• 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 67: You Compel/I Compel

Most of the organizers went into Riverview ahead of the rest of the migrants. The plan was for the same ponies and humans to be there waiting when the rest arrived. They would help get the migrants to their appropriate places once they got off the buses before they overwhelmed the town with their shear number.

Phobia and Rosetta, along with most the other night ponies were drafted into making sure everything was absolutely perfect for the morning. Checking tents for the ponies and making sure each and every tent was correctly labeled. Going into the shelters for the humans that had been prepared, in this case in what had been an old elementary school and flanking YMCA building. The humans were afforded a proper roof over their head as they were more vulnerable to the elements than the ponies.

Signs had been posted at each shelter for the aptly named First Pony Bank. One of the vacant shops near the still occupied shops had been taken over by Number Crunch and was going to be offering what it promised would be extremely low interest loans for buying houses, construction, and starting businesses. Phobia's mother had let it slip to them that humans would be given priority for the moment with the loans as they wanted the over nine hundred humans, counting the original residents, to feel they were flourishing as quickly as possible. This policy entire that would not be admitted to of course.

Phobia had asked how the government was going to be kept in the dark about how much money the ponies had if they were opening a bank. She was told that most of the bank's funding was actually from the government itself. The bank was largely a front for federal loans for the moment, with that detail hidden several pages into the loan contracts. It would eventually become a proper bank in its own right after a few years. None of the money they had hidden away would ever touch this bank though, it would be far too easy to trace if it did. There were plans in place, just like there were always plans in place.

The current human residents had put up banners and flags all along the main street of town to welcome the newcomers. They all planned to be out ready and waiting as the ponies rolled into town. It wouldn't be a parade, but it would have the atmosphere of one. The townspeople that had stayed up working late had expressed to Phobia how excited they were at the prospect of vacant shops and homes being filled, schools reopened, and the first new construction in decades soon being underway. They didn't care that most of this would be occupied by ponies, it was a return of life to a town that had been on its last leg.

After a long night of double checking details and making last minute fixes the sun could be seen starting to rise of the horizon. Right at this moment ponies back in the Charleston area would be rousing from their sleep, and if not yet boarded on their transportation they would be soon enough. By the time the clocks hit ten thirty the street in Riverview would fill with spectators. By eleven the first bus would cross into Riverview. By mid afternoon this town would be engulfed by ponies.

And tomorrow the engaged night pony couple would formally get married after a mere three weeks together. A major thing to do after just three weeks, but it seemed small in comparison to the amount of changes everything had undergone in the last month. A quarter of the country's population wasn't even the same species anymore. Fifteen thousand in just this region were starting fresh lives in a new place, and it could be expected that the vast majority of those had no intention of doing any such thing a month ago. The world was changed, and it would take a while before the new normal was established.

The rest of the family had temporarily moved into a house two doors down from the night pony couple until new houses could be built. The majority of them had spent the previous day unloading the moving van while the two night ponies helped out with the migrants and Roger shopped for food that didn't require refrigeration.

Phobia and Rosetta spent the early part of the daylight hours looking through the things that the family had dropped off at the couple's new house. This including a small work desk, an older computer that was still serviceable for internet browsing, plenty of old quilts that made for a more pleasant bed than dry hardwood floors, an old shag throw rug that must have been in storage for ages, a pair of old bookcases, and all of Rosetta's old books. It wasn't enough to furnish the house, but they had to start somewhere.

it became pretty obvious quickly that there was one major disadvantage to having more than one story in the house. Getting anything up the stairs that they could not easily grip in a wing or in their mouths was not something they were going to be able to do. They needed help from either humans or a unicorn to help them get anything bigger than a breadbox up the stairs. They eventually settled with just dragging the quilts up the stairs by mouth and making a bed for themselves in the second largest bedroom; bypassing the first because it had two large windows and large windowed balcony doors that all let in too much light during the day.

As the hours ticked by and it neared ten in the morning the two night ponies decided it was time to go get in place along with the townsfolk to watch everypony arrive. They flew into the main part of town and took up a perch on top of one of the various buildings. This seemed to be a popular decision among the night ponies that had come into town to help make sure everything was in order, as they saw several doing the same.

One night pony in particular that they saw made them consider just leaving though. John-Swift Strike was at the building across from them, and he had seen them too.

"Are we going to do this every time we see him? Do a glaring match from a distance and wait to see if he takes off before we do; acting like a bunch of territorial cats?" Phobia asked with exasperation as the staring match began.

"If that's the way it needs to be, then that's the way it will be. He is not coming anywhere near me or our foal," Rosetta said with a growl directed at Swift Strike.

"And what do we do if his animosity towards us spreads to the other Enclave members? He is essentially the one that brought them together, and we're not part of that group. There's a good chance some of them will get hostile to us," Phobia said as she glanced at some of the other night ponies in sight.

"If we have to we get your mother involved. She's going to have incredible leverage around town," Rosetta answered.

"In the day she will, but at night the Enclave is who'll be the ones exerting pressure. She has no authority over them, Tattered does," Phobia reminded her fiancee.

"And Tattered gets along with us. She already said she'd be on alert about him. Tattered isn't going to turn in us. You're the one who got Luna to send those ponies to come heal the Broken Ones," Rosetta replied.

"I think Luna decided that on her own after seeing the situation. It was only by chance shifting through dreams that she even found out," Phobia corrected.

"Regardless, I like our chances that Tattered and the rest of the Broken Ones are in our corner," Rosetta said with a flick of her tail.

They ceased talking as they saw Swift Strike take to the air and fly towards them. They backed up defensively with their wings held out threateningly as he came in for a landing.

"Haley, Mattie," Swift Strike said in neutral greeting as he nodded to each of them.

"It's Rosetta Stone and Phobia Remedy, Swift Strike; soon to be Rosetta Stone-Remedy and Phobia Remedy-Stone. You aren't welcome near us," Rosetta hissed.

Swift Strike's gaze hardened as he focused his glare at Phobia.

"So that's how it is?" Swift Strike growled. "You turn my mare against me then seduce her for yourself. I heard that she's pregnant with my foal. Are you planning on stealing that from me as well, Matthew?"

"You might have sired this foal, but it'll never be yours, or have anything to do with you, you bastard," Rosetta growled.

"I wasn't talking to you, whore, I was talking to your backstabbing bitch of a lover," Swift Strike snapped.

"What did you call her?!" Both Phobia and Rosetta yelled in unison.

"I called you both what you are," Swift Strike spat. "Answer the question, are you going to try to steal away my foal too, Matthew?"

"Rosetta wants you no where near that foal and neither do I. You're an abusive prick who shouldn't be allowed to be around any foal," Phobia growled.

"I'm going to make you regret turning her against me, stealing away what's mine," Swift Strike said as he stepped forward menacingly.

"Ladies and prick, I'd appreciate it greatly if you would all hush your mouths and calm down," came Tonya's voice in an overly sweet tone from above them.

They all looked up just in time to watch Tonya descend and place herself between them.

"I can appreciate the fact you all have some strong feelings to work through, but we've got humans coming in below you that will hear your little conversation. We don't want to upset the nice humans that invited us to live in their town right before our fellow ponies arrive, now do we?" Tonya said in a seemingly cheerful voice.

"This is none of your concern Tonya," Swift Strike growled.

Tonya put a hoof up to her chin and exaggerated thinking about what she had just been told.

"You're right! It isn't! I guess I need to go talk to Tattered Wing about how one of her Enclave members is disturbing the peace and getting ready to start a brawl on the day we've all been working our flanks off for weeks to make sure goes smoothly, and that the brawl will be between three night ponies which will make night ponies in particular look bad. I'm sure she'd love to hear all about it. She's right over at town hall, it will only take me a moment if you like," Tonya said with a big grin.

"I'm not intimidated by her," Swift Strike said with a half mumble.

"Oh, I'll be sure to tell her that too. But if it came down to your whole flock of Enclave members being told to mess some pony up who do you think they'd listen to, you or her?" Tonya said with a curious tilt of her head.

"Fuck you, Tonya," Swift Strike growled.

"No thank you. I have Sunset Blessing for that. You know her? The big kahuna pony herself? And she happens to take great personal offense to ponies threatening Phobia. She will almost certainly give you an entirely different type of fucking if you continue this," Tonya said with a chuckle.

Then like a snap Tonya dropped her mock pleasantries as her brow furrowed.

"I mean it prick. Get lost right now or there will be consequences. Worst comes to worst I'll deal with you myself, and you don't want to know how I'll deal with you," Tonya said with a degree of menace. She continued in a commanding tone. "You want to leave now. You want to remain in Tattered's good graces. This isn't the time or place for this."

Swift Strike shook his head as if to clear it. Then gave them all another glare.

"You're right, I don't want to make a scene right here. We can deal with this later in private," he said as he turned to go.

"I'm so glad we could move past this for now," Tonya said with her happy smile returned.

Author's Note:

Tuesday morning day 21 after counterspell.

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