Applejack woke with a start, as there was a loud clang from down stairs. Apple Bloom. If y'all are tryin tah git another cutie mark in cookin'.... Applejack promptly dragged herself from her nice cozy bed and once again looked at the clock. 7:45am, the unforgiving little red digits flashed at her. Shock took hold of her as she quickly made her bed, brushed and tied up her mane, and bolted down stairs to find Jake in the kitchen.
"Mornin', AJ. Sleep well?". Jake then looked over his shoulder to see that look on her face that he knew all too well from his younger years, "I've woken up late and hence forth I'm late for work, whatever shall I do to make up for it?!", any fellow country raised child worth their salt knew what was rattling inside her head. "Calm down, AJ, I told the others what happened last night. The honestly didn't mind if you slept in a bit longer," Jake then gave something in a frying pan a little stir, "Scrabbled eggs?"
"... Ah, please," she responded with a slight shake of her head to regain her senses.
"One or two slices?"
"Two please," and before she knew it, on the plate in front of her were some scrabbled eggs on toast.
"It's been a while since I've cooked anything, so I hope it's alright. Heh, we'll sure as hell know in 20 minutes."
Applejack just looked at her plate of eggs, she could see several kinds of herbs and vegetables mixed in the yellow concoction, "... Thanks."
"Don't mention it," Jake replied before he took a bite, contemplated his next move, then made a bee line for the pepper cracker. "Knew I forgot something. Pepper?" he asked her while waving the cracker in her direction.
Applejack just sat there with a sad look on her face, "Ah missed mah deadline."
"What deadline?"
"Ah was supposed tah start work at six o'clock, it's now eight o'clock."
"Ah, know I now," Jake responded as he calmly lay his utensils on the table, "I know that feeling all too well, I've missed quite a few work days in my youth. Didn't really have a gut for the common cold if you catch my meaning. Take my advice, just calm down, eat your breakie and tackle the day head on as if it were any other. I already told them what happened last night, and they understood. Hell, your brother suggested you take the day off to show me around the place. But being fellow country blood through and through, I even offered to help out to relieve some of the workload." And with this, Jake continued eating.
"Y'all a country lad?" she asked with a small amount of amusement.
"Mmm hmmm," he confirmed through a mouthful of toast and egg, "3rd generation dairy, 500 head of cattle in the milking herd, few hundred in the beef with a small amount of grain and seed growing, though mainly for our benefit," Jake said without even batting an eye, as he continued to consume his breakfast.
"Beef?" Applejack asked.
Jake froze and swallowed hard, "Aww fuck me and my stupid mouth." Applejack tilted her head in confusion as Jake buried his own in his still utensil laden hands. "Please don't go over the roof with this, but... humans are omnivores," he said as he lifted up his head to gauge her reaction.
"... Omniwha?"
"Ffffaaarrrk, this just makes it worse. Now, please don't go freaking out, but humans don't JUST eat plants. Beef is cow. We also eat meat." Applejack just sat there staring at him.
"Like a gryphon?"
Jake sat there looking like he was trying to brain himself through sheer mental will at dropping this on her over breakfast of all things, "Stupid, stupid prick. You probably offended her with the eggs, why didn't you as--what? Gryphons, as in half eagle, half lion?" Applejack nodded an affirmative. "Well shit, how bout that, so I take it that it's a scocial norm for any sentient preditors to eat meat in public?"
"Sort of, they have to stick to they're own side of the restaurant, but otherwise, very much so. And don't worry about the eggs, we ponies do eat them," she said with a smile.
"Thank Christ for that."
Applejack gave a warmhearted chuckle as she took a bite from her breakfast, "Oh, Celestia," she then looked at Jake with a possessed look in her eye, "Y'all jus' HAVE tah teach me the recipie fer this," her voice stained with lust.
Jakes hands flew from the table to his sides, with a slightly disturbed look etched on his normally stoic face, "Jumpin' Jesus. Ya looked like you were goin' ta bloody eat me face off just now," with this, Applejack returned to her seat, a little calmer than before. "And I can most certainly tell you what I put in it," Applejacks spirits soared, "What ever smelt good for the herbs, and what I could get me mitts on for the rest," if only briefly.
After breakfast was eaten, the dishes washed and goodbyes were said to Granny Smith, Jake and Applejack finally walked out the front door. "... So. What's on the agenda for t'day?" Jake asked. Applejack placed her prized Stetson atop her head, and began walking over to the barn.
"Well ah could use you and yer war machine for this job, so go an git ready an meet up out here," she responded.
"Oh? Why if I may ask?"
Applejack looked up to Jake and grinned at him, "... Demolition," she again replied with a hint of glee. "Then after that ah can show yer 'round Ponyville."
"Roger, see ya in a couple o secs," Jake said as he made his way over to the barn. As Jake opened the large red doors, his gaze fell on the all too familiar sight of his suit, kneeling in the middle of the barn like it was bowing to him. Jake gave a contented sigh as he climbed into the cockpit, and sat down in the seemingly meager confines of the torso. As the only things that were controlled by switches or buttons were only the startup/shutdown and the HF radio, everything else was controlled by his thoughts via the neural interface pin, or NIP, dictating everything from advanced movement such as combat manouvers and hand to hand combat, to the various other things such as the FLIR. But it was predominantly used to help the computer interpret the commands from the muscle senors in the leg compartment, and the control yokes for the arms, sensing how fast the pilot wants to move said limb and in what direction. And with enough experience, the pilot doesn't need to consciously think about the commands, so the suit essentially becomes an excessively large second skin.
Jake made sure his harness was tight and lay his back against the spinal coloum, then he flicked the tiny switch that would bring the behemoths tiny, but insanely powerful, reactor into full power. "Please state user voice print and access codes," the computer droned in its dull monotone voice as Jake slipped his arms into the control yokes, careful not to pull away from the spinal coloum.
"A man can only truly know himself when he has nothing to lose, for his voice of reason shall be lost to the darkness of his mind, then and only then can he strive to better himself. 99318 alpha charlie bravo foxtrot," as Jake completed the startup, he felt the NIP stab into the base of his neck and the chest and head of his Goliath closed once more, it's ghostly blue eyes scanning the interior of the barn.
Applejack meanwhile had found a suitable sized cart and hitched up, and was now waiting on Jake and his machine when she heard a loud 'THUNK' and a hiss. Then she saw the tell tale "arteries" and eyes begin to glow and pulsate like a gigantic metal demon had taken up residence in the barn. And she once again, despite knowing what it was and who was controlling the titan, shivered slightly with fear as the ground shook and trembled with each titanic step taken.
As Jake stepped out into the morning sun, his suits' midnight black paint job shone with a gleam that made it look like the chitin plates off some kind of dangerous insect, rather than a hulking machine meant for heavy battle. Jake plodded over to Applejack, and kneeled down to her level, "Why don't you unhitch and I'll carry it, sound like a good idea?" Applejack nodded and proceeded to unhitch the large cart. Jake then lent over to the cart and picked it up, before tucking it under an arm. "Lead the way," he suggested with a wave of his free hand.
---
The three Cutie Mark Crusaders watched in awe of the armored titan, as it lifted up a large cart as if it were nothing then obediently followed Applejack towards Ponyville like an oversized alien dog... Well... Two of them were. Scootaloo's eyes were almost out of her head, and Sweetie Belle's jaw was practically unhitched as the two hadn't believed what Apple Bloom said about the giant. She was about to take her friends into the barn to show them, when it had come out on its own accord. Scootaloo was the first to speak, "That. Is. The. Most. Awesome. Thing. EVER!!!" pure glee written on her face. Sweetie Belle responded in her own way by falling over in a catatonic state, with her eyes still bulging. "... I think Sweetie Bot has malfunctioned," this eliciting a laugh from Apple Bloom, and a glaring from Sweetie Belle as she picked herself from the ground.
"Ya know," Apple bloom began, "That there thing shrugged off a direct attack from Twilight". Again her friends stared in shock. "Are y'all thinkin' what ahm thinkin'?" the two other fillies both looked at each other with knowing grins.