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.”
The thing with ponies and humans eating meat im to tired to give a fuck but i would give them a full description of why we need to eat meat or shit to damn tired to make sense into this piece of bananas so here you go
The thing with ponies and humans eating meat im to tired to give a fuck but i would give them a full description of why we need to eat meat or shit to damn tired to make sense into this piece of bananas so here you go
I honestly am a little shocked Celestia is acting like nothing sentient on her world eats meat: Griffons, dragons, minotaurs (remember the Labrynth in the Greek legend?), timberwolves, and (possibly) changelings. Of all the creatures in the room, her hundreds (if not thousands) of years of learning her world would at least open her eyes to the reality of omnivores at least being present in Equestria. So she could have and should have been siding on Scoots with the reality of humans being omnivores (I'm a little shocked Twilight would not have read about that, given her penchant for study). But, as a plot device to drive home the differences between two intelligent species, I can see why you would let that slide.
Pardon me whilst I go cook me up some spicy sausage and eggs for breakfast!
This was a very good chapter. I feel bad for Fluttershy, having to see a slaughterhouse for veal... Not a lot of people really know how one works and don't want to think of the process beyond "hey, it's in the meat section of the grocery store". I kinda wanna cuddle Shy right now, but I really don't think she's in the mood to have a human near her right now. She might think he or she is going to eat her...and take Tom away (you named him after Rarity's rock?).
Yes, humans are designed to hunt. We're also designed to throw things. What we lack in strength and endurance, we make up for in our ability to think and solve complex problems. Our biggest game changer other than our brains when we were evolving (we still are) was the opposable thumb. With our hands, we were able to craft tools (chimpanzees can do it to a degree, as well as some of the other great apes) and make flint cutting tools by banging rocks together and chipping points on early spearheads. More than likely the first stone tools were primitive axes.
Still. Celestia, I am disappoint. Thousands of years old and you judge omnivores as evil things...so much for love and tolerance...ya old nag.
ah so in the future no more or less farm animals for the other product than the meat for humans unless they get past the taste somehow but maby they could raise farm animals for meat eating omnivore animals and other sentients like that right? but well that still a cut on the pleasure of food eating and making but least they can still eat eggs and other production wait do fish and bugs count? just asking cause i remember fluttershy killing a fish and worms to feed her animal friends.
this eating only plants in the future has some draw back as well i can guess the good and the bad.
i kind of feel bad for some of the other country's meat an important food source and sometime the only one they might have at time's were plants are scare's or just not possible to get enough to really survive and some place's don't exactly have grade A farming land or conditions for there land to growing lots well it sound like with to many plants being planted over and over again they might have a dust bowl effect again and with farmers jobs being cut down from less need for animals parts and meat quite a bit and but the need for more plants is good at least bad for the ranch farms being cut down then and with the need to find and make infertile lands fertile again and the fact traditional dishes and traditions with certain meats and animals are gone and the fact hunters have to waste more parts of the animals when they have to hunt to control there populations or the fact organic food price's might go up it expensive already.
i only worry a little if some crazy hippie or some crazy idiot tried to give carnivores animals the same treatment made from scootaloo if that possible. need to stop rambling...
3346423 I wholeheartedly. I actually like stories where it shows ponies being able to eat meat. Someone brought up a comment on one story stating, "Why should an intelligent species have their diets restricted to real life horse diets?"
3346423
Celestia has to have known carnivorous species, and probably would be used to that. The issue is humans don't instantly look like carnivores, and in ignorance, she had though us a race of mostly vegetarian omnivores. Omnivores with so little regard for life that we killed because we felt like it. The realization that we evolved as pursuit predators just like the timber wolves, along with Scoot's angry description is what put her off balance, if only for a few moments.
With so many people around to explain and help out, this path to understanding will be fairly painless for most of them.
Applejack and Fluttershy have no such guidance, and still think of cows as people. Things are going to get much worse for them before they get better...
3348232 Looking forward to the next chapter!
3348232
Technically, humans are "mostly vegetarian omnivores". A natural and healthy diet for an adult human being includes no dairy (globally, the majority of humans are lactose-intolerant) and only a little meat. (Most of us these days eat way more of it than is good for us.) However, meat is a nutrient-dense food and does play an important role.
Well, ponies aren't eating dirt. And as someone who grew up on a cattle ranch, I can say from personal experience that our cows were about mentally on par with a carrot. (We didn't raise them in cages or feed lots, though, shot full of hormones and antibiotics. That's unsanitary and unhealthy, to say nothing of any moral qualms one might have over it.)
I think what irks me here is that even your humans seem open to the idea that eating meat is somehow wrong, and they are way too accepting of this treatment side-effect that Scootaloo described. They've got to be working on a cure for that.
Cats need to eat meat to survive. It's possible I suppose for cat food to be made from animals like mice and rats that are also pest species though, and cheaper to breed.
It's never explained how Rarity's cat Opal gets enough taurine in the show as Opal would get very sick on a vegetarian diet. Dogs do better on a high meat/grain free diet too but they can cope without better than cats.
Celestia, stop being so OCC