• Published 26th Apr 2018
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Pandemic: What you are Meant to Be - Halira



The ETS pandemic spreads across the southern United States transforming humans into ponies. In the wake of it a boy named Mathew tries to cope with the changing world and finding out what he is becoming.

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Chapter 42: Mom Talk

The actual task of stocking was not as difficult as it first might have seemed without hands. The two mares started out slow, being really clumsy with trying to use their fetlocks and wings like hands, but within an hour or so working them in that manner they found they could easily grip boxes and cans in a single fetlock or wing with as much ease as they had used their hands as humans; with the added benefit that they now had effectively four hands between their forelegs and wings.

Of course they couldn't make use of all four options for gripping at once. They had to make a choice on whether they would grip with their fetlocks and fly or grip with their wings and walk, but it was nice to know that they were more than capable of holding objects almost as well as a human. Some things they might be able to grip with their mouths as well, but they believed the humans might find it more objectionable to buying products that had been in a stocker's mouth than the ponies would.

By the end of their four hours they had easily completed their assigned aisle and moved on to help with others. Proving to all they were up to the task.

The work shift was not without its stresses though. These humans were almost all coworkers Remedy knew from before ETS and dealing with them had been uncomfortable. Once they had gotten past convincing the humans they were capable of doing the job they had to contend with her coworkers trying to explain where things went or certain policies. This was perfectly good advice for Rosetta, but Remedy knew all this. Eventually she let it drop to the employees in general that she already knew all this because she worked her up till when ETS struck, that was an error.

What ensued was a great guessing game of who she was since she wasn't forthcoming with who she was. The other employees proceeded to list off every single female employee that they could think of that hadn't returned to work. Eventually she tired of it and just let them know her actual identity.

Giving them this information set off another wave of uncomfortable comments. It was a mix of complete denial, displays of pity, and braying laughter depending on the employee. Remedy just reasserted to use her current name and dug into her work more, trying to ignore all the comments. Rosetta seemed like she wanted to go into night pony protective mode more than once, but managed to restrain herself. Remedy hoped that these comments wouldn't be something that persisted.

"Thanks for your help. Next truck isn't due until day after tomorrow, so you have tomorrow night off. Will be every other night for the next week until we get some sort of regular schedule going again," Carla said to all the employees as they were leaving that morning.

"I'll see about tracking down my drivers license, social security card, and all that on my off day. I'll have them when we come back," Rosetta said to Carla as they walked by.

"No rush, just as soon as you can. I'll mark your time. Starting pay is two dollars above minimum wage, but everyone is getting paid double time for the next two weeks, so first paycheck should be pretty good," Carla said.

It was left unsaid by the two ponies that they weren't likely to stay here indefinitely depending on how soon the resettlement happened. It was nice to hear they would be paid well for their time. Remedy had actually been making more than the starting pay by about an additional two dollars so it likely would be a pretty large paycheck for her. She made a note to herself to revisit her dad and get her debit card and a few other things along that line from the house.

They took to the air and were happy to note that the gas station next door to the store seemed to be open now, and very busy. It had cars waiting out in line to the street and the sun wasn't even up yet. Hopefully there were more gas shipments coming soon because of it kept like that all day it would run out of gas before it reached noon.

The flight back to the church let them see a few cars out on the road now. As the neared the interstate they could see that it had some cars travelling it as well. It was like everything was waking up after days of sleep. It was refreshing to see, but made Remedy more anxious to see what came next for the ponies now that human civilization was getting back in order. Most ponies had little personal interest in rejoining human civilization.

Many humans likewise felt ponies weren't in their right minds, which would no doubt lead to more friction. Her fellow employees had done some muttering about brainwashed ponies that they hadn't realized she was capable of hearing. They couldn't comprehend how she could be happy with being a pony, or a mare for that matter. In their minds it was some strange bit of mind control done to her. By her perspective she had gained much and lost little in becoming a pony. She imagined if she'd been given the choice she'd have taken it willingly. The fact that she was happy and content with it, despite not being given the choice, was what she believed disturbed the humans most of all.

How to convince the humans they were all free thinking beings was something that would be a major concern for all ponies for some time yet to come. Her generation might never accomplish it, but future generations would have an easier time of it.

They flew into the church and saw activity was back to a smaller lull now that the gas stations were opening up again. Less ponies had chosen to rise early, but there were still a fair number that were up eating, talking, and milling about. The town representatives should be arriving today, and hopefully soon this migration would give the ponies something to get them active again. Sitting around bored caused discontent, and only so many would be interested in doing jobs with humans still, if they could even return to their old jobs in many cases.

Laying behind one of the buildings reading on the laptop computer were Remedy's mom and Tonya. Blessing was focused on the screen and had her horn lit as she manipulated keys and the touch pad, Tonya didn't seem particularly focused on the screen and was simply enjoying being nuzzled close to Blessing with one of the pegasus's wings draped over Blessing's back. Any pony could easily find them where they were so they weren't making any effort to keep their relationship secret at this point. If the pairing didn't still seem so jarring to Remedy she might have found it adorable.

"I want to try messaging my family to see when Cathy is going to be getting here. I want to be up when she arrives. If you want to try getting a talk in with your mom while I do that I don't mind," Rosetta offered.

"Not sure, I'm not catching her alone right now," Remedy said as she continued watching the other two mares.

"Your mom is rarely ever alone anymore, if she and Tonya are a couple anything you say to your mom is likely reaching Tonya's ears anyway. That's about as private as you're going to get," Rosetta said with a half smile.

"I guess so, still feels weird," Remedy said uncomfortably.

"Not any weirder than changing species," Rosetta smirked.

"Point taken," Remedy said with a sigh.

Rosetta flew off to the church to the AV room within, leaving Remedy to build her courage to talk to her mom with Tonya present. After a long moment and a deep breath or two she flew down to greet them.

"Hi Phobia," Tonya said happily as she looked up.

"Hello Tonya," Remedy said with a quick deep of her head in greeting. She then turned to her mom. "I was hoping to get in that talk in with you we discussed."

Tonya stood up and looked down at Blessing.

"I'll make myself scarce. What are the orders for the pegasi, Mon Capitaine?" Tonya said snapping her wing into a mock salute.

Blessing raised an eyebrow at Tonya and gave her a half smile.

"Your capitaine wants you to keep focus on what is going with the ponies in West Ashley, but she also wants you to have patrols making contact still with the Charleston ponies, and send at least one team out to check Mount Pleasant. Tomorrow we'll get a team out to the islands, but I want to be clear on everything going on down this part of the coast by the end of today," Blessing instructed. Then she gave a little giggle. "She also demands a kiss before you go."

Tonya went over and gave the requested kiss with just a brief kiss on the lips and then smiled before taking off, barking orders to pegasi that she saw to come to her as she took up a spot where they could gather around her.

"You seem almost flirty with her," Remedy observed.

Blessing gave a happy sigh before replying.

"It's refreshing to be with somepony who tries to inject fun into what they do. It helps keep the stress of everything manageable. Ponies should laugh," Blessing said.

"You said you weren't ashamed anymore. I'm guessing that means you definitely believe you were bisexual before?" Remedy said as she walked over and cuddled close to her mother.

"I do. I got some distorted ideas in my head somewhere along the line and wouldn't let myself admit it. For a long time it didn't really matter, I was mostly happily married," Blessing said as her expression saddened.

"You sounded like you had a lot of pent up frustrations with Dad last night. I also heard some things about how you were when you were younger from Number Crunch last night," Remedy said carefully.

"Annette was always a gossip as a human. It seems she still is as a pony," Blessing said with annoyance. Then softened up her face and tone. "As for what went on with your father, last night might have made it look worse than it was. Yeah, I felt a bit neglected in bed, but it wasn't as much a big deal as I made it out to be. I was angry and throwing what I could at him. It isn't something I'm proud of, and wish I could do over, because it was unponylike of me."

"Angry he wanted nothing to do with being a pony?" Remedy asked for clarification.

"Exactly that. There is no getting around that kind of gap between us. No matter how he might improve on other things, if he thinks being a pony is wrong then we have no business being together. It's a personal insult to God; I can tolerate it in others, but definitely not in my spouse," Blessing's tone hardened again.

"So why Tonya?" Remedy asked.

"She is the pony that listens to me when I'm trying to sort out complicated emotions, that I feel comfortable crying on the shoulder of. She makes no judgments of me, as well as always having my back. Plus there is the bonus she is cute and responds positively to my physical advances," Blessing said with a smirk.

Remedy for uncomfortable again as she thought about the two of them screwing. Blessing picked up on that discomfort though.

"Oh don't be a prude," Blessing scolded. "Is it really that bad that your mother having opened herself to the fact she enjoys mares as well as stallions would be attracted to an energetic and caring young pegasus mare?"

"It just feels so different than the mother I grew up with," Remedy confessed.

"Coming from my daughter who I always assumed was my son?" Blessing asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Is that hard for you to take in?" Remedy asked.

"It has been to tell the truth. Being with Tonya helps with that, as I can't imagine her as being male at this point. I do my best to show support to you, but I have to question how much I know you. Now that we're talking I want to find out who my daughter is," Blessing said in a hopeful tone.

"What do you want to start with?" Remedy asked, happy that her mom was wanting that connection to her.

"You question me about my love life, tell me about this Rosetta mare. Also, is she actually pregnant?" Blessing inquired.

"Yes, she is. If it's a night pony we'll be raising the foal together. She said she wants us to be co-mothers," Remedy explained.

"And if it isn't a night pony?" Blessing asked gravely.

"We're still exploring options. It's kind of hard to properly raise a foal if you're nocturnal and they aren't," Remedy said with lowered ears.

"I suppose that's a bridge to cross when you get to it," Blessing said as she lowered her own ears. She picked them up again a moment later as she continued. "Co-mothers? She wants you as a spouse then?"

"Yeah, she pretty much proposed, and I accepted," Remedy said with a cautious smile. She was still disappointed in the lackluster response from Rosetta's parents, and held out hope her mom would give a more positive response.

Blessing sat considering her response for a moment. Remedy felt a sense of dread as her mom did. She really wanted some support for her and Rosetta.

"I need to get to know her to really know how I feel about that completely. If she ends up making you happy that should be good enough. I just know less about her than you, so I can't know how to feel," Blessing finally said.

Remedy lowered her head down to the ground where she lay. She supposed that wasn't a negative reaction, but she had been hoping for more.

"Don't be like that, I'm just being honest with you. I can't say I'm thrilled if I don't know anything about her, nor can I condemn it, because...well...I know nothing about her. I'm guessing by her chosen name that she's into history or languages?" Blessing asked.

"History, like ancient history, though she has recently picked up an interest in possible pony history on Earth," Remedy explained.

Blessing gave Remedy an odd look.

"Ancient pony history here on Earth? There shouldn't be any ancient history for ponies here," Blessing said in confusion.

"There's an archaeologist out in Colorado, in Lazy Pines actually, that had found evidence of them making contact near there several centuries before. She isn't just some crackpot either, she found this stuff before ETS even started," Remedy explained.

"How'd you learn about this pony?..I'm assuming she is a pony now if she was in Lazy Pines," Blessing asked in amazement.

"Remember how I mentioned Princess Luna was teaching me about helping ponies with their dreams? Princess Luna had let me know she knew a pony that had an interest in history as well when I mentioned Rosetta did. Rosetta did a bit of research assuming that Luna was near Lazy Pines and found out about who it was, a Sarah Tanner in Lazy Pines," Remedy explained.

"That's certainly some interesting news," Blessing said with clear interest. "I really should hear more about your training with Luna. Have you actually started with helping ponies with their nightmares?"

"Mostly just observing things for the moment. Most of them are general anxiety nightmares everypony had when they were humans, but there are a few that stood out a bit more," Remedy said with a shiver as she remembered the dream of Tattered Wing.

"Care to tell me about any of them?" Blessing asked.

Remedy hesitated. This was kind of personal information. She wasn't sure that she should be disclosing this to even her mother. She hadn't even gone into detail with Rosetta about the dreams. On the other hoof she was bonding with her mom and she didn't want to put up any barriers between them now. Perhaps one that was of a pony that she would likely never meet. She knew one that would definitely hold her mom's interest because of one big detail.

"There was the first one, it was of a pegasus in Lazy Pines, that was having a nightmare about Sunset Shimmer. She actually had Sunset Shimmer in her dream. It seemed she knew her," Remedy said, knowing that any mention of Sunset Shimmer would instantly be of interest to her mom.

"Sunset Shimmer, or at least a vision of her, was in this pegasus' dream? So you know what Sunset Shimmer actually looked like now?" Blessing said with excitement. Remedy smiled as she knew she had her mother hooked.

"Yes, I do. An amber colored unicorn with a primarily red mane with some stripes of gold in it. She had a red and gold stylized sun for a cutie mark," Remedy described.

"You'll have to help me with drawing a picture of that mark sometime. I was looking around online since you had let me use the laptop, and found a fair number of fellow Shimmerists that would be very interested in knowing that," Blessing said excitedly.

"Sure, I can help you with that," Remedy said with a smile.

"Now tell me all about this pegasus and why she was having nightmares of Sunset Shimmer," Blessing said.

Remedy proceeded to tell her mom all about what she had seen, blissfully unaware of the glint in Blessings eyes.

Author's Note:

Monday morning day six after counterspell.

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