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- >While travelling to my relative's place I hadn't eaten much.
- >The constant motion of the train and sitting around in a rail coach hadn't done my stomach any favors.
- >So when we finally sat down to lunch I was absolutely famished.
- >That was fortunate because the table I sat down to was loaded with enough food to feed the Equestrian army!
- >I guessed that Aunt Roll had pulled out all the stops because it was my first meal since arriving in the Alpine Region.
- >Or maybe this was how she fed all visitors?
- >When my cousin and I sat down I noticed that there where two other stallions already sitting at the table with my uncle.
- >My Uncle introduced them as the hired hooves, Greenwick and Fennel.
- >Down in Dodge Junction we would often have our hired ponies join us for the mid-day meal.
- >I supposed they did the same thing here.
- >Greenwick, unsurprisingly, had a shaggy green mane along with a pale green coat.
- >He was tall but rather thin and wiry.
- >Fennel, on the other hand, was a bear of a pony.
- >He looked like a slab of muscle wrapped up in a blue coat and topped with a blonde mane.
- >One look and I could tell who got the chore of pulling up old tree stumps.
- >"I hope you are all hungry!" Aunt Roll exclaimed as she breezed in from the kitchen.
- >As soon as Uncle Strudel gave the word we all began to tuck in.
- >I immediately dished up some glazed carrots, but my cousin seemed intent on another dish.
- >"Ohh, my favorite!" She used one of her wings to grab a ladle and dish up some kind of soup.
- >I looked down, curious to see what my cousin thought was the best thing on the table...
- >And I nearly choked!
- >The soup bowl in front of Edelweiss was filled with a reddish pink mixture.
- >Blood?
- >Was my cousin a blood drinking bat after all?
- >Where did the blood come from?
- >Did they get it from wild animals?
- >From the cows?
- >Did every one regularly contribute some of their own supply?
- >I mean my cousin seemed cool, if a little quiet, but I wasn't sure I was ready to sacrifice my precious bodily fluids to sustain her!
- >My Aunt must have noticed the look on my face because she gave a small chuckle.
- >"Have you never had cherry soup?"
- >Cherry soup?
- >As in, soup made out of cherries?
- >I didn't think a thing like that was even possible.
- "N-no. I've never had it before."
- >"Ah, you must try some." the bat pony next to me enthused. "It is delicious!"
- >I looked over at her and she had a little bit of red on the corner of her mouth.
- >Her grinning, fanged mouth.
- >That didn't help.
- >Still, as long as it wasn't blood soup.
- >Truthfully, I wasn't a very picky eater; having three brothers helped with that.
- "All right, I'll try some." I slid my bowl over and my cousin deftly ladled out some of the odd concoction.
- >Those strange wings of hers were really useful!
- >Sliding the bowl in front of me I gave it a hard look.
- >Everything on the table both looked and smelled delicious.
- >And the glazed carrots I had nibbled tasted delicious.
- >So I dipped a spoon full and took a bite.
- >I had expected something really sugary, like pie filling, but it was only mildly sweet.
- >And, as I chewed on the whole cherry that I had dished up, I realized that it was made with sour cherries and not pie cherries.
- >And the reason it was pink was because there was cream in it.
- >The most surprising thing, though, was that it was cold, as in chilled.
- >It all combined to produce a really tasty dish.
- >Weird, but tasty nonetheless.
- >As I started sucking down more of the cool brew my cousin beamed.
- >I guess she had thought I might hate it or something.
- >I was just glad that she ate normal food like a regular pony.
- >Not that this soup was exactly normal but, well, whatever.
- >The rest of the meal continued like any other family meal.
- >At one point I offered some rolls to Edelweiss, but she declined.
- >"To much bread is not kind to my stomach." she lamented. "But I will have some of those tomatoes."
- >After we were done I felt like I was ready to explode.
- >That meal had been amazing!
- >Then Aunt Roll got up and announced, "I hope you all saved room for dessert."
- >Dessert.
- >Dart it!
- >I'd forgotten there was ALWAYS dessert at these kinds of meals.
- >Oh well, I could probably handle a small piece of whatever we where having.
- >I'd just have to pony up and deal with the tummy ache.
- >As Aunt Roll trotted from the dining room Greenwick nodded in my direction.
- >"So, you are visiting from down south?"
- "Yes, sir!"
- >"Ah good. You're uncle says you are going to help us out this summer, ja?"
- >I wanted to grimace at that promise of work, but kept a polite smile on my face.
- "I reckon so." I chirped.
- >"Well, that is good." Greenwick patted his co-worker on the shoulder. "Fennel here is always needing help with his work."
- >The green pony leaned in and dramatically whispered, "He is actually a very weak pony. I'm sure he could use your help hauling baskets."
- >Was he serious? That huge stallion?
- >Then I saw my uncle and Fennel rolling their eyes and knew Greenwick was putting me on.
- "Hah-hah." I deadpanned.
- >Then the supposedly weak and puny Fennel rumbled, "If you are as hard a worker as little Edelweiss then I am sure we will have the summer harvest done in no time."
- >I looked over at the target of his compliment to see my cousin blushing as red as her favorite soup.
- >My uncle chuckled. "Well, she will have to work very hard to beat Edel."
- >I just grinned.
- "I'll do my best."
- >Aunt Roll came back in with a large platter on her back and a copper bowl perched on her head.
- >"Here we are! I hope you all like it."
- >It turned out that desert was a spiced cake roll with a whipped cream filling.
- >My aunt cut four slices and spooned a generous dollop of even more whipped from the bowl she had brought it.
- >I was hoofed a slice and tried to pass it on to my cousin but she refused it.
- >"Oh, no little Cordial," my aunt explained, "I brought something different for her."
- >On the large cake platter was a small bowl that held more cherries.
- >These ones looked sweet and were done up in a thickened syrup.
- >After a huge dollop of cream it was passed down to my cousin.
- >It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.
- "Is cake rough on your stomach too?" I asked gently.
- >Edelweiss looked down at her bowl of cherries and cream and nodded, frowning.
- >"Mmh, too much of anything with grains and I feel sick. I mostly just eat fruit and soft vegetables."
- >Wow. So I guess she did eat a bit differently than most ponies.
- "Well..." I hadn't meant to get her down.
- >Then something my mom always said popped into my head.
- "I mean, bread's just a carrier for the jam and butter anyway. Right?"
- >She looked up from her bowl and got a thoughtful look on her face.
- >"I- I suppose so?"
- >Greenwick snickered. "A carrier for the jam and butter. That is pretty good."
- >Edelweiss smiled quietly and went back to her dessert.
- >Oh, well. At least she wasn't gloomy anymore.
- >After lunch Uncle Strudel asked Edelweiss to show me around.
- >Apparently we would save any real work for tomorrow.
- >Joy.
- >Overall, it was a really nice farm.
- >There was the main house with it's high gables and two stories.
- >Next there where the two barns, one for the farm animals and the other for the fruit harvests.
- >Beyond that was a rather large tool shed and finally there was the bunk house for the hired hooves.
- >Not terribly different from our set up back home, but then I supposed that there only so many ways to set up a successful orchard.
- >We were currently in the fruit barn.
- >While my cousin showed me the storage bins and other equipment I started thinking about her situation.
- >Why did my relatives adopt her in the first place?
- >Us cherry folk were generally a pretty practical bunch.
- >A bat pony would probably have a difficult time living on an earth pony orchard.
- >She would have had to learn things that an earth pony would have already known by instinct.
- >Still, I was pretty sure that my relatives hadn't been thinking about all that when they adopted her.
- >Had they seen her, abandoned in an orphanage, and decided to give her a home?
- >And why did she wear those fake pegasus wings?
- >Was she just ashamed or did she really get a lot of grief when other ponies saw her bat wings?
- >Forget patience, I needed at least a few answers now!
- "So," I tried to sound nonchalant. "Do you always wear those wings when you go out? They must get awfully warm."
- >My cousin stiffened at my question.
- >Darn it! I didn't want to set her off again.
- >Then she relaxed a bit and started messing with a piece of canning equipment.
- >After a few moments she responded.
- >"Yes, I always wear the wings." she nearly whispered.
- >Well that begged the obvious question.
- "Do the people in town know that you're a bat pony? Or is it a secret?"
- >She shuddered, visibly.
- >I was starting to feel bad for asking her about all this.
- >"I think some of them know. I go to school when it is not summer and I don't wear my wings there. So my classmate's parents all know, I think."
- "Shoot, that's got to be half the town right there! Why worry about the other half?"
- >Edel's head shot up and her eyes got big.
- >"I- I- I..." her breathing got erratic.
- >I had clearly gone way beyond her comfort zone.
- "Whoa, whoa, whoa." I sidled up to my cousin and put a comforting hoof on he shoulders.
- "You don't have to do anything you don't want to." I soothed. "I was just wonderin'. I'm sure you got good reasons for wearing those things."
- >It took a few more minutes to get her fully calmed down.
- >Obviously, further questions about her status in town were off the table for the time being.
- >As we left the barn I couldn't help but feel that I had been left with even more questions.
- >If she didn't wear her fake feathers when she was at school, then that probably meant that her classmates where OK with her being a bat pony.
- >And knowing how mean fellow kids could be, I couldn't imagine the adults of Horne being any worse.
- >So why was she so terrified of walking down the street in her own skin?
- >Right then and there I determined that I was going to find out.
- >And before I left to go back home I was going to find a way to get her to stop wearing those silly fake wings.
- To be continued...
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