//------------------------------// // Invader Heartbreak // Story: My Little Heartbreak: Meanwhile, Back at the Farm // by Jet_Black1980 //------------------------------// Chapter 33 Invader Heartbreak The look on Applejack’s face is the look that I fear the most. A look that is a mingling of fear, disgust and out right judgmental horror. Her head is slowly craning away and she looks like she wants to get up and get away from me. “Well...uhm,” I don’t like this feeling. I don’t like the idea of telling a bunch of herbivores that I belonged to a species that essentially enslaved most of the animals of this world to either do the jobs that they didn’t want to do or used them as a food source. But I made a deal with Applejack. I stare at the ground and then look up at her. Finally I just nod my head curtly. “Well, now, that is certainly different,” Applejack says. “Ah don’t get why ya had ta go an’ tell that story ta tell me, ‘where ah’m from we eat pigs.’” I rub my hoof against my head. “I didn’t know how you would react, Applejack. And well, it’s not -just- pigs,” I cover my face and cough. Momentarily my eyes dart towards the barn that houses the cows. Applejack’s eyes widen in surprise. “Uhm,” she points at the barn, “Them too?” “You’d be surprised at what they wouldn’t eat, Applejack.” I rub my shoulder uncomfortably. Applejack looks at me like a deer that just was caught by surprise. “Ya don’t mean ta tell me that ya ate-” She points at herself. “Well there’s something I have never eaten. Nor would I consider eating...” I reply. Fucking A. This is fucking awkward! I want the awkward to go away! “Well, ah got to admit that it is different.” I look up at her. “And if ya were any other pony, an’ ah didn’t know yer situation, ah might have different view about this. However. It’s different from where yer from.” “That might be the cause, A.J., but I don’t want the others knowing about this...quirk of mine.” Crap, I feel like crying about this. I shouldn’t feel like crying, why do I feel like this?! “Look Sugarcube, all the others know what other animals eat. Ah mean, Winona has her bones and-” she starts out. “I just don’t want them knowing, Applejack! I’m not comfortable with them knowing. F-f-fet, I’m not comfortable with -you- knowing. Don’t tell them, please?” I ask. She looks at me sympathetically and takes a deep breath. “Alright, ya have ma word that ah won’t tell anypony about this. Cows included.” I’m sure that’s her attempt to make a joke in all this, but I’m not laughing. “Thank you for understanding, Applejack. And let’s never do this again?” “Never do what again?” She asks me. “This deal making thing. I didn’t like it, it felt forced and-” I shake my head. “Did I earn my fetting s’more already?” “Alright, and yes, ya earned it,” She replies, putting together the s’more between her hooves. I walk up to her and bend my head down to take it off her hoof. I would make the joke that this is the second time I have taken something off an Apple’s hoof, but I am feeling drained from today, not to mention the whole ordeal just now. I gobble it in one bite. “Fank juu, A.J. I’m going to sleep now.” “Night there, H.B.,” she says. “Good night, A.J.,” I reply, swallowing my treat. The taste of warm chocolate with melted marshmallow comforts me and I feel much better. Now for some sleep. ============================================================== Crab Apple watched Heartbreak walking back to the house. He had only heard the last bit of the conversation between Applejack and Heartbreak. “I could have heard more if I didn’t have to go so slow! Even with my sneaking skills, Applejack would have been sure to catch me, but..She ate meat?!” He thought to himself. “Things are definitely different in Mineighsota.” He slowly slid down from his perch and started to shadow Heartbreak. “Boy, I didn’t know what to expect when coming out here, particularly that! I can kind of see why she doesn’t want others knowing about this. I mean, most ponies panic easily enough as it is, but if they were to worry about some carnivorous pony that was wandering around-” he eyed Heartbreak from the shadows. Despite having a treat from Applejack she looked tired and depressed. She then paused for a moment and then looked around. “Oh no! I hope she didn’t see me!” he crouched lower to the ground. Heartbreak shook her head and sighed before looking up at the sky. Dib though he could hear her cough and then sniff hard. Moments later he heard the door close. Waiting a few minutes, he looked around and then carefully shimmied up a drainpipe and back to his room. He looked around for a second to see if he had been followed and listened making sure that Heartbreak wasn’t heading upstairs. He then proceeded to slip into his bed. “Geeze, with the way she was acting, some pony might think that her pet died or something. It must really bother her a lot!” Crab Apple tried to imagine what it would be like to hold on to a secret like that and at the same time, have what all ponies really wanted: To be accepted. He had found something like that with his little club, maybe she could find some acceptance there too. “Right, I’ll worry about that tomorrow. For now, I think I will keep her secret a secret and get some sleep.” ============================================================== I wake up with the sun in my eyes. Last night’s dreaming was unpleasant. I barely remember details involved. But something about dancing hot dog wieners was in there. Pushing myself up, I eye the old grandfather clock. It’s almost nine o’clock . I guess Applejack decided to let me sleep in. I lay there for a few minutes thinking about last night. It ended in such a weird place. Sighing, I lift my head and look around. That’s when I hear A.J.’s voice coming from outside. I can’t make out what she’s saying, but she sounds like she means business about something or another. “Better go out and assimilate the day.” I think before pushing myself up off the couch. “But not before visiting my good pal: The bathroom.” After morning business I walk outside. Applejack is loading buckets of apples into a cart proudly. “Well, well. Finally wakin’ up there, Sugarcube?” She asks me. I sigh and look at her. “Yup. I guess I have to make my own breakfast this morning, eh?” She gives me a funny look. “I think that came out wrong, I didn’t mean to sound-” “Hey now, it’s alright, no reason ta start the morning off wrong. Big Mac made pancakes this mornin’ and there are some leftovers in the fridge. Ya can help yerself ta some of them,” she says, smiling. “Uhm, not to be nit-picky, but aren’t they going to be cold? How am I going to warm them up?” I ask. She blinks and looks at me as if the answer was clearly obvious. “Well, ya would just-” “Never mind, I’m fine with eating them as they are. I was just wondering how you reheated your food without the aid of some sort of tech. I mean it’s just that-” I start to stammer. She puts a hoof on my shoulder. “H.B. We do have this fancy thing called a, ‘toaster oven,’ and if ya can wait for like three ta five minutes, ya can have nice warm pancakes.” “Oh, right.” I look around. “I knew that.” “Right, before ya go off ta have some breakfast,” Great. She’s going to talk about last night, “Ah was wondering if ya’d be against helping Crab Apple with some of the chores ah’ve given him.” I cock my head and look at her oddly. “Isn’t there that club meeting today?” “Yeah, but that don’t start until after one ta day, and his parents send him here ta do farm work. Ah’m not havin’ him bucking apples on account of that event. Instead ah’m havin’ him pick up any loose apples on the ground an’ tossin’ out any rotten ones. If ya help him, ah’ll pay ya for doing it!” She says, smiling. “Pay me...? As in actual money? As in, I’m doing a job, earning a wage, of sorts, and then get, paid for it?” I shouldn’t be making a big deal out of this. After money is just money, but at the same time. “Well, ah know ya don’t like just getting nothin’ fer free. An’ ah can respect that. Ah mean ah could just give ya the forty bits ah planned on givin’ ya fer this whole thing, but ya’d get all fussy about it. So, ah figure, why not work fer it?” She asks sheepishly. I look back and forth. Finally I nod my head. “Alright, sure. I like that idea.” “Right then! You go get yerself somethin’ ta eat and if ya need any help in the kitchen, give a holla’,” Applejack replies. I start to fidget with my hooves. “Actually, I really could use some help with the, ‘pancakes into the toaster oven,’ thing. I mean, it might not be all that difficult, and is most likely much more easy than what I am making it out to be, but once I see it-” “Say no more there, H.B.” She slides a basket of apples into her cart. “Just give me here a bit and ah’ll help ya out with that.” This morning is totally not what I expected. ============================================================== Crab Apple’s mind was buzzing with everything that he had learned about Heartbreak. Just the very notion that ponies would eat meat boggled him. “What conditions would force ponies to undergo such a radical change in diet?! How isolated is Mineighsota? And what-” He suddenly felt something touch his shoulder and he jumped at least three feet away. “Gah!” “Gah!” Heartbreak shouted back. “Gah!” Crab Apple shouted back. Heartbreak regained her composure. “Are we done shouting at each other?” She asked. “Uhm, yeah. Sorry, it was just that-” Crab Apple began. “That I startled you. Yeah, I get that. But I would like to refrain from this turning into a pointless screaming match. I would much rather put in a little work before we go your club meeting, A.J. is actually paying me!” She said proudly. “Paying you? What’s up with that?” Crab Apple asked looking at Heartbreak’s smile. “Her teeth look like any other pony’s teeth. They aren’t sharp like a carnivores. Maybe they hunt it down and kill it in another means? Or maybe they just raise it on farms.” Heartbreak look at Crab Apple after a long pause. “So, right. You want to take one side and I take another?” “Yes!” He squeaked out. “I mean, that might be a good idea. We can cover more ground that way!” Heartbreak looked at Crab Apple. “Are you sure you’re alright, Dib? Or is today just one of those, ‘jumpy,’ days?” “Just one of those jumpy days, I guess. Did A.J. explain what we’re doing here?” Crab Apple asked, looking down at her hooves. Were they hooves of death? Could they have killed anything? And was there a real reason that she drilled a hole in her hoof? “It’s not rocket science, Dib. Good apples get put in the baskets, bad apples...uhm...they get tossed...but she didn’t say where they get tossed.” Heartbreak looked down at Crab Apple as he stared at her hooves. “Crab Apple. Eyes up here.” “Oh right, uhm, sorry. It’s just-” He stammered. “It’s just a hole, Dib. Like I said: Magic Tea, it’ll do things to you. I seen things,” she paused, looking thoughtful. “Now back to the matter of the rotten apples.” “Oh! Right, there’s buckets between and to the side of the trees. The ones between the trees are for good apples and the ones to the sides are for rotten ones,” he said. “That sounds easy enough,” Heartbreak replied, smiling. As she did so, he spied something...red...caught between her teeth. “Gah!” he jumped back in fright. “What?!” She shouted, looking around her. “You have something red stuck between your teeth!” he said, almost shouting. “Oh,” she licked the space between her teeth. “Strawberry pancakes this morning. Uhm, thanks for pointing it out. Though by the way you were acting, I thought some sort of dangerous thing was lurking about.” “Uhm, no, not at all. I’m just really serious about oral hygiene!” he replied. “Sure you are. Though, if you are going to be serious about something, I guess that is a good thing to be serious about.” she rolled her eyes. “Tooth pain is no walk through the park,” she said, going backwards as she walked away from Crab Apple and to the other side of the trees. ============================================================== Dib has been looking at me funny for the last half hour since we started this little job. It’s like he has a bunch of questions on his mind about something, but is too afraid to ask. And while checking for good apples and bad ones is like a minigame, I am getting bored of the deafening silence. The nice thing about my last job was that I could talk to myself. Tell myself stories. Can’t do that here. “So,” I say breaking the silence. “You have any questions about Mineighsota?” I need to figure out what I am going to tell other ponies about it anyway. Live the character that I have built for myself. “Oh! Yeah!” he says from across the way. “Uhm, what’s it like there?” I think about this. “Cold. Very cold. You’ve heard of the Crystal Kingdom, right?” “Yeah?” Crab Apple asked. “Mineightsota is far north of that. And I mean far north. The colony was settled about the same time that Equestria was established. But when the Crystal Empire vanished, ties to the outside world started to go with it. For about a few hundred years, Mineighsota was pretty much isolated to itself,” I explain. “So when the Empire came back, so did routes to the colony. Interesting.” Crab Apple looked confused. “How did you all survive up there?” Shit, how would a colony survive that long without contact from the outside world? “A form of lost tech known as, ‘Green Houses.’ Plus there are a lot of lakes in the area. Big ones in fact. But the colony was on the verge of extinction once or twice. If it weren’t for the occasional random group of travelers that got lost up our way, we’d have died out from stagnation. By the time that those up in the Crystal Kingdom found us, we were suffering from a great number of the common ailments found in isolated populations.” “Wait, green houses? Really?” Dib asks me. “Well, it’s lost tech for us,” I reply. Crab Apple nodded. “Just wondering, why isn’t this all over the Equestria News? I think a lost colony being found again would be a big deal.” Fuck! This backstory is starting to get some serious plot holes in it. Right, you can close these off. “Well, you see, I’m not spost’a be telling any p-p-ponies this information to begin with. I can tell them where I am from, but not the details I have been sharing with you.” I lift up a hoof and lightly poked Dib in the shoulder. “But I trust you with this stuff, Dib. First off, it would make Celestia look bad. Mineighsota was under her care and for her to lose an entire colony of ponies? Not a good thing. Secondly, there is an isolationist mentality going on among the Mineighsotans. They were abandoned and had their trust broken. They kinda see the outside world with a much more jaded view than most. I’m actually considered an, ‘oddity.’ I think that the outside world can help, and the rest of it is just a bunch of boring political mumbo jumbo that I would rather not go into.” “Please buy that please, buy that...” Crab Apple blinks “Wait, you trust me?” I look down and go back to my side of the trees, picking up a few apples along the way. “Yeah. You seem like a good colt with a decent head on his shoulders, Dib.” At least that part is true. Crab Apple just looks back at me and smiles a bit.