>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...