• Published 23rd Sep 2013
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Our Girl Scootaloo 3 of 3 - Cozy Mark IV



Twenty years after her arrival on earth, the Mane Six have come to 'rescue' Scootaloo as they did Dashie... Her husband and two children might have something to say about this however... This 'rescue' is about to get complicated.

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Ch 3.11 Dietary Complications

Our Girl Scootaloo

Part 3 of 3

by Cozy Mark IV & Jan. McNeville

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fan-made work of prose. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro. Please support the official release

Chapter Three point Eleven: Dietary Complications


They ran. For a short distance John gave chase, waving his arms and calling for them to wait, but when Applejack looked back a minute later she saw him fall to his knees clutching his chest. It didn’t matter. They continued to run for all they were worth, Fluttershy leading the way.

Neither of them were slow by pony standards, but now with true terror pumping through them they ran as never before to put the horrible farm behind them.
Applejack remembered the strange wheeled vehicles she had ridden on, and every unknown noise made her whip her head around in fear, listening for the roar of engines.

At length they reached the edge of a forest, and without hesitation Fluttershy plunged in headlong, leaving Applejack little choice but to trust her and follow. After another few minutes of dodging branches and rocks, Fluttershy finally slowed to a stop and they both took the opportunity to catch their breath.

“Fluttershy-” Applejack managed between breaths “how did-” pant “you know?”

Fluttershy didn’t appear to hear her, and even as she panted for breath she called out to the bushes; “Tom!” pant “Tom, come here!”

Before she even had time to wonder, a calf nearly as big as she was came bounding out of the bushes and began nuzzling up against Fluttershy.

She watched the two of them comforting each other for a moment before ‘Tom’ seemed to get bored and wandered off to begin grazing on the bushes.

“Fluttershy, who…?” Applejack finally asked, gesturing at the calf.

“I had to save him. I couldn’t let them…” She trailed off and shuddered. “We have to get him away from this place.”

“I’m all for that, but where are we? And where are the others? We should have all come through in the same spot but I popped out alone in a wheat field.”

“Oats.”

Fluttershy seemed to be staring blindly into the distance, as though focused on something a thousand yards away, deep in the forest.

“Come again now?”

There was no response, and Applejack put a hoof around Fluttershy’s shoulder. She jumped, and looked around as though seeing her surroundings for the first time.
“Are you okay, sugar cube?”

“I… I don’t know…” she managed in a shaking voice.

“Fluttershy, don’t take this the wrong way, but you look awful. What the hay happened to you last night?”

She started to speak, closed her eyes and shuddered, tried again, then finally managed; “I saw what they do. To the calves.”

Applejack felt her stomach turn. “You mean, you saw…?”

Tears were beginning to form in Fluttershy’s eyes. “Yes!” She began shaking as she tried to hold it back, but finally she just wrapped her hooves around Applejack and sobbed. “Tom…” she managed though her tears, “Tom was next! And now he’ll never see his mom again!”

Applejack felt her own tears building as she tried to comfort Fluttershy. “It’s… It’s okay.”

This only made Fluttershy cry harder.
“No! No its not!” she bit back a sob “There were others! So many more, and I couldn’t help them! They couldn’t even walk!” She sobbed into Appejack’s shoulder as her own tears ran silently down her cheek. “I tried and tried, all night I tried to get them out, but I couldn’t save them!”

Applejack couldn’t hold it back anymore, and she hugged Fluttershy close as they both cried openly.

“Why??” Fluttershy blubbered. “They were only children!”

Tom walked over and gently nuzzled Fluttershy’s face.

“They were only children…”

...

Agent Tyler had setup one of the hospital's conference rooms as a command center shortly after their arrival and had been using it to coordinate the hunt for Applejack and Fluttershy. Now after nearly a day of quiet activity, the room was in chaos as word filtered in of a farmer suffering from a heart attack after chasing two talking ponies.

A search team had been dispatched to his residence, and Scootaloo had gathered the others in hopes of being among the first to hear the news, but when the team called in from the farm, the news had not been good.

“Agent Tyler? We have a problem.”

All those assembled fell silent in hopes of news.

“Did you find them? Were they still at the farm?”

“No, Ma'am. We turned the place upside down and interviewed everyone present. There's no doubt Applejack and Fluttershy were there, but they're long gone now.”
There were disappointed and worried looks around the room, however he wasn't done yet. “But that's not what I had to tell you. It turns out Fluttershy found the Veal production area and -”

“Oh, God!”

“It gets worse. Apparently farmer John had a history of... disagreements... with the USDA and had the entire building wired for video monitoring to prove compliance with sanitary standards.” He produced a tablet for Agent Tyler and she visibly blanched at whatever she saw as the audio track played back the sound of electric saws.

“The poor thing! And she had to watch the whole process!?”

The agent's voice was grim. “It looks that way.”

“This is a disaster! Our first off-world guests arrive and this is what they find? If that farmer survives, he's going to wish he hadn't.”

Celestia gave the agent a cold look. “Did you expect to hide this from us? I am well aware that your species can live without eating meat, but chooses to do so voluntarily.”

Most of the humans present wore guilty looks or stared at their shoes. It was actually Scootaloo who finally broke the silence. “There isn't any good response to that, but you only have the high ground on this issue because you can't enjoy meat any more then I can.”

Twilight looked startled. “Scootaloo!”

She ignored the comment and continued. “Some humans do give up meat, they call themselves vegetarians, and while it’s unusual in this country, it’s common in others like India. Humans aren't natural herbivores like us. They evolved to run down and kill wild animals in Africa, and meat was an important part of their diet throughout history.”

Rainbow Dash looked Agent Tyler up and down then scoffed. “You think a human could run someone like us down? Yeah, right.”

Scootaloo scowled at her. “Actually, I would bet you anything you want that she could if you stayed on the ground. Provided you ran in the hot sun of the African plains.”

Dashie got up and walked to where Scootaloo stood. “I've been watching human sports half my life. I grew up with humans, too, remember? No human could ever hope to match even a slow pony, let alone a horse.”

Scootaloo actually smiled. “There's something you're forgetting. Everything you said is true in a temperate climate like this one. Humans evolved in the blazing heat of Africa, and a few tribes still do hunt this way.
They start in the morning and chase their prey though the heat of the day where the animal can't cool itself as well as they can. Humans are evolved to run very long distances like wolves, they absorb less heat from the sun by standing upright and sweating over their whole hairless bodies. The hunts end in the afternoon when the animal they're chasing can't run anymore or just out-rightly collapses from heat stroke if they don't put a stone knife in its throat first.”

Twilight looked startled and her ears flattened against her head as she her glanced nervously at the agents around the room. "You mean that humans are pursuit predators like timber-wolves??"

Rainbow took a step back and the other ponies looked around with worried expressions. “Princess, did you know that?”

Before Celestia could respond, Scootaloo burst out. “Oh come on! I'm describing what humans evolved to do. No one in this room is an illiterate spear-throwing savage, and no one is going to try to eat you.”

Celestia swallowed hard, but charged ahead anyway, trying to regain her composure “This doesn't excuse their current behavior, they have the ability to stop eating meat, yet they do not.”

Scootaloo sighed. “That's true. Just because humans evolved to hunt and eat meat doesn't excuse them from doing so once the tools are invented to stop. But it’s a lot harder to stop when there is so little reason to do so.”

“Little reason?? You’re talking about killing a defenseless animal!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “How is that not reason enough?!”

“As usual, the issue is more complicated than that.” Scootaloo replied in a flat tone. “Rainbow, answer me this; If every human in this room went full vegetarian right now and for the rest of their lives, how many animals would be spared? How many would get to live?”

Rainbow looked around and thought for a minute. “I don't know... A hundred? Maybe a thousand?”

“Zero.” Scootaloo replied in the same flat tone. “Nada, zip, none. All that would happen is new animals would not be born to replace those that were killed for food. Going vegetarian doesn't save the lives of animals, it prevents the birth of new ones. Any animal already born is still going to get eaten. And if everyone on the planet gave up eating meat tomorrow? A large number of farm animals; cows, chickens, pigs and such would go extinct and disappear from the earth forever.”

Rainbow didn't seem to know what to say to that, and Scootaloo finished in a kinder voice. “It's a safe bet that in a hundred years or so that will happen anyway. You can thank Betty and me for that.”

Twilight looked confused. “You are going to stop everyone on earth from eating meat? How is that going to work?”

“Not me, personally. Over the years, Betty's -Doctor Gregerson's team has been working to understand my synthetic biology and she developed a number of widely-used treatments for disease that have saved millions of lives with the side effect that anyone who uses the cure finds meat as unpleasant as we do. If you didn't know already, we ponies can digest meat products just fine, but whatever built us designed in a strong aversion that makes meat taste and smell awful. We've found out that that aversion to meat is passed on through the treatments, so anyone who uses medicine derived from our biology finds meat suddenly tastes like rotted garbage. And we know now that it's passed on to children, so given enough time, everyone will eventually need a treatment or have an ancestor who did, with the result that our aversion to meat will become the new norm.”

Betty stood with the aid of her cane and looked up at Celestia. “It’s true. I've had the treatment myself, so I can imagine how you feel. But it's thanks to Scootaloo here that the practice of eating meat is winding down. There are hundreds of millions of people who owe her their lives. She has truly been a blessing to all of us.”

Celestia, Rainbow and Twilight all looked at Scootaloo with shocked expressions. “You saved... millions of lives?” Twilight finally managed.

“Well, yes. I've been volunteering for medical research since I was little, and because we are a designed species, the scientists and doctors have been able to reverse engineer a lot of useful treatments from me.” Seeing their shocked expressions she added. “Have you ever looked at a child and known your actions saved their life? There is no feeling like it in the world.”

“But... Princess, you told us we might have to rescue Scoot from a laboratory! You told us how they might keep her in cage and stab her with needles and...” Rainbow shuddered as she remembered the description.

Scootaloo's lighthearted laugh seemed to finally break the tension in the room. “I can't say I've ever seen the inside of a laboratory cage, but I've sure had my fair share of needles. You get used to them, and when I was little, Papa and Dad used to get just as many needle sticks as I did, just to show me it was okay. It's a small price to pay to save someone's life.”

“You're really okay with it?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, I am. In fact, I've been hoping to convince all of you to come with me to this month's appointment.”

The hair stood up on the back of Rainbow's neck. “Are you NUTS?!”

Scootaloo held up her hands. “Easy Rainbow, no one is going to force you to do anything. If you don't want to you don't have to. Just keep an open mind okay? It would mean a lot to me if you considered it.”

There was a short silence while they considered this, but soon enough Agent Tyler spoke up once more. “Regardless of our respective dietary habits, we now have a good starting point to begin our search for your friends. I've called in some favors in the form of air support, so with any luck we should track them down soon, but we could really use your help in this.” She finished gesturing to the ponies.

Celestia stood and nodded her agreement. “After what they have seen you want us to be there to show them the are in no danger from you. Regrettable, but I will grant, necessary. We should each take a shift with your people so somepony is there to comfort Applejack and Fluttershy when they are found.”