Jake whistled when he saw the arc of wood over the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. "Ain't seen such a gate like that since ah got out'a Georgia. Those real apples?"
"Nah," she said, shaking her head as they kept walking towards the mentioned arc and gap in the fence. "Iron and paint. Real vines, though."
"Couldn't tell from back here," he said, nodding as he caught a glimpse of light reflecting off of one of the fruits. "Damn good artistry there. It's a bit of a relief to hear you can shape metal, too. I've had my fill of backwater villages without a smith, and it's a right pain in the ass to get even somethin' as small as a pack of nails."
The pony's ears twitched a couple of times as he spoke.
"Uhm, those are pretty strong profanities," Twilight spoke up, pausing the group as they neared the house.
"Ah'd ask ya not to use that sort of language near foal's ears," AJ said sternly.
Jake blinked before reaching up to tug briefly on the edge of his hat. "Apologies, ladies," he murmured. "It's been a time since I was in the presence of the fairer sex or mannered society. Tell me which words offended, and they'll cross my lips no more."
"Well," Twilight said slowly, looking around and blushing a little when she told him, "Damn has some very dark religious connotations that haven't been around in centuries, and calling a donkey an Ass has been considered vulgar for the past hundred and fifty years."
Jake blinked and smiled down at her. "You're sh—" He paused and cleared his throat, narrowing his eyes towards the horizon before continuing, "You're kidding me. Donkeys are intelligent too, here?"
"Well, sure!" Twilight said slowly, resuming the relaxed walking pace. "Were they not, where you came from?"
He chuckled before saying, "Some'd say that there's a few that were more than clever enough, but most of them were just da—" Another breath. "Just stubborn. Strong as anything, but stubborn."
"They're the same way here," AJ chuckled.
"But they talk here?" Jake asked.
"As well as we do," Twilight said with a nod.
Jake started to say something else, but they'd reached the arc leading off of the grounds, and he paused to gentle grasp and admired one of the painted apples before ducking deeply to get under the trellis.
Twilight saw something move on the back of his head as he bent, and she narrowed her eyes until she realized what it was and gagged again.
Jake glanced sharply at her and checked his hat, glancing at AJ when he confirmed it was where it was supposed to be.
"Your," Twilight started, gulping before she waved a hoof at his head. "Uh, the rest of your skull, it's—" Another gag. "It's still back there. It looks like it's, uh, still attached. To your scalp."
AJ paled again as Jake's eyes widened a bit before he carefully reached around the back of his head.
"Well damned if it ain't," he muttered before carefully lifting his hat and moving something around on the back of his head before replacing it. "Better?" he asked as he turned around slowly and tilted his head up.
It looked like he'd pinned it back where it was supposed to be, using the band of the hat to keep the bone in place. It looked a little lumpy, and there was a great stain of brown-red that covered his hair and the back of his coat, but there wasn't any visible gore, at least.
"Uhm, it that..." Twilight started, before shivering. "Is that comfortable? Does it... hurt?"
"It don't feel right," he muttered unhappily, "but it don't hurt none. Like when you sleep on your arm and it wakes up wrong in the morning."
"Well, I don't see any bone or, uh, meat," AJ muttered. "Can you do somethin' 'bout the blood, Twi?"
"I can try, if that's alright, Jake?"
He looked over his shoulder. "You gonna throw a bucket of water at me, or somethin'?" he asked as his visible eyebrow raised.
"No Jake, it's still pretty chilly," Twilight said with a giggle. "I was going to use a stain removing spell that one of my friends taught me. It might even help your coat smell a bit better."
He gazed at her, long enough for the smile to drop, before he slowly nodded.
"Alright," he muttered, setting the bags to the side before stripping off his coat and dangling an arms-length in front of him.
Underneath the long brown coat, he wore a set of what Twilight recognized as trousers, thick light-brown wool with what appeared to be suspenders holding them at the waist. They were covered in a sort of sheath, made up of a strange material she didn't recognize. At the ends of the trousers, a pair of squared boots poked out from the pants.
There was a shirt, simple undyed cotton fabric with a row of white buttons running up the front. Over the shirt was a vest, made of the same material as the outer pants, with many slits that Twilight reckoned to be pockets. The raspberry cloth that previously covered his face pooled around his neck, apparently tied behind it.
Back at his waist was a heavy-looking loop of the same material that covered the trousers with a large, strangely shaped pouch on its right hip. A series of small, cylindrical loops covered the face of the belt and held small pieces of metal in most of the small loops.
She took this all in as he waited for a beat before looking at her.
"Uhm, will your, uh, spell, take the wax off?"
"Wax?" Twilight said, frowning at the coat. "Why's there wax on your coat?"
Jake shrugged. "Keeps the water off," he said, glancing around and seeing the well nearby. "If you wanna get a bucket, you can see," he offered. "Might get some of the blood off as well."
Twilight looked at AJ, who shrugged before she grabbed a bucket in her magic and dunked it in the well before bringing it over.
Taking a moment, he draped the material over the trellis, allowing Twilight to see that the blood had thankfully stopped before reaching his shirt, though the fabric around his neck would also need to be seen to.
Taking a step back, he nodded at Twilight, who promptly launched the water in the bucket at the coat.
The water splashed over the material and ran briefly with the dark-brown of old blood. Rolling up one of his sleeves, Jake stepped over and started to reach out his hand.
"Wait, Jake," Twilight quickly said, "I can get it off without touching it!"
He paused, shrugged, then rolled his sleeve back down over intensely tanned skin and a light covering of dark hair.
Watching him back away, Twilight formed a straight, dull edge with her field and used it to gently scrape at the jacket, forcing the bloody water down the outside and cleaning most of the dust off at the same time.
After a couple of minutes, Twilight nodded, most of the stain gone.
"Now, does your hair have anything, uhm, besides blood, in it?" she asked with an awkward smile.
"You want to magic my hair?" he asked, eyes widening at her.
"A lot more gently," she reassured, nodding. "If there's no product in your hair, then I can run a cleaning spell over it instead. Not a true replacement for some hot, soapy water, but it'll get all of the blood out."
Looking down at her, he sighed before reaching behind his back and untying what turned out to be a long piece of fabric, letting his shoulder-length hair free. Most of it didn't actually move, clotted together as it was.
"Careful tuggin' on it," he said with a thin smile before kneeling in the grass so that she could be eye-level with his shoulders. "Whole top may fall off."
Turning a little green, Twilight took in a deep breath before she carefully took his hair in her magic and carefully applied one of her more-used spells, though she wouldn't care to admit to that.
The blood, grease, and grime slowly separated from the strands and became its own little ball before she promptly catapulted it into the sky, directly towards the Everfree.
Jake reached over a shoulder and gently ran his fingers through his hair, frowning heavily.
"Why's it feel like that?"
AJ glanced at Twilight before moving forward and gently running her frog over it.
"Clean?" she asked, visibly bewildered as he ran his hands through it again.
"Huh," he said, frowning as he stood up and looked at both of them, still feeling his hair before sighing and dropping his arms. "If you say so. Feels... thin, like it's about to break."
AJ and Twilight shared a look. The cowpony shrugged, and they looked back at Jake.
Clearing her throat, Twilight shrugged and said, "Uh, maybe your hair is just finer than our manes? I'm really not the pony to ask about that."
"Twi's a bookworm," AJ told Jake, who looked at Twilight strangely.
"She... eats books?" he asked uncertainly, smiling a bit when AJ snickered at Twilight's blush.
"Only with her eyes," she said, nudging the alicorn.
"I read a lot," she muttered to Jake. "She's just teasing me about the volume."
Looking a little lost, Jake just nodded. "Alright..."
"Anyways," Twilight said, shaking her head. "I'm not the pony to ask about manes. That would be my friend Rarity."
"If you think I need'ta," Jake murmured, looking over the coat and picking it back up. Looking around at the sky for a moment, he shrugged before rolling it up and adding it to one of the bags he had on his back.
"If I may," Twilight asked as he was shrugging back into the pack, "what are those little metal bits on your belt? Are they decoration, or some sort of capsule for something?"
"My bullets?" he asked, looking at her with a cocked head before withdrawing one of the cartridges and holding it out.
"Oh, it's made of two different metals," Twilight noted, taking the offered piece in her field and examining it. "It looks like brass and... lead? Why lead?"
"It's easy to find, and cheap," Jake said with a shrug. "That's not the important part though, that's inside."
Twilight frowned, gently tugging on it with her magic and looking up at Jake. "Inside?"
He chuckled and reached out, taking it back from Twilight and holding it in the air. "I'll show ya later. Once I figure out if a chemist can make more of the black powder inside."
"Oh, how lucky! I happen to be an accomplished chemist!" Twilight said, tittering afterward. "Well, I'm not as good as the great Antonius Mendelhoof, but he also lived hundreds of years ago, so I still have better equipment."
"Oh, good," Jake said, some of the wrinkles between his eyebrows relaxing. "I was worried. Inside is black powder, an explosive that sends this," he said, tapping the lead head of the cartridge, "into anything that looks at ya wrong." He then slipped it back into his belt. "Noisy, though."
"Oh, how loud?" she asked, looking up at Jake.
"Loud," he said, looking down the road to town. "Uhm, that bath would still be nice."
"Oh," Twilight said, smiling bashfully up at him and turning to start walking. "I'm sorry, Jake, it's just been a little since I learned about anything really, well, new to this world. There's so much potential knowledge! And I get to ask questions even, without looking through a completely different book for answers!"
Twilight giggled and bounced a couple of times on her hooves, reminding Jake of a move that some horses used to throw riders.
It reminded Applejack of Pinkie Pie.
"Uh, Twilight, " she said, trotting forward and giving Twilight a jostle with her hip. "You don't think we should let somepony know? Somepony pink and prone to surprising folks?"
"Oh," she said again, this time frowning afterward in thought. "Jake, one of our friends sort of likes to surprise creatures who are new to town. Do you want me to ask her not to pop out at you? Will you be okay if she pops out of nowhere and talks to you?"
"Uh, what do you mean by nowhere?" Jake asked, lifting his boot and staring at the ground distrustfully.
"Well, it's the darndest thing," AJ muttered, looking around herself as well. "Ah could swear that she's even popped out'a my own hat before."
Jake's eyes widened and he said, with a grin, "Hope she don't choose mine this time."
Twilight stuck her tongue out of her mouth while AJ chuckled. "She's a smart enough mare, even if she does seem a bit scatterbrained. She'll probably pop up where we least expect here."
"Like in the middle of the road!" another voice chimed in.
"Well, sure, like—" AJ started to say before the two ponies jumped back and whipped their heads around, looking at a particularly pink puff of pony parading in place.
"It's Pinkie!" she crowed, quietly for her.
Jake looked between the three mares before sighing.
"Ah'm gonna go find my own bath," he muttered before walking forward, lifting his legs and stepping over the new pony.
"Oooh, you're tall!" Pinkie called, bouncing behind him as he kept striding forward. "Taller than me anyways! Taller than Princess Celestia, even!"
"Isn't that nice," Jake muttered, walking forward with narrowed eyes. "She the one that lives over in that big rock candy mountain?" he asked, waving a hand at the castle off in the distance.
"Nah, that one's Twilight's Castle of Friendship," Pinkie said before standing on her back hooves and gently leaning one of her forelegs on Jake's shoulder, pointing up at the Canterhorn and the city visible jutting off of the side. "That one's Princess Celestia's," she said. "Well, sort of? It's also sort of ours now, right?" she asked, looking over at Twilight.
Since she was too busy pushing her hoof into her face, AJ spoke up.
"Well, kind of?" she said, scratching her chin with one hoof as the group continued. "Like, Celestia an' Luna definitely still live there, and Twi's still in her castle down here, but she teleports there to take care of anything important before comin' back here, right?"
Twilight nodded, hoof still in face.
"If'n I remember right, Celestia's still catching up on paperwork, and Luna still does the dream walkin'," AJ said, more sure of herself. "I'm not real sure if there's anything else."
With a faint pop, Twilight disconnected her hoof and muttered, "They also opened up their offices as advisors to anycreature who wanted to talk. As long as it's not about anything official, of course."
"So, you're a princess then?" Jake asked, looking oddly at the pink pony walking with him as a balance. "What does your king do then? Or d'ya have a queen instead?"
"Neither," Twilight said, a bit sternly. "There have been Kings and Queens in the past, but they all just want everycreature to bow to them. That's why our rulers are known as Princesses, and sometimes Princes. That way, they know they don't actually own everypony. They help them live peacefully and happily."
Jake nodded absently before asking, "Why d'ya keep saying everycreature and everpony? Wouldn't it be easier to say everyone?"
"What about changelings? And creatures like Cerberus? Or chimera, or the hydra, or orthros, or—"
Jake waved a hand at Pinkie Pie. "Those are just one creature, ain't they?"
"Well," Twilight sighed, "Most of them have one body, but Cerberus has three, independently thinking heads, as does the standard chimera. While orthros have only two heads, Hydra starts at three and gains more if anything ever happens to them. And we're seeing a lot more changelings than we ever used to, and while they might not have a hive-mind anymore, they're definitely not limited to only one body."
Jake stopped and looked at her for a long moment.
"What do you mean by that?"
AJ chuckled. "It's all in the name, Jake. They can change their shape to whatever creature they can think of, and the really talented ones can make up their own things to turn in 'ta."
"Witchcraft," he muttered, gazing up at the sky for a moment as though looking for something before he started walking again.
"Jake, do you have any practitioners of high magic where you come from?" Twilight asked. "You keep referring to witches whenever we talk about or do something magical, but they don't actually rank very high compared to more learned unicorns."
Jake chuckled hollowly. "Ma'am, the only real magic is the miracles visited upon us by God and his choir," he said, waving a hand through the air. "Otherwise, anything unnatural was done by a witch, a human that consorts with demons for power. Or they feed themselves to the demon, and it takes over their body long enough to do some great evil."
"Take over? Like, possession?" Pinkie asked, raising her eyebrows. "Wow, I thought only ghosts could do that."
"Ghosts don't exist, Pinkie Pie," AJ said, before glancing at Jake. "I, uh, don't think so, anyway."
"There are scientific and magical papers that theorize about, and even attempt to contact, the soul of a creature. It wouldn't be too far to say that they're possible, at least," Twilight said, sharing her look at Jake.
"I don't know nothing about ghosts," he proclaimed, shaking his head, "but I believe in spirits. The spirit of the Lord, and the spirits of those turned by the Devil, and the Devil himself."
"What's the Devil? An' what lord?" AJ asked.
Jake sighed and shook his head. "I ain't no missionary, ma'am, and I don't know everything half as well as I should, but ah can tell you that the Lord is the one what made the world and everything in an' on it, and He holds host over Heaven, the place where ya go after ya die if you've been good and righteous enough. Otherwise, ya go to Hell, where the Devil tortures you until Jesus comes down and redeems your soul, and then ya go up with him after he defeats the Devil. Unless you're real wicked, down in your soul, then you stay in the lake of fire and burn forever."
The ponies had stopped walking at the mention of 'torture', and Jake had to pause when he finished to look behind himself at them.
"That don't make a lick'a sense," AJ slowly said.
Jake shrugged. "That's just what I remember the preacher tellin' us when I was growin' up."
"They told you that when you were growing up?" Twilight asked, outraged.
"Well, sure," he said, shrugging. "How else we supposed to know if we were sinnin' or not?"
Twilight's face grew stricken and rigid, while Pinkie's screwed up.
"You're talking about religion?" Twilight asked. "A universal constant as to what is and isn't right, as defined by a deity? A god?"
He snapped his fingers, nodding. "Well yeah, sure. But not a god, the God. Creator of all, and all that."
"Oh," Twilight said quietly, before smiling hollowly up at Jake. "Do you mind if I talk with the girls for a moment? Alone?"
He snorted, before shrugging. "Sure. I'll jus' keep walkin', but slow-like."
"Alright, Jake," she said with a smile as the other two gathered around her. She watched him take a couple of long but lethargic paces, looking around and taking in the sights around him before she gathered up the two mares.
"Don't listen to anything he says about his god or sin, or anything," she whispered. "Don't confront him about it either."
"What—" Pinkie started to ask, but Twilight shook her head.
"I don't want to go into depth right now, but there used to be religious ponies that worshiped anything, from Celestia to Discord to the Everfree, even. They usually ended up hurting, sometimes killing other creatures, because they didn't believe in the same things they did. Now, I don't think that Jake's like that—"
"Obliged to hear that, Miss Twilight," Jake called back, each of the ponies stiffening in place. "Just so you know, I ain't the kind to go shovin' my thoughts and beliefs where they ain't welcome. Also, I lived as part of the security detail on the cattle drives, so m'ears are pretty good."
Twilight observed him, waited for more, but eventually breathed out quietly. "I'm sorry Jake, that wasn't very understanding of me," she started until he waved his hand through the air.
"I don't fault you none for it," he said, stopping and half turning her way, resting a hand on the oddly shaped bag on his hip.
"Some of the nuttier followers would've shot you dead for even implyin' that God may not exist," he admitted, in a voice that chilled her heart and blood, before he smiled blandly. "Way I see it is I'm in your world now, and I better adapt. Those that don't adapt? They end up dead. And I'm guessin' I didn't much care for how that went last time."
He reached up and flicked the edge of his hat before turning away and continuing to saunter away.
"He's kinda scary, huh?" Pinkie deadpanned.
"Are you sure you want him hangin' out in your castle, Twi? In town?" AJ asked, gazing after the retreating figure.
Twilight was quiet for a while before she started walking after him.
"I don't think I like the alternative all that much, Applejack."