Wearing Midnight

by Owlor

They Don't Have a Soul

* * *

Trixie sighed, so much for getting a good nights sleep. If the two fillies decided to call on a guard, she'd have their copper armour hovering over her until the morning. They'd never find her, of course, but it would be a hassle. The only thing delaying her departure from the Everfree was the fish bale, which still leaked water like an over-saturated sponge.

“If I could somehow squeeze this, it would go a lot faster,” she muttered to herself.

Images of toga-clad pegasi discussing physics in ancient Pegasopolis filled her mind. Give me a something something and a place to stand and I will move the world, One of them said to the others. She looked around, there was still plenty of wood littering the ground, even after her fireplace, and plenty of rocks to use as a counterweight. A light bulb formed over her head.

Some woods-mare engineering later and she had a makeshift press consisting of a branch with one end fixed to the ground y a large rock. She leaned all her weight on the branch and let gravity do the rest. Some of the water squirted out, and the bale began to wiggle.

Turns out that some of the fish wasn't as dead as she had assumed, and the top layer struggled underneath her weight. Trixie let go of the branch and nearly fell backwards for the third time this night. After picking herself up, she went back to to studying the texture of tree bark. When she returned, the bale had completely stopped moving.

Trixie went up to the bundled sheet with uneasy steps. She gave it a poke, then detracted her hoof as if she thought the bale would bite. The fishes however, remained perfectly still, even as she levitated the bale into her wagon.

“It's okay, fish don't have a soul,” she muttered to herself like a mantra. But somehow, this thought still failed to comfort her.

---

“Then again, I'm not sure all ponies have souls...” she mused to herself while dragging her wagon across the bumpy trail of the forest.

Along the way out of the Everfree she kept her eyes on the side of the trail, hoping for some of those tasty mushrooms, but to no avail. If there ever was any mushrooms here, they had already been picked by the two fillies. Eventually, it became less about satisfying her hunger and more about keeping her mind occupied to silence the sound of the dead fish squishing at each bump and turn.

Finally, she learned to tune it out. Or rather, she simply became too tired to care...

* * *

Author's Note:

I'm not sure where I heard the idea that fish don't have soul, I thought it was a lyric in Nirvanas Something in the Way,, but the actual lyrics go "it's okay to eat fish, 'cus they don't have any feelings." Same principle, but a different wording.

Whether that's true or not, I'll leave for the readers to decide, but it's fascinating to talk to vegetarians and find out what they would or wouldn't eat. A vegetarian of my acquaintance has said they'd still eat oysters, since they are going with "no central nervous system"-rule. A lot of it depends on if you're vegetarian for health reasons, taste reasons or moral reasons.

This is another chapter where Trixie is acting... ethically iffy. I'm not intending to portrait her as evil or anything, just trying to be honest about the tough decisions and nasty thoughts you can slip into sometimes. That's one thing I like about slice of life, these unguarded moments. If I could write a fic of a character picking her nose with their tounge, I probably would...

Comments

[G-AB Acid]

If I could write a fic of a character picking her nose with their tounge, I probably would...

Your probably should. Make it either Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon. Just so you have a reason to explore the contrast between the things one pretends to be and the thing one really is.

PS:
இڿڰۣ---

[Owlor]

2260235

Any particular reason you're handing out roses, or are you just feeling spring in the air? Around here, they usually hand out red roses during election season...

[G-AB Acid]

2260375 Spring is in the air, yes. Finally coming out from this hideous winter.
But I'm merely handling them to stories I enjoy the most.

[Owlor]

2260449

Finally coming out from this hideous winter.

Oh holy mother of Athena yes! I have mentioned my position on the globe, right? By Zeus, am I friggin tired of the cold and the snow. Before March, I don't think I had SEEN the friggin sun in a month (thanks to delayed sleep phase )

[G-AB Acid]

2260512 Dang! Near the polar circle?! How many hours of sunlight have you got during the winter solstice?!

[Owlor]

2260772

At the solstice? 4 hours.

[G-AB Acid]

2261511 Dear lord! And here I was, claiming to be cursed just because I've got 6.