Chapter 18
Seeing the Seams.
Applejack blinked. “Sheep are always like that with newcomers. They just don’t know what ta make of ya is all.”
“I am starting to gather quite a bit of evidence that says that it is a lot more than that, Applejack,” Heartbreak replied. “I’m not one-hundred percent sure,” she paused and leaned her head against a fencepost. “I think I need more evidence to support any real valid conclusions.”
Applejack shook her head and looked totally lost. “Say what now?”
“Nothing, Applejack.” she replied conking her head on the post. “It’s just my way of using, ‘fancy-talk,’ to say, ‘I don’t know.’” She paused and kicked one of her hooves. “Yet.”
“Huh, with the way ya were talking, it’s a wonder Twi’ an’ ya aren’t getting along better,” Applejack said. Heartbreak just rolled her eyes and sighed. “Uhm, right, still a sore issue. Come on, there’s still one thing ta show ya before we get to the orchard.”
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Well great. First I have my Fluttershy showing, then I have my, ‘Twilight,’ showing. Maybe my, ‘Pinkie Pie,’ was showing when I was attempting a joke. If the other mane six are up there somewhere, I can imagine that I have my Applejack hogtied and stuffed in a closet somewhere. My Rarity is gagged and locked away in the trunk of a car, and the worst parts of my, ‘Rainbow Dash,’ are laughing and floating on a cloud.
Talk about a fractured and conflicted pony.
Applejack takes me past the sheep pen and to a more, ‘barnyard,’ area of the farm. Here is where they keep the pigs and chickens. This is something that I am sure a lot of little kids didn’t think about too much when watching the show. The raising of what are normally food animals by a species whose diet is nearly all herbivorous. I say, ‘nearly all,’ because like I’ve noted before that they eat eggs. So raising chickens makes sense. Plus, you can get feathers from chickens. Though plucking a chicken or any other bird usually involves killing said bird. However I am in a world with magic now. Plucking a bird of its feathers would most likely be just a simple matter of casting the right spell. Rather mortifying for the chicken, but I am sure ponies would have some use for the feathers. So chickens? I can understand that.
But to the adults watching the show, raising pigs raises a number of questions. The most bludgeoning of them being, ‘Why raise pigs when you aren’t going to eat them?’ They could be used for pets or to root out tubers and truffles, but it just doesn’t quite make any sense.
Approaching the barnyard, I hear the familiar sounds of chickens clucking and pigs squealing playfully in the mud. This all stops nearly the moment that I step foot into view of the other animals here. Fuck.
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“As ya can see, this is where we house the chickens and pigs!” Applejack said proudly. She looked at Heartbreak, a small question forming on her lips.
“Yes, Applejack,” Heartbreak said, before she could even ask the question. “We do have pigs and chickens where I am from. We even have dogs, cats, birds, rats, squirrels and fetting ponies.”
Applejack blinked. “Ya do?”
Heartbreak stomped her hoof and rolled her eyes, looking like she had just said something that she didn’t mean to. “Yes, they just aren’t like the ponies here,” she said, putting her hooves over the fence of the pigpen.
“How’s that?” Applejack asked. Heartbreak looked distracted, worried and annoyed about something. While Applejack wanted to know what that something was, she had the feeling that she may never get a chance to get her to talk about the world she was from. “Ah feel awful about not asking what’s bothering her, but Twilight did tell us all to try to get her to tell us more about her world on the train ride back home...” And this was the most that Heartbreak had opened up.
“Huh? Uhm, where I’m from ponies don’t talk,” Heartbreak replied, rubbing a hoof against her head.
“Ponies don’t talk?” Applejack asked.
“No, ponies don’t talk.” Heartbreak replied, staring off towards the pigs.
“Care to expand on that thought?” Applejack asked.
Heartbreak glared at Applejack. She snorted and frowned. “No, I don’t care to do that, Applejack.”
Applejack backed away a bit. “No need ta take offence there, H.B. Ah was just-”
“I thought we weren’t on nickname terms until I earned your, ‘friendship,’” Heartbreak said, bitterly. “You’re sounding like Twilight when she is attempting to needle out information from me. She says that if she knows more about my world, she’ll be able to understand me better.” She turned away from Applejack and started to watch the three little pigs that were in their pen. Almost as if on cue, they stopped playing and nearly dove into a hay pile in the back of their pen.
“Alright, that there is a bit spooky,” Applejack said, scratching her head. “Ah don’t mean to pry there, Heartbreak, but Twi’ does have a point. After all-” Applejack stopped mid-sentence and stared at Heartbreak.
Heartbreak was staring at the pile of hay that the piglets were hiding in. The expression on her face was disturbing. Her eyes were dilated and her mouth was ajar, a small trickle of saliva dripped from her chin. A question formed in Applejack’s mind that frightened her, but it needed asking.
“Heartbreak?” Applejack started.
“Yes’m?” Heartbreak replied, distractedly.
“Why are ya drooling at ma pigs?” Applejack finally asked.
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Crap. Just crap. My mind is going every which direction that I hadn’t even noticed or thought about this. I mean, I’m sure it passed through my mind once or twice but I was able to dodge the question last month with Spike. However, facing the pigs seems to have brought to surface a rather awkward desire that I really, really, really don’t want the ponies here to know about.
I really miss bacon.
I miss the taste of meat as it is - chicken, pork, beef - and right all in the span of one morning, I have faced all three of these animals. Mostly. I don’t think I want to go near the chickens now if I am drooling at the sight of pigs!
Quick! Think of something! Anything! “I was thinking about...garlic.” Yes! Garlic! That way if Applejack asks Twilight about this, she’ll be able to vouch for this little white lie!
“Garlic?” Applejack asks me.
“Yup, garlic. I love garlic.” I really hope she buys this act I’m putting on. I don’t want to explain anything about this.
Applejack sighs and her head droops. “All right, if ya say so, Heartbreak.” I made it under the fence on this one. I don’t think I will be able to use the garlic excuse if it happens again.
“Right. Ah think ah’m gonna have ya far away from the critters there, Heartbreak.” she starts walking away from this small barnyard area and towards the place where I was hoping we wouldn’t be going to. The apple orchard. Well fuck, if A.J. doesn’t trust me around the animals on her farm, there is practically only one thing left for me to do here.
Buck apples.
I sigh and roll my eyes. But the moment we walk into the orchard. I’m oddly comforted.
I might have lived in Minnesota for a good decade, and most likely would have lived there for the rest of my natural life. But there are things that remind me of the small suburb of Spokane, Washington known as Otis Orchards where I grew up. One of them being, well, not too surprisingly, apples and apple trees. The whole of Washington state passed the Cascades is farming territory. Plenty of rolling hills and good soil. There were a good number of apple orchards when I was really young. One time I remember when my school bus was going down Harvard street, the apples were nearing harvest and we schoolkids just opened our windows and snagged some of them from the closest trees to the road.
Then the churches bought the land and took down the trees. I was more than disappointed with that.
“Ah don’t need to go an’ tell ya what this here is,” Applejack said, interrupting what I would describe as a happy memory.
“We have apples where I am from, Applejack,” I reply, putting my left hoof on one of the trees. That’s when I notice something. Or more like the absence of something, the lack of something. A quiet. A deafening silence. I look around and do see that there are a few birds here and there in the trees, but there aren’t any songs being sung. I slump against a nearby tree. Well, that killed that warm feeling I was thinking about.
“All right, now ah know there’s something wrong here. Ya mind letting A.J. in on what’cha yer thinking?” She asks. There is no sense in hiding this one. I bet she has already figured it out. And if she hasn’t she’ll figure it out really quick.
“The animals hate me,” I reply.
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Applejack didn’t quite know how to respond to that statement. “Dun’t ya think that’s a bit-”
“Applejack, Owlowiscious attacked me last night without any provocation, Winona was acting as if I was going to eat your face or something. The cows were looking at me funny, the sheep and pigs are near terrified of me and do you hear any birds singing in those trees?!” Heartbreak looked exasperated as she pointed up to the trees. The only sounds now were the flapping of wings as the birds flew away.