Maybe they have food that's better than too old fruits and vegetables from cans," Haley said as she nudged Mattie's head with her muzzle.

"Fresher food does sound good. I am not so sure they are going to have anything other than more can stuff though; not on such short notice anyway. Hopefully they have a better selection of stuff to eat though," Mattie said as she brought herself up to her hooves.

Haley suddenly gave her a deep kiss on the lips, which made Mattie's wings to snap open once again. It took her a moment to even register what to do before returning the kiss on her end. After a few seconds Haley pulled back and gave Mattie a sly smile.

"Maybe after we get what needs to be done complete we can spend a different type of private time together. We don't need to patrol if the military is here and the night is ours. There is plenty of time for us to play over the course of a night," Haley said with a purr.

Mattie just sat there blushing with wide eyes. She had accepted having Haley as a marefriend and was happy about that, but somewhere in there it hadn't occurred to her that she and Haley might end up doing things with their long periods of time with just the two of them together in private. She had never let herself even think about doing that kind of thing before. Her loins were screaming at her yes, and the rest of her body was quaking in terror.

Haley looked her over and gave her a sympathetic look.

"I let myself forget you are a sexually repressed virgin. We can take it slower if that's what you prefer. I'll be honest, I am nervous too. I might have always found mares attractive, but I haven't actually done anything with one. My whole experience with sex is with John. I am not exactly an expert on how to do great lesbian sex. I am hoping instinct will just help us figure it out," Haley said as she nuzzled Mattie along the neck.

"We never established I am sexually repressed," Mattie protested with a blush. She tried to ignore the feeling in her nether regions. The rest of her body had decided to just go completely stiff.

"Right..well, be that as it may, if you are not comfortable with doing anything I am not going to pressure you into it. We can take it slow and see what happens when it happens. Just cuddling and nuzzling feels good; I enjoy just having your company," Haley said with a smile as she continued to nuzzle.

"So what do you suggest we do with our night instead?" Mattie asked, trying to move onto a subject that didn't put her body at war with itself.

"We'll figure that out after we see what is happening with the church. I seem to recall you wanted to talk to Tonya and you also wanted to reintroduce me to your mother. After that we can just wing it. If we don't get moving they are going to be asleep though. It is the one thing I hate about being a night pony, being on opposite schedules with the majority of ponies. Maybe we need to make friends with some night owl humans," Haley said as she pulled away from her nuzzle, which made Mattie want to pout, and spread her wings to indicate she was ready to get flying.

Mattie was torn in a way she had never been before. On one hoof a large part of her wanted to tell Haley that they definitely could play later on tonight, despite her nerves. On another hoof Haley was still a mare she had just started to get to know well and it felt wrong to just get into a physical relationship with her so quickly. On another hoof she was worried that if she didn't respond in a clear positive way to Haley saying she was interested in sex she would hurt Haley's feelings. On yet another hoof she could just be over thinking all this and she should just take it as it went. Thankfully she only had four hooves to list considerations.

"I guess we should get going then. Don't want them wondering where we are," Mattie said as she spread her wings and jumped into the air.

Haley quickly joined her and within less that three minutes they were coming back upon the church grounds.

There was definitely a lot to take in, as it seemed the church grounds had been transformed yet again. There were indeed six large eighteen wheelers parked in a line on one corner of the property. Where there had been rubble from the broken pavement before it now all looked like gravel and Mattie's best guess on that was that the earth ponies had used their strength to pulverize the pavement down into small manageable parts. There were also large stacks of hay that had been piled high in another area of the grounds. Mattie hoped that wasn't the government's idea of food for them. She guessed they could eat it if they were equine, but something seemed offensive about it.

She saw the humans all with different types of uniforms. Some were easily recognized as soldiers and others easily recognized as doctors, but some that were sitting at tables with laptops in front of them and a line of ponies she wasn't so sure about. Perhaps those were the census takers.

They flew down and found her mother standing at the back of one of the lines looking bored. As her mother saw her the corners of her mother's mouth picked up a little bit.

"Mattie! I'm glad you are back. Tonya told me that you were off sleeping somewhere else but I was still worried that I hadn't seen you at all yesterday. John seemed to have taken off and I was confused as to what all was going on. You are alright, right?" Sunset Blessing said as she looked Mattie over.

"I'm fine mom. I had some personal business that needed to be taken care of over the last day. Is this a line for the census?" Mattie said as she looked down the line of ponies towards the seated human.

"Yep, they want to find out who all is a pony, what type we are, status of family, blah blah blah. They could have started this earlier or waited till tomorrow, but they seem to be in so much a rush about everything," Blessing said with a disgusted scrunch of her muzzle directed towards the front of the line.

"I guess we should get in line too then. Mom, you met Haley before; Haley this is my mom, Sunset Blessing," Mattie said using a wing to gesture between the two.

"I remember you. You were the one that followed us when we were coming here for a little while before taking off," Blessing said as she looked over at Haley.

"Sorry about that, it was kind of a crisis at the hospital at the time. I'm glad we haven't had to deal with that kind of thing in the last few days thankfully," Haley said with a smile.

"Don't worry about it, dear. You were nice enough helping us in our time of need. Where did your partner, John, take off take off to today?" Blessing said as they took another few steps forward as the line advanced.

"My partner is Mattie. As for John I don't know, and I don't want to know. He can stay gone and I hope he does," Haley said with a venom filled tone.

"Oh, um, sorry to hear that. I guess I can empathize with that. I don't know what happened, but I am sorry to hear about it," Blessing said with a sound of sincerity. Then her brow furrowed and Mattie could see the puzzle pieces going together in her mother's head. "You said your partner is Mattie. Are you two..together..now?"

"Yes," Haley said as she came up next to Mattie and have her a nuzzle.

"I see," Blessing said as she gave Haley a much more appraising look. "You and I will have to have a longer talk in private at some point. I would like to know a bit more about the anypony dating my daughter."

"Okay..," Haley said, looking a bit less confident now. Mattie was somewhat concerned too. She was pretty sure her mother had tossed her homophobic tendencies, all things considered, but that didn't mean Blessing was not going to be an overprotective mother. Mattie had never dated before so it was a new experience for Blessing as well. Despite the fact Mattie was an adult there was a chance her mother could still have the drive to guard her foal.

The line kept advancing and finally came to be her mother's turn to be counted.

"Okay, name please?" Said the man at the desk as he looked at Mattie's mother. He was a younger black guy with a completely shaved head and very neatly cut beard and mustache.

"Sunset Blessing," Blessing announced proudly.

The man gave her a flat look.

"Are we really going with that? That's the kind of name that puts you on lists. In fact you are going on the list, not going to lie. I will note it as your preferred name, but legal name please," the man said in a exasperated tone.

"Charlotte Renee Gilmore..actually can I list that under maiden name?" Blessing asked. The man gave her a nod. "Okay, then Charlotte Renee Portsmith."

"Known infected family? Legal names please," the man continued as he made some notes on his laptop.

"Husband, count as former husband, Thomas William Gilmore. One foal, Matthew Tyler Gilmore. I don't know about the status of my siblings or my parents. I haven't spoken to them in years," Blessing informed the man.

"Alright, that makes this part short. Known pony type for Thomas and Matthew?" The man asked as he continued to type.

"Tom is a sorry excuse for a unicorn, and Mattie is a night pony," Blessing said with clear distaste for talking about Mattie's father.

"Okay, good. I have here your place of residence is forty-three Oakdale Avenue, is that correct?" The man asked.

"I am not sure I live there anymore, but that was where I lived before becoming a pony," Blessing said, deflating a little.

"Noted. Can you please go over to that gentleman over there and he will be taking your profile picture and will want a picture of your cutie mark as well. After that you are done," the man instructed as he gestured to another man who had an impromptu area set up in the back of an eighteen wheeler for taking photos.

"Name please?" The man said as Mattie stepped up to the front of the line.

"Matthew Tyler Gilmore," Mattie said with a scrunch of her nose.

The man gave her a flat look much as he had given her mother.

"It has been a long day for all of us, please take this seriously. What is your name, ma'am?" The man said with irritation.

"That is my legal name. I went through a sex change when ETS happened to me. I can get other ponies to verify that if you want. I have been using Mattie lately until I can think of something better," Mattie said defensively.

"Alright, we'll just roll with that for now I guess because I have no way of saying you are lying or telling the truth until the actual Matthew Tyler Gilmore shows up. Until then I will just copy and paste miss Gilmore's answers to yours since I have them right in front of me. Putting you on the list as well. Please go over to that gentleman over there and he will take your profile picture and will want a picture of your cutie mark," the man said with a dismissive gesture towards the truck.

Mattie stomped a hoof before walking away. She didn't know why the man not accepting her legal name annoyed her, but the fact that he had and then treated her like some potential troublemaker pissed her off.

"Haley Rosemarie Martinez," she heard Haley recite off to the census taker as she walked away.

Author's Note:

Time note: Wednesday night day after counterspell.

Comments

[Halira]

In case anyone wonders how Tonya got through with no problems her legal name had already been changed at this point. The fact that ETS could change sex to match gender is not a well known fact at this point.

[Mix-up]

I always have trouble keeping up with stories that are updated almost daily, so don't expect me to stay up to day all the time about your story.Things are getting interesting new with more human pony interactions that are starting up again that, for the moment at least, isn't hostile. I like that Mat is listed as a 'trouble make' as it would likely make her the center of attention to the new arrivals from the government along with maybe the ponies. Would love to see more of the different point of view that the human would stir up for everyone. I feel that Mat is starting to have a more define personalty or at least get a better feeling on how she feels about what happening around her more, which is a lot easier to sympathies with her. Keep is up

[blackrose499]

I have a feeling this chapter is very personal to all those who are transgender it is a sad notion to think that a normal person can get there name changed to what ever with no problem And it's a struggle for any transgender person to do anything

[badninja]

"Husband, count as former husband, Thomas William Gilmore. One foal, Matthew Tyler Gilmore. I don't know if any of my siblings are, both my parents are deceased," Blessing informed the man.

This line is no longer true. We know her parents are alive.

[Halira]

10394786
Forgot about this particular like of dialogue. I can't stand to leave a continuity error. I suppose she could be interpreted to be saying "dead to her" but suppose it is better to update it.

[badninja]

10395012

Yea I was rereading the story because I thought Phobia’s father rehumanizied and wasn’t a pony anymore. In the most recent chapter of Starting Over it sounded like he was still a pony, but I could have misremembered.