“You’re doing this to torture me, aren’t you?” Sunset groaned.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Applejack said.
“Aren’t you supposed to be Honesty?” she jokingly glared.
“Yep,” she nodded. “But I still don’t know what you’re talking about. After all, it ain’t my fault that you came to a farm and forgot it had animals.”
“I didn’t forget there were animals,” she defended. “I just didn’t realize you would have….. ‘horses’.”
Applejack snickered and leaned against one of the many trees. Pouting, Sunset leaned against the tree next to her. Somewhere in the distance, the cursed animals seemed to be trotting around.
“So,” Applejack grinned. “I bet they didn’t have horses on the farms back home, did they? Actually, jokes aside, did y’all have animals on farms, or were y’all vegetarians considering you seem to be a talking pony? Because Granny was wondering about it since she’s making dinner so…”
“Ponies are omnivorous,” Sunset answered. “We can and do eat meat, though non-meat products are much more common. Earth Pony Magic helps crops grow more food than animal farming does, and we can be fully healthy without meat, so most of our meat products are exports. Farm animals are mostly they’re used for things like eggs and wool.”
“Huh,” she nodded. “Makes sense when you put it that way. Still, I have to ask, is there some different meats y’all eat compared to us? Like, do cows talk so they’re off limits, or do y’all have steak?”
“Well cows talk but they’re not sapient,” she explained. “Some non-Sapient creatures have figured out things like speaking, but think of it like a parrot. Or that gorilla that learned sign language. Being able to speak doesn’t mean ‘Sapient’. Cows, for example, will still get spooked and stampede like an animal, but they’ve figured out speech and the whole ‘if I give a pony this round, shiny, thing sometimes I get food’.
“But to answer your question,” she continued, “we pretty much eat the same stuff when it comes to meat. It’s actually in non-meats where our diets differ, since we can eat a lot of things like hay or most flowers.”
“That makes things simpler, don’t it?” she smiled. “Well, one more question.”
“What?” she wondered.
“Want to meet a horse?” she asked
Sunset stopped and stared up at her. She had to be joking right? However, that dumb grin said anything but.
“No, I don’t want to meet a freaking horse!” Sunset exclaimed.
“Come on, it’ll be fine!” Applejack laughed. “You already said that Humans had that ‘Uncanny Valley’ thing. Why’re horses so different? They’re just the animal version of that.”
“I…..” she tried to think of a proper excuse. “You have a point.”
“Of course I do,” she laughed. “Now, come on!”
Before she could protest more, Sunset was dragged off down the farm. Any other time, the sight of a ton of farmland would be beautiful. But knowing what was ahead only made her panic.
As they neared, Applejack finally let go of her arm and went off to bring one of the horses over. The moment she saw her grab the reins, her panic skyrocketed. And it moving closer didn't help. She stared up at the creature that was now close enough to reach out and touch.
“This one’s Chestnut,” Applejack said, gesturing to the appropriately-colored horse.
“H-hi?” Sunset stammered out. “Uh, I didn’t-I didn’t realize they were so big.”
“Most don’t,” she said. “Think you were smaller as a Unicorn? To be fair, you use ‘pony’ a lot, which basically means ‘small horse’, so-“
“Definitely smaller,” she said. “I’m pretty sure I’m the same size as a Unicorn.”
“Yeah, Chesnut’s about sixteen hands,” she said. “Assuming you’re the same height-“
“No, not height,” she shook her head. “Size. Imagine a Human on all fours. Stars, I’m not even sure if the Princess was that tall! This is a world of giants.”
“The statue at school was pretty life-size,” she pointed out.
“Sure,” she nodded. “But statues don’t have to be life-size. I’m just glad that thing isn’t anatomically accurate!”
“Rumor says it was,” she shuddered. “At least until about twelve years ago. Some sort of prank gone wrong.”
“They probably got tired of looking at it,” she said.
“Probably,” she agreed. “But just go ahead and touch the horse.”
Sunset looked between her and the horse. It was still terrifying, but Applejack was right. Uncanny Valley or not, it was just another animal. Taking a breath to calm her fear, she put her hand on its withers.
The horse’s coat wasn’t exactly like what she expected. It was thinner than her own as a Unicorn. The mane was much coarser as well, since her own had felt much like a Human’s. She wasn’t sure if the differences helped or hurt the Uncanny Valley effect, but as she went on, she felt herself calm a bit.
“Ain’t that bad, huh?” Applejack asked.
“Yeah yeah,” Sunset rolled her eyes.
“Maybe one day you’ll be good enough to ride a horse,” she laughed.
“I’m not even going to think about that,” she groaned. “And I swear, don’t point that out to Rainbow because I will never hear the end of her innuendos.”
“Good point,” she said.
“Still,” she sighed. “Thanks for this.”
“For making you interact with a horse?” she wondered.
“For talking,” she said. “Just letting me be scared and talking through it rationally until I could face it. I feel like anyone else would’ve either said I was being dumb or been too understanding and just let me keep freaking out over it.”
“Maybe,” she shrugged. “I don’t know. You were right to be freaked out, but you could handle it. All I did was tell you that.”
“It helps though,” she smiled. “I guess I just needed to be reminded.”