I am a jelly pony, I want to play.
Hugh Jelly, A simple background pony with with simple pleasures, easily forgotten and shunned for his strange obsessions with tubs of jelly.
After weeks of waiting for his new mail order jelly from the griffin continent, Hugh Jelly was becoming impatient. He had just about tasted every jelly the ponies of Equestria could offer. The only place left was exotic imports from other continents, he already had some exotics from the Zebra continent that were simply divine. The jungle fruits made into jelly were something he never had before or even thought possible. With the Griffins, he didn’t even know they had fruit to begin with, let alone eat any. He thought griffin’s only ate *shudder* meat. How a creature could stand to eat meat was beyond him. Of course he had never seen meat and being in a land ruled by ponies, the most violent thing around was that some of the pets ate fish. Still, the thought of jelly made by griffins intrigued him.
*KNOCK KNOCK*
“My Package!” Hugh runs to the door and opens it with such a swift motion the mailmare has a look of shock on her face.
“You must really want your mail Mr. Hugh.” the crossed eyed mailmare grins to him after her shock is quickly dissipated.
“Oh yes Ditzy, I have been waiting for weeks for this jelly to come from some of the top class griffin colonies.” Hugh holds out his hoofs for his package.
“Oh hang on a second Mr. Hugh, I’ll need you to sign this for me, then I’ll go get them for you.” Ditzy hoofs him the clipboard and Hugh quickly signs it with his mouth.
“What do you mean package? How many did they send?” Hugh questions Ditzy.
“Well I don’t know how much you ordered but I’ve got 3 boxes, one is rather large.”
“Hm, well, I did order the mystery set, didn't know they also came in different sizes.” Hugh thought to himself.
After Ditzy got his signature, she flew up to a hovering mail cart and brought down the 3 boxes, 2 small and one that was rather large, big enough for a filly to fit into Hugh noted.
“Thanks Ditzy, now if you don’t mind, I would like to get to sampling my new exotic Jellies.” Hugh quickly pushed the boxes inside and waved Ditzy off.
Alone at last with his beloved exotic jellies, Unsure of what they were exactly, he had picked the Mystery set from the catalog he got from Canterlots jelly Imperium. He had questioned why they didn’t carry any exotic jellies from the griffin colonies only to be told that they “wasn't to pony taste” as they had told him. Shrugging his shoulders he decided to open the smaller boxes 1st.
The 1st box contained 3 jars. One of them was a red color, another purple, while the last was an orange. Just great standard jelly he thought, then reading the labels he realized it wasn’t as simple as he thought, the red jar was labeled “Grandpa Petes special strawberry jelly: same great taste, same old fashioned ingredients.” The second jar, the purple one was labeled “Grape jelly with surprise bits” The third jar however, was labeled “Grannies Peach jelly”
“Not what I was expecting, I guess the griffin colonies don’t have exotic fruits like the Zebras, maybe they just add spices, Id hate to of paid so much for jelly I could of just gotten here.” Hugh thought to himself rather disappointed.
Next was the second box, it only contained 1 jar, and it was rather big, well compared to your standard jelly jar. This jelly was a brownish red color with the label “Pete’s Whole Jelly, with Figs.” Whole jelly Hugh thought, what could be whole? Did they put in whole figs with the jelly? Well that would explain why the jar was big, they were including whole figs or at lest whole fig pieces.
The last box was rather big, as he had noted before, it could fit a filly or two. Hoping he had hit the jackpot with this last box from his mystery set he ripped the top of the box open and peered inside, there was a very large jar. It looked like the jars he used when he sat in tubs of jelly, but like mentioned before, smaller.
Unable to pick it up out of the box, Hugh tore it apart around the jar and then pushed it off the bottom half. He looked at it and the jelly was a deep red color. The label reads “Petes Twin cherry Jelly: Limited time only”
“Twin cherry” Hugh thought, they must of used light color and dark colored cherries to get this deep red coloring, how neat. “And Limited time only as well! How lucky” he thought
Unable to resist the urge to try his new jellies he decided to start with the grape jelly. He opened it up and noticed little chunks in the jelly, he took out a spoonful and put it into his mouth and began chewing
*crunch crunch*
Hugh was shocked at the crunch, then concluded the small chunks were actually almonds or walnuts. "How intriguing, I’ve never heard of putting nuts inside a jelly before.” he closed the lid and opened the Peach one next.
He opened it and took out a spoonful, nothing seemed out of place in terms of jelly. He put the spoon in his mouth and realized something was different. They put cinnamon in the peach jelly! He never thought cinnamon would taste so good with peach jelly. The warming spice and the tangy peach flavor mixed so well he thought.
Now it was time for the red jar, the Strawberry jelly. He closed the peach jelly jar and proceeded to open it. He took a spoonful and looked it over, nothing seemed different about this special jelly, maybe they just added some spices. He put the jelly into his mouth and mulled it over. He could taste the strawberries, but there was another flavor he couldn’t quite pin down. It was new to him. It wasn’t bad, actually it was quite good, it mixed well with the strawberries. He decided this jelly needed a second taste in order to try and pinpoint the secret taste. Oh sure he could just read the ingredient list, but no, Hugh was a man that loved mystery, he would eat until the jar was empty, then check its contents if he still couldn’t pinpoint it. It was just an odd quirk he picked up over the years that made life a bit less mundane. After 3 more spoonfuls he couldn’t figure out, even though it tasted so good, he wasn’t able to pinpoint it. He concluded it must be something unique to a griffin colony, and that’s why he had never tasted it before.
He closed the jar and went to the one labeled Pete’s whole Fig jelly. With its dark brown color he figured they put in less sugar or preservatives. Hugh took off the lid and noticed it smelled a bit like the special strawberry jelly. Did they put the same Unique ingredient in this one? He took a spoonful and ate it. As he mulled it over he couldn't see any whole figs on the surface of the jelly, must be in deeper, probably at the bottom he guessed. It did have the same strange tasty tang to it. Except the overlaying taste was fig this time in place of strawberry. The flavor was also not as strong, it seemed as if the flavor was watered down. Did the figs cancel out some of the flavor? Or were the whole fig’s like hidden treats filled with the delicious flavor? He would have to find out later, For now it was time to taste the biggest and probably best jelly of them all.
The limited time only twin cherry jelly. “I wonder why its limited time only...maybe its because cherries are hard to grow over there.” Hugh thought to himself as he opened the jar filled with the dark red jelly. After he got the lid off, the smell hit him, it wasn’t a bad smell, no it was the best smelling jelly he had ever smelled before. The mix of cherries made such a sweet sent it was intoxicating, he quickly took out a spoonful and shoved it into his mouth. He was in heaven, the sweet exotic taste of the jelly mixed with the unidentifiable taste. It was completely overwhelming, he needed more. He ran to his kitchen and grabbed some bread, and quickly spread a bunch of it on the slices of bread he got and ate them down. He savored the mixture of the sweet cherries with the odd tangy taste.
After his last slice of bread was devoured, he just remembered something, way back when he was a colt, he would lick his bits because he liked the metallic flavor. And it just hit him, these jellies had a metallic flavor to them, that’s why he loved it so much.
“Not to pony taste my flank, so what if I have a strange love for the metallic flavor. The metallic flavor mixed with jelly is so divine, I will need to order these kinds all the time.” Hugh said aloud to himself.
Then Hugh remembered something, something important. This Jelly was expensive, this mystery set had cost him 4 months worth of saving, 859 bits to be exact. And it was supposed to be a saving of 30%! There’s no way he could afford to buy more every month to replenish his supply of this one of a kind jelly.
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Over the next 2 weeks Hugh had been slowly eating his dwindling exotic jelly supply. Leaving the twin cherry jelly for the weekends and eating the others on weekdays along with his cheaper normal jelly. Not wanting to eat his new exotic’s too fast, he had been holding back hoping to save enough to buy another decent sized jar from the catalog.
When the jars were half empty, Hugh decided to do something he never thought of before. Make his own Jelly! It was a brilliant idea. He just needed to do some research on how to make jelly, then he could try and recreate the griffins jelly. Couldn’t be too hard right?
He made his way over to the town’s Library in hopes of finding some books on how to make his own jelly. After work and another slice of the almond walnut grape jelly, he went down to the Library, hopefully the town’s Librarian and element of magic could help him. After a brisk walk he was in front of the great tree house Library thing.
*Knock Knock*
“It's open come in!” yells a female voice. Hugh pushes the door open and steps inside, all around him there were books on shelves and books on the floor. What a mess he thought.
“Hello, Twilight Sparkle was it? I was hoping you could help me find some books” At the word books the purple unicorn named Twilight sparkle rushed down to greet him.
“Oh we have plenty of books, sorry about the mess I’m just doing the weekly reorganizing, anyway, what were you looking for exactly?” Twilight says with a huge grin on her face
“Oh not a problem, I was just wondering if you had any books on the process of making jelly for home use.”
“Jelly making huh? That’s a new one...SPIKE!” Twilight yells for her little dragon assistant. “Do you know if we have any books on the process of making jelly?” The little dragon gives a snort and walks up a ladder and slides around among the top shelf.
“You know Twilight, sometimes I think I do your job while you just sit around and read all day while talking to ponies.” Spike grabs three books off the shelf and walks back down toward Hugh and Twilight.
“Here, Jelly making 101, Jelly making for advanced users, and last but not lest exotic jelly types from around the world.” Spike holds the books out and Twilight magically picks up the books and levitates them in front of her.
“Here you go Hugh, and Spike, you just have a better memory for remembering where all the books go, it's not my fault you’re the best assistant.” Twilight smiles to the dragon Spike and he blushes a bit.
“Well don’t I know it...” Spike walks off back behind a pile of books and gets back to organizing.
“Might I ask why you're looking for jelly making books Mr...?” Twilight looks over to him with a confused look.
“ Oh sorry my names Hugh Jelly and well, to learn how to make jelly of course. I figured if I can make it id be able to save my money for better things. Besides, what could taste better than homemade jelly?” Hugh proudly says to Twilight.
“Well that makes sense, I’ll have to read them later and try it myself. Homemade jelly does sound good...well next to Applejack’s Zap apple jam anyway.” Twilight giggles to herself while Hugh places the books inside his saddle bag and heads out the door waving Twilight and Spike goodbye.
***********************~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*********************************
The next few days Hugh had done nothing but Study the 1st two books and slowly buy the gear he needed in order to make his own jelly...in rather large batches. After making some test jellies he figured he finally had the basics down. They didn’t taste amazing, but he figured its because he didn’t put a lot of sugar into it. After he had the basics down he moved on to the advanced jelly making. The book talked about some of the things he had noticed with the griffin jellies with the adding of Cinnamon and other spices; however, he couldn’t find an article about adding almonds or walnuts. Must have been a griffin thing then, Hugh thought.
After experimenting with some advanced recipes Hugh thought he had done pretty well for himself. The spiced jellies came out much better than his basic experiments. But they still weren’t on par to the griffin jellies.
After experimenting with some of the advanced recipes for a few days, he was able to improve the tastes and texture that almost rivaled those of the griffins. Except for the metallic flavor he had grown to love. He tried every single advanced recipe in the book, but nothing had the metallic flavor. He couldn’t figure it out, Hugh decided it was time to read the last book that was all about exotic jellies. Surely it would be able to give him some insight upon his new favorite jelly taste.
Hugh decided it would be best to read this book while eating the whole fig jelly, the jar was half empty and he had yet to find any whole fig’s, and the jelly itself was a rather dark brown color so he couldn’t see very far in the jar itself. He started to spoon feed himself the jelly while reading the book's table of contents.
“Hmm page 146 griffin exotic's.” Hugh said aloud while flipping through the book and spooning another mouthful of jelly. As Hugh placed this spoonful into his mouth, he noticed it had a small chunk in it, it was rather chewy, and the metallic flavor burst in his mouth, he was in ecstasy, then noticed the words, “Most griffin jellies are made with the meat of prey animals.”
Hugh immediately stopped chewing the chunk in his mouth. “No,” he thought “this couldn’t possibly be...meat” He swallowed the chunk to his better judgement, I mean come on, he loved the rich texture and metallic flavor, meat couldn’t possibly taste that good...right?
He stopped eating the jelly and decided to search for the fig’s that he knew would be at the bottom somewhere, he grabbed a large bowl and started pouring the jelly into it, scanning it for the figs.
He saw none.
Not a Single Fig.
What he did see shocked him to his core. A skinned rabbit with its belly slit open and in place of its organs it was filled with the fig jelly he had been eating over the past few weeks. As he looked at the rabbit he noticed a decent sized chunk was missing from its leg... Almost as if it was scooped...Oh god. Hugh ran to the bathroom but only made some gagging noises as he tried to puke up the jelly he had been eating.
Oddly he couldn’t, no matter how hard he tried. He just couldn’t puke out the jelly. He now knew why they had been called "not to pony taste." The griffins put meat into their jellies, and now he was sure most of the red color was from the blood and not any other additives. He knew ponies shouldn’t eat meat, it was an abomination, but in the back of his mind, he could hear his primal need calling, he wanted more of that sweet metallic flavor of the jelly.
No, not want, he needed more. The mixture of his beloved jelly with his past love of the metallic flavor from licking bits was such an overwhelming ecstasy inducing effect he was no longer disgusted with it. The amount of sheer joy he was in after that 1st bite of that rabbit's leg was...dare he say, one of a kind that lingered in his mind. He wanted more, but decided to hold off for a minute while he read about griffin jellies into further detail.
After a few funny faces and forced reading he realized all the jellies he had been eating had lest some type of meat or blood in it. The grape jelly with the crunchy almonds was actually just bits of rabbit bones tailored into smaller shapes. The peach jelly was actually spiced with the blood of some desert animal. Apparently its blood had a cinnamon taste to it. The strawberry jelly he discovered had several different types of meat in it, all pureed into a paste and mixed in with a decent amount of blood. The Whole fig jelly was referring to the whole rabbit that was in the jar, supposed to be like the treat at the end of a cereal box. But that wasn’t the worst of it. His limited Edition jelly that he loved more than all the others, had the most disturbingly delicious ingredient that he never thought possible.
The book had talked about a banned practice sense the peace treaties with Princess Celestia. However some Colonies within the griffin kingdom still practiced it in the dark, or it just wasn’t spoken of openly. Hugh’s limited edition Twin cherry was listed among the banned jellies since the peace treaty. However sense Pete’s jellies were considerably popular, it was just brushed under the rug and never spoken of. the description as to why it was banned is as follows.
“Raised in cages until they reach the tender age of 6 years, the twins are kept from moving much to keep their meat tender and blood sweet. When they reach harvest time, the twins are hung above the jar and have their throats slit as to drain all the blood into the jar, capturing their sweet young flavor.” Hugh gagged at the thought, yet his mouth watered for some reason. “Next they are skinned, to keep the fur and hair out of the jelly to prevent choking of course. After the jelly is added and thoroughly mixed with the blood, the twins are gutted and cleaned, saving the good bits like the liver for sale on a different market. The bodies are then added into the jelly and pressed down toward the bottom to soak in the delicious flavor of the jelly while adding their own sweet young flavors.”
Hugh was both horrified and hungry at the thought of what he just read. But it was clear to him now. He had just read all about griffin jellies and realized just one thing.
He didn’t care. He didn’t care that it was made from the meat, bones and blood of animals and ponies. It was such a rich and exotic flavor, He couldn’t just stop eating it. He had become addicted to the taste and texture of the jelly meat. There was no turning back, he was on the dark side.
There was but one single problem with his new found taste. The cost of ordering these griffin jellies was absurd. The cost of the shipping and handling along with the few other fees he had no idea what for. A single jar of his new favorite type of jelly would run him at lest 300 bits. For a small jar! This did not Bode well for the Jelly Pony, No it did not. He had to find a way to make his own griffin jellies, he already had the basics and advanced tactics down, all he had left were the complete and total process of how to add his new flavoring without causing problems...
Then it hit him...Why not adopt a few pets?
