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// Side Chapter: Discussions of Meat 
// Story: Four Dragon Brothers 
// by Princess OtakuGeek 
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Once everyone had gathered together, Twilight and Rarity gave their account of the events in Canterlot. It was when Twilight brought up the topic of meat that the conversation took a strange turn.

"-and that's when Zeno revealed that vampire ponies here eat...meat." Twilight paused to gag a little and was surprised when, aside from Rarity, her other friends didn't react. This made the unicorn and alicorn look at them curiously.

"You seem awfully calm about this." Rarity said with curiosity. The four friends just shrugged and gave their answers, Pinkie being the first.

"Well you know I'm always making everyone in Ponyville happy including our small population of carnivores. It's a little gross at first, but you get used to it."

"I take care of lots of animals with carnivorous diets." Fluttershy piped up next. "Creatures like housecats and ferrets have strictly carnivorous diets. But I always make sure none of the hunters hunt in my house. That's rule number one at my cottage and I always make sure to enforce it."

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "You all know my best buddy at Flight Camp was Gilda and Gilda's a griffin. Griffins are one of those carnivorous species so she always ate meat at lunch. At first it was really gross but eventually I got used to it. This one time, I think I may have made a particularly disgusted face because suddenly Gilda's daring me to eat a piece of bacon and not hurl it. And of course Rainbow Danger Dash never backs down from a challenge."

Several of her friends gasped and Dash just shrugged again. "It actually wasn't that bad and I kept it down. All in all, if someone dared me to eat meat again, I'm pretty sure I'd win it."

At this point, the pegasus was puffing out her chest and Applejack snorted. Everypony turned to the farmpony, the unspoken question hanging in the air. The earthpony pushed herself off the hospital room wall before answering.

"Y'all know that we have pigs on mah farm right?" She asked and her friends nodded. "Well as wonderful as pigs are, they aren't pets, their livestock and there's mostly only one thing pigs are good for."

Everypony blinked then their eyes widened and a few turned green at the gills. "Applejack, you don't mean too say....." Rarity started delicately but didn't have the stomach to finish her question. She hoped she was wrong, but a nod from Applejack shattered that hope. Everyone except Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie looked like they were going to be sick.

"You'd be surprised all the uses for a pig besides meat ya know." AJ said casually. "Fertilizer, paint brushes, shampoo, dog snacks, crayons, corks and camera film are all products of various parts of a pig and that's just to name a few. Heck, even yer face masks at the spa are product of a pig. The Apple family prides itself on using every part of the hog. And naturally we've had pork for dinner a few times."

"It's true, even my whipped cream uses gelatin which comes from pigs." Pinkie piped up. "And where do you think I got the pigs blood I used in Delsin's cake?"

"M-moving on." Twilight stuttered and changed the subject before anyone could toss their cookies. The rest of the conversation continued without a hitch, but the conversation wasn't forgotten. Later that day, Twilight would be studying what she could on the subject of meat and animal products.