Chapter 6 (3/3)

"Pardon me, Miss Smith, but can I ask you a question?"

"If I can remember the answer, then yes you can." No kidding...

"You have this machine that makes farming easier right?" Pinkie cut in.

"I'm bringing this box back to the place. Catch up with me after you're done talking." I didn't reply. I knew she didn't want to be around to hear whatever story I was about to here.

"Ah that thing. Big Mac is the one who uses the thing, it's got these crazy levers and doohickeys. He's better at that stuff than Applejack or I."

"I've heard that there's a sad story, would you share it?" She got a confused look for a bit.

"Sad story? Sad... Oh!" She finally said, and a serious tone took over her.

"Well, they're probably referring to the first time it was used. My husband, Papa Apple, took Big Mac out into the shed to teach him how to use it. I don't know much about what happened but..." She stopped talking for a bit. "But, I do know that the machine took Papa Apple and..." She stopped talking for another moment.

"You don't need to finish that story." I said. "I get it. Miss Smith, I'm sorry for your loss. I've lost people close to me, and I know it isn't easy."

"Mhm. Well, would you please get back out there? I don't want Pinkie to feel lonely out there." I nodded and left without a word. Well shit... that's some depressing shit... This Big Mac guy must be a strong guy, sitting on the very machine that killed his father. I sighed to myself as I walked along the dirt road. Crap, now I'm sad. I have a problem with emotions, it's because of a thing that happened to me a long time ago. When I start to actually feel an emotion, it begins to over power my thinking. Particularly, rational thinking. I couldn't help but feel absolutely miserable, despite not really having anything to feel sad about.

Nothing else of relevance occurred the rest of the day. I went back to the farm the next day, and the next. I didn't learn anything useful from Pinkie. I didn't see Applejack or Fluttershy once. The next relevant event occurred on Wednesday.

Me and Pinkie were carrying a load back to the barn, and it would seem that we had put to many of the rats in there. Two hopped out and ran ahead of us. Pinkie couldn't drop the heavy box fast enough, so I chased them down alone. They hopped behind some bushes and I heard a loud scream. I pursued them and saw a young child, Applebloom, defending herself with a picket sign in her mouth.

"Stay back!" She shouted, swinging it at them. These must be pretty aggressive creatures since they weren't cornered or anything. They were circling Applebloom. They were probably pissed because we were carrying them in a box. It was then that Applebloom saw me.

"Sweet Celestia!" She shouted in terror. She turned tail and ran, the two lynx chasing after her. Does she think I'm a monster? I didn't spend too much time thinking about it though, I ran after the lynx. I'm a pretty fast runner, but the thing is I have asthma and can only run for so long because it bites me in the ass.

Applebloom, though I didn't know that was her name then, ran as fast as she could, but the thing is those lynx were faster than her. They were gaining on her, as she ducked through bushes and hopped over a fallen tree. I almost caught up to them once but I hit my foot on that fallen log and that slowed me down. When I was just nearing them, the girl ran up a ramp ladder thing into a tree house. It was the same tree house Pinkie Pie had taken me to my first night here. That feels like so long ago.

The lynx chased her into the tree, and I pursued. When I got in, here was the scene. She was pushing them back with this massive pole, it had this weird crescent shape at the end. Why the hell does she have a weapon like that? I didn't wait any longer. I leapt at the lynx and grabbed one of them by the tail. The other I missed. I swung the one I had grabbed around, and then slammed it into the corner of the siding on the door. Its arms flailed around, claws slicing through the air, hoping to take part of me off. I grabbed its neck and squeezed tightly while I pulled on the tail. The tail ripped off and blood spilled out to my feet. My right hand, the one that was holding the tail, then firmly gripped its rib cage and squeezed. I dropped it maybe fifteen seconds later when I was certain that, if it wasn't dead, it wouldn't be able to attack either of us.

I turned to the girl and the pest, a sense of power filling me. I could destroy this pest. I stepped forward to grab it but it would seem the message that I was on the little girl's side hadn't gotten through to her. She cleared the pole across the room, over the pest, right into my neck. It wasn't sharp, but it was heavy and strong. I fell to the floor with the pole on top of me, coughing and hacking. I think she jumped out the window or something, but I really couldn't see as I was too busy trying to breath. The lynx that remained turned on me, and as I grabbed the pole with both hands, hoping to heft it up and use it to defend myself, the lynx jumped up on top of me and snapped at one of my hands.

It didn't hurt as much as one would think. Having my finger ripped off that is. I shouted in rage, I pushed the pole off of me, and the thing with it, then jumped to my feet. The second I locked onto the fucking rat, I charged and slammed my right foot on it. It's a kind of kick I was taught called an ax kick. You lift your foot high into the sky, making more than a 90* angle, and  slam it down on the heel. I crushed its ribs and its neck beneath my foot. Then I started to get dizzy. Not from blood loss or anything, I just tend to get dizzy when I jump up like that. I didn't trust that it was dead, so in an effort to get rid of the dizziness and ensure it's death, I fell to my knees. My knee cap landed right on top of the filthy pest, and then I was certain it was dead.

Breathing heavily, I looked at the mess I had made in the room. I started thinking. I... I... I... I really wish you hadn't done that. There was a long, dragging silence. This is quite a mess. It would be  impolite of me not to clean it up. Let's get to work, shall we? Obediently, I looked around for any cleaning supplies in the tree house. In a drawer there were towels, but there weren't any cleaning chemicals. Hmm... I... I'm... starting to wonder if we may be able to use chemicals to take care of this pest. Theres... no time to think about that now. We should be cleaning. I set the towels on top of the drawer, and went to gather the bodies of the lynx.

Just before tossing them into a bush, I considered eating them. I disregarded the idea though, as it was uncooked. Then I went back inside and used the towels to wipe up as much of the blood as I could. When I finished, I took my red stained towels with me and looked for the path that would lead me back the barn.

It was a long and boring walk, but when I finally got to the barn I was confronted by Granny Smith.

"You there! Tell me what happened with little Applebloom."  Is she angry? Kinda looks like it.

"Well, some lynx got out and chased her. I chased after them and killed the lynx before they could hurt her." She pulled me into a hug. It was kinda gross, with her loose skin and stuff.

"Oh thank you dear, I can't tell you how much it means to me. But... Ah!" I hadn't realized I was bleeding. Well, she had a large red stain on her back. She looked down to see my hand with a missing finger.

"Yeah, so one of those lynx kinda ripped my finger off, which really should be hurting but the thing is... It doesn't." She shook her head and started walking to the farm house.

"Oh you probably don't even feel pain from it do you? Then we best hurry and bandage it up. That thing is going to be giving you a kick in the head before too long. Come with me now, I've got supplies in the home." I obeyed and silently followed her, curious as to why I wasn't in pain.

Well, I was decommissioned from working on the farm, due to my small injury. Twilight didn't want me losing any appendages, she said she worried the loss of an appendage would change my behavior somehow. I don't really understand that logic, but I guess I'm  her experiment, so she can run it however she wants. Twilight told me that they ended up running out of space to store the lynx, so they resorted to using pesticides to clear out the rest of the trees. I did some work around the library, cleaning and stuff, and hung around with Spike, who I suppose was left to keep an eye on me. Twilight came back on Sunday, the work all finished.