The orange earth pony sat at the wooden table, a chair beneath her as she sat in between Matt and Roxanne who were at either end of the small square table The kitchen/dining room itself wasn’t very large, with only enough room for the cooking appliances, the table, and a window along with Ohm’s comfy chair shoved discreetly into one of the far corners. As her gaze shifted from the light blue wallpaper back to the mostly empty plate in front of her, Applejack had to admit that Roxanne could cook some good pasta.
Roxanne brushed her black hair out of her eyes as she finished her own meal, chewing down a last meatball and letting out a happy sigh. “Mmmm, there are very few things I like more than spaghetti and meatballs for a number of reasons,” she glanced at Matt and grinned. “Not the least of which is that it’s easy to make when my ‘lazy husband’ is too tired to make me, his pregnant wife, something himself.”
“Aren’t you the one who sometimes complains that there’s nothing for you to do if I help you out all the time?” the man remarked with a small chuckle. “Beside, how hard was it to actually cook the pasta, and warm up the sauce and the meatballs? Hmmm?”
The woman snickered. “Fine, fine, you caught me, I’m just complaining because it’s fun, mon amour,” she replied with a smirk, her accent getting thicker. “Don’t say you dislike it.”
“Oh I’m not, the pasta and the meatballs were great,” Matt replied with a grin, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek.
“Nothing better than Tauros meatballs,” Roxanne agreed with a smirk as she leaned down to pet Belle who had mooched half of her meatballs. “Isn’t that right my little Belle?”
“They are one of my favorites,” Belle agreed with a happy smile, licking her lips free of some remaining sauce.
“Traitor,” Cres replied with a smirk from Matt’s lap. “Clefairy meat, that is the undisputed best meal around, cooked or raw.”
“I’m sure it is,” Matt said to the Absol, giving him a small pet down Cres’s back.
Applejack just ate her pasta silently, trying to tune out their talk of what Pokemon was considered as having the best meat. Though as she was slippering up one a noodle, a sudden thought clicked into her. “Wait a second... how are you willing to eat Pokemon if y’all consider them friends?” she asked, not directing it at anyone specifically but she glanced around to both Matt and Roxanne.
“Ah, that’s a good human question that Matt can answer, after all, he’s able to talk to all of us,” Belle said with a smile, glancing up at Matt and translating Applejack’s question to the man.
Matt blinked his eyes for a moment, a finger tapping against the table. “Yeah... that is rather a good question.”
“What question?” Roxanne inquired, looking up curiously. “I can’t speak Pokemon dear.”
“Applejack is wondering why do we eat Pokemon if we consider many of them to be friends,” he told her.
“Well, it’s deeply rooted in our culture for one thing,” Roxanne replied with a small shrug. “Back before we invented Pokeballs, Pokemon weren’t as closely tied to humanity, though we certainly had Pokemon as friends. Humans are omnivores and as such we can eat meat and there are Pokemon that are very good sources of that like Tauros, Bouffalant, and Farfetch’d. Over the years people have been making the argument that in these enlightened times we shouldn’t be eating meat at all but...” she trailed off and shrugged. “Most of us just like the taste, I know it’s a sorry explanation but that’s the way that history writes itself. Not to mention that most people can’t understand Pokemon the way Matt can.”
“Yeah... though that’s not to say we are still doing what our ancestors did,” Matt continued on. “Most meat we get comes from breeding farms who breed Pokemon solely for... well to be processed. That way we aren’t poaching Pokemon from the wild anymore. Like Gale Corporation, they’re one of the biggest in the business.”
“Personally I don’t see what the problem is,” Cres spoke up. “After all, Pokemon hunt and eat other Pokemon, no reason for humans not too.”
Yeah... though many of these Pokemon seem to be able to think and talk a lot like you, the mare pointed out flatly in her mind, but kept her mouth shut. The way Matt described the process of keeping a ‘farm’ of the Pokemon sound a bit familiar to what she heard the gryphons did in their kingdom. Yet those animals weren’t as fully thinking as she seen Pokemon, so the thought kinda just struck a sour chord to her. “Right...” was all she said before resuming in finishing her pasta.
“Honestly, it’s a topic that I prefer not to think about,” Roxanne said with a small sigh.
“Me too... but it’s the way world works,” Matt said, taking a sip of his water.
“All I know is that it tastes good,” Xav put in from his spot on the floor (they only had three chairs), licking his lips clean after emptying his bowl. “MMmmm... really good. Can I have more!” he ask with a gleeful smile glancing up at his father and Matt.
Cres grinned and looked at Belle. “Hmmm, think he can some more Belle?”
Belle frowned for a moment before shaking her head. “No, you had eight already Xav, that’s a fourth of your weight,” she said with a stern expression.
“But-”
“No Xav,” Belle shot him down. “Do you want to be a fat little Absol who loses to Scorch, or a fighter like your dad?”
“...a fighter like dad...” the young Absol replied in a muttered.
“Then you’ll only get what you’re given,” she said with a short nod. “Unless you do want to laze around all day and turn into a red cheese wheel.”
“No.... I don’t,” Xav replied, his head hanging down a little.
“Probably for the best Xav,” Cres told him, smiling at his son. “There are enough for a great lunch for you tomorrow!”
The young pup blinked his for a moment before his face brightened. “Yeah, you’re right dad!”
“Always am,” Cres replied with a smirk. “Mostly, sometimes, sorta,” he added, nuzzling Matt’s neck.
“Mhmmm,” Belle said, thoroughly unimpressed, though a small smile stretched across her lips at her mate’s antics.
Matt gave a little scratch across the side of Cres’s side before pushing back on his chair and started to stand up. Cres took the cue of jumping off his lap, landing easily beside his son and giving him a lick. “Now then, I think it’s time for a certain pup to do some practicing isn’t it?”
Xav’s eyes brightened more. “Are you going to practice with me?”
“Of course not, I’m just going to lay on the couch and sleep,” Cres replied with a playful smirk. Xav’s expression fell like a rock drop off a cliff and his tail suddenly stopped wagging in disappointment. A small chuckle rolled out of Cres as he leaned down and nuzzled him. “Of course I’m going to practice with you Xav, it goes without saying.”
Xav’s expression picked right back up as his small blade tail wagged happily. “Alright! Let’s get going dad! The sun is almost down!”
“The best time for a Dark Type to train,” Cres replied with a small smirk before he glanced up at Matt. “We’ll be back later Matt, going to go down to the gym for some quality training.”
“Have fun, and safe travels,” Matt replied to him. “Make sure you close the gym doors all the way, and say hi to Joe and Eclair for me.”
“Of course, and I’ll open up the skylight as well, nothing better than training in the moon and starlight,” Cres said, giving Matt a bow of his head before he glanced at AJ. “... sleep well.” He then turned for the window, casually opened it with his blade, and ushered Xav out into the oncoming darkness.
“Those boys of mine...” Belle said with a small chuckle. “Nothing but training except when I can pry Xav away to the library to give him a proper education.”
“At least he is spending time with him,” Applejack said as she grabbed a napkin with a hoof and clean her muzzle.
“True, and neither of them are angry with one another,” Belle agreed, moving off of Roxanne’s lap as her human started picking up dishes, singing a song under her breath. “Cres was worried about that happening often when Xav was still in the egg.”
“....egg?” Applejack asked slowly, as if she didn’t heard it quite right. “Aren't you a mammal?”
“Yes, I produce milk,” Belle said with a frown. “Why?”
“Then how did Xav came from an egg?” the mare replied, a still confused frown from across her muzzle.
“What do you mean?” Belle asked. “All Pokemon come from eggs regardless of Kingdom. Well, excepting those who were once objects of course, or Ghost types.”
Applejack just blinked blankly. “...this world is just too strange,” she muttered, mostly to herself as she got off her chair and walked into the living room.
“Explain what you’re talking about, I may be able to help it make a little more understandable,” Belle said with a small, interested frown. It was a frown that AJ recognized from... once again, Twilight.
The mare let out a small sigh. “Where I come from, the only creatures that lay eggs are birds or reptiles. Yet I hear you say even mammals do that, and there are Pokemon who are objects and even ghost. I mean, the last part just sound ridiculous. Ghost aren’t real, they’re just imaginary .”
Belle blinked and then sighed heavily. “This is going to come as a shock to you, but Ghosts are very real Applejack,” she stated, looking down before she shook her head. “The way that humans label us is ‘Monotremes’ which essentially means that we lay eggs rather than giving live birth... and thank goodness for that. I’ve seen human birth, it’s a rather... disgusting process to be honest. Dangerous too.”
“Well sorry if I find it strange that you call your mammal yet lay eggs still; it’s just rather, bizarre from my point of view,” Applejack said. “Plus, ghost? Really? Am I supposed to believe there are Pokemon who are also ghosts as well?”
“Matt, could you bring Shade out of his ball at some point tonight?” Belle called towards the other room. “Much as I loath his personality he will make an excellent introduction for Applejack to the world of Ghost Types.”
“...why would we want to do that?” he called back from the kitchen, pausing in his scrubbing of the plates. “I mean, I would have to go back to the gym to get him.”
“Oh, never mind then, she can meet him tomorrow,” Belle replied. “Don’t bother yourself Matt.” She turned back to Applejack. “Shade is a Spiritomb, a Dark/Ghost Type. He’s... a collection of spirits who have ‘fused’ together and occupied a stone.”
Applejack blinked blankly once more. “Why would Matt even have a Pokemon like that? Heck, why would anyone?” she asked out bluntly.
“I believe Shade was a gift from Cynthia... but honestly I have a serious dislike for him... though that IS my own personal bias after being trapped in an illusionary house and... well let us just say that I have a dislike of ghosts,” Belle explained, shaking her head. “Though that doesn’t mean that you should judge them all badly because of my experience.”
The mare shook her head. “I’m still just having a hard time warping my mind around this world... everything seems to work differently than what I’m used to.”
“Well, it is another world,” Belle pointed out with a small chuckle. “I’m surprised that you only have one, very yellow sun personally. If you’re from another planet in space then it stands to reason that you might have come from some place with multiple, multicolored, suns.”
The pony shrugged lightly. “I wouldn’t know anything about that, all I know is that Celestia raises and lowers the sun while Luna raises and lowers the moon.”
Belle stared at her for a moment. “...” she slowly nodded. “... and here I thought that Cres was making that up...” she frowned. “Hrmmm... I would enjoy talking to one of them about that particular subject.”
“What, you don’t have two of these Legendaries who do the same?” Applejack ask with a small frown.
“No, Earth just spins around the sun while the moon spin around the Earth. It’s the rotation of the Earth along with many other factors that creates the sight of the sun and moon raising and lowering in the sky,” Belle replied. “Though there is a certain species of Bug Type who ancient humans believed did it.”
Applejack’s mind was having a hard time processing what she was being told. “Spin... around the sun? How does that-you know what, I don’t want to know. My brain is overworking as it is,” she said, rubbing a hoof across her forehead.
“Ah, say no more then,” Belle replied with a small chuckle. “I’ll leave you be if you’d like.”
“Thanks...” The mare slowly took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “So... is there anything to help pass the time that’s not training or battling?”
“Well, we have books or you could watch T.V,” Belle said, nodding towards a plastic/metal/glass contrapption that AJ had seen in the background alongside a bookshelf.
“T.V?” Applejack ask with a small frown as she look at the rectangle black glass.
“Yes, also known as a television,” Belle answered with a small smile as she walked over to the T.V. and picked up a rectangular device, bringing it over to AJ and sitting down beside her, tapping a few buttons on it and then... the screen came to life.
The mare’s eyes opened wide at the scene of what looked like another two Pokemon battling out in an arena somewhere. It was like she was watching a movie, just in color and there was no projector around.
“Not a very smart trainer...” Belle noted as the almost rabbit like creature was backhanded by the dark almost insubstantial one. “Bringing a Nidorino to fight a Gengar, that’s a ghost type by the way, the black one.”
Applejack looked over the Gengar and felt a bit... unsettled by it’s appearance and constant grin. Then the Gengar wrapped it’s... monstrously large tongue... around the Nidorino and began to squeeze it. Belle changed the channel.
“Heh... right, anyways, welcome to the world of Television,” Belle said with a shake of her head before directing Applejack at a pair of ‘up and down’ arrows on either side of the remote. “One set changes the channel which determines what’s being showed, and one controls the volume.”
The mare nodded her head, part of her wanted to ask what that Gengar was about to do the Nidorino, but the other really just wanted to forget about it. “Thanks... any suggestion what ‘channel’ I should turn to?” she asked, moving a hoof to one of the arrows that Belle pushed before and pressed it down.
“Well, personally I like music channels and occasionally news... most of Television is lost on me truthfully,” Belle replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I’m a book Absol in case you couldn’t tell. If you wanted something actiony I could get you on a stream of the current League challenge or maybe a movie? I don’t know, I’ll leave it up to you.”
“Right... thanks I guess,” Applejack said as she continued to slowly flip through the channels.
“You’re welcome,” Belle replied, getting down from the couch and walking over to the book case, grabbing a rather sizeable looking book and bringing it back, laying down on the other end of the couch and opening it up. She then adopted an expression Applejack had come to associate with both Twilight and Rainbow Dash when they began to read, absolute focus on said book, paying attention to nothing else at all.
Applejack glanced at the familiar position, part of her wondering how her friends were doing on her... missing and wishing whatever Giratina was doing he would come back soon to take her back as fast as possible. She let out a small sigh and glanced back up the T.V, looking for something that would catch her eye... or at least keep her up as long as possible.