Growing Harmony · 3:30am May 3rd, 2020
The saga of Doug Apple and his merry herd continues in Growing Harmony. Here's a rundown of the various characters and ways the setting might be different from canon:
Spoilers below!
While Continuity Disrupted may have started as cleaving roughly to canon, minus the obvious difference of a human herding with the Main Five, Errant Finale started barely visible and from there twisted many of the season openers, diverging considerably, even with many of the same events taking place. Growing Harmony will continue that trend, focusing on how Equestrians would take the changes in their leadership, other countries’ reactions, and trending toward more slice of life between Doug and the nine (!) mares of the herd.
Random Notes: Equestria is a matriarchal society (RGRE), with mares the de facto leaders of society, businesses, and herds. Mares go into heat sometime in late February or early March, with foals born eleven months later during Foal’s Week in early February. Approximately four out of every five foals are fillies, leading to herding as the primary family unit with one stallion and any number of mares, but generally settling between three and five with richer herds tending toward smaller numbers. Mares generally have between zero and two foals (three or more is rare), averaging about the replacement rate of 1.4 foals per mare. Foals age quickly (about three times as rapidly as humans, a third as fast as (terran) horses), and generally obtain their cutie marks by five or six. The cutie mark is also the mark of adulthood, puberty, and all that entails, though most everypony waits until fifteen or later to start or join herds.
Doug stands about six feet tall (just under two steps), one hundred and eighty pounds (70 C). The average pony’s withers (shoulders) comes up to his waist (one step), and they weigh between roughly seventy C (pegasi) and one forty C (earth ponies), with unicorns somewhere in between. Celestia, the baseline for the measurement, clocks in at an impressive 1000 C, though she hides it well.
Ponyville is several hours walk from Canterlot, perhaps one hour by train. Coast to coast takes a full day. Teleportation between specific sites and cities is restricted to alicorns, the most powerful unicorns (pre-ascension Twilight, Sunset Shimmer), through the use of certain artifacts (Chancellor Neighsay), and expensive components that must be used on both ends (gold teleportation dust).
DOUG APPLE, formerly Doug Graves, is the only human in Equestria, transported there some eight years ago through unknown means. He is the stallion of HERD APPLE, able to sire foals with ponies, other creatures, and - due to his complete lack of magic - alicorns. He has been on several adventures, most recently a foray to the Crystal Empire, served as arbitrator during Chrysalis’ attempted takeover of Canterlot, and nearly destroyed Equestria when Discord tampered with Tirek during his rampage.
Initially reserved, coming into the limelight as Consort to the Princesses shattered any hope of remaining in the shadows, Twilight’s ascension and the rest of the herd being the Elements of Harmony notwithstanding. He enjoys the company of each of his mares, though resents being spread so thin, especially with his job as weather scheduler for most of Equestria under the pseudonym Cold Digger. If he had a cutie mark, it would be related to that.
HERD APPLE: Started in February 993 Domina Solaria by APPLEJACK and Doug. RARITY and RAINBOW DASH joined shortly after an ill-fated attempt to quench their heats. FLUTTERSHY joined later that year, PINKIE PIE the next. TWILIGHT SPARKLE and TRIXIE joined in August 1000, PRINCESS CELESTIA and PRINCESS LUNA in February 1001.
The herd’s primary base of operations is the Carrot House, located on Sweet Apple Acres. It houses Doug, most of the fillies, and whomever happens to be staying with him that night. Most nights will see two mares with Doug, more staying without reservation.
APPLEJACK: Element of Honesty. Runs Sweet Apple Acres with Granny Smith and Big Mac. Lead mare of Herd Apple, dam (mother) of Apple Bloom, Applebaum, and Pomarbo (FOALS). Pregnant with her fourth, a filly.
RARITY: Element of Generosity. Runs Carousel Boutique. Occasionally goes on gem finding expeditions at the nearby (several hour walk) Ghastly Gorge or with the nearby Diamond Dogs, with whom she has a friendly/familial relationship (Doug sired three of them). Dam of Sweetie Belle (FOALS). Pregnant with her second foal, a filly.
RAINBOW DASH: Element of Loyalty. Head Weathermare of Ponyville, works with Doug on weather scheduling at times. Dam of Scootaloo (FOALS). Pregnant with her second, a colt. Spent a lot of time attempting to join the Wonderbolts; the first time she was ‘deferred’ due to being pregnant with Scootaloo. The second time, three years later, she lost her magic from a failed experiment with Sunset Shimmer, who modified Tirek’s magic draining spell in an attempt to transfer some of Rainbow Dash’s magic to Scootaloo. In October 1000 she won the Best Young Flyer’s competition, though the Wonderbolts continue to be concerned about her prior commitments.
FLUTTERSHY: Element of Kindness. Serves as a liaison between many of the animals around Ponyville and the ponies. Dam of Hedge (FOALS). Less shy and reserved than the show because of the herd and Doug’s influence.
PINKIE PIE: Element of Laughter. Helps run Sugarcube Corner with the Cakes. Dam of Lemon and Meringue (FOALS). Tries to stay more reserved around Doug, but still as exuberant as always around her friends.
TWILIGHT SPARKLE: Element of Magic. Princess Celestia sent her to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration, ostensibly to help with the preparations but with full knowledge that she might face Nightmare Moon. After restoring Princess Luna, she developed a camaraderie with her Friends that eventually led to herding up with them. Ascended to alicornhood due to her mastery of friendship and magic. First of the alicorns to get pregnant, with twin fillies, pending names Dawn and Dusk. Cast the repurposed dark magic spell on Cadance, allowing Shining Armor to impregnate her.
TRIXIE: Seventh mare of Herd Apple, competed with Twilight for the spot when her wagon was destroyed and Herd Apple took her in, gradually developing feelings for Doug. Oftentimes takes care of the foals, or performs around Ponyville.
PRINCESS CELESTIA: Ruler of Equestria for a thousand plus years, moves the sun, etcetera. She’s tried many things in the past to have a foal - rituals, spells, other creatures - but none successful. She was greatly intrigued when Doug could, but didn’t pressure him to mate with her. Instead, she studied how conception worked between him and the mares of his herd. With the use of Sunset Shimmer’s modifications to Tirek’s spell, she devised and tested a way for alicorns to conceive with other ponies. Pregnant with Noon, a filly.
PRINCESS LUNA: Returned to Equestria after her thousand-year banishment, restored by the elements. Strongly desires to not lose pace with her Sister again, and joined Herd Apple after Celestia. Pregnant with Midnight.
When she returned as Nightmare Moon she tortured Doug and five of his fillies. It took a long time for them to get over it, and for her to forgive herself, but they have since moved past it.
FOALS: Eight of them, as of the start of Growing Harmony. Seven more are on the way, eleven if you count Starlight Glimmer’s quadruplets, a result of newly alicorned Twilight performing a conception spell when they were trying to get Starlight’s equality cutie mark to allow ponies to get pregnant.
Every foal struggles with a magic deficiency due to their human heritage. Sweetie Belle struggles with levitation, Scootaloo can barely glide, and Hedge can hover but very slowly. The earth ponies struggle with normal earth pony magic, such as tending crops. However, they are more gifted physically in terms of endurance, and mentally with an insatiable curiosity and breadth of interests compared to most ponies. Princess Celestia’s research suggests the deficiency will correct itself after a single generation, as the pony’s magic has to overwrite many of the potential human characteristics that might manifest.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo are seven years old with their Crusader cutie marks, which they got after helping Starlight Glimmer realize the error of her ways. They are currently working at Starlight’s village, helping the ponies there use their cutie marks in ways that aren’t self destructive.
Applebaum, a five year old earth pony, has a cutie mark of an exploding apple, giving her insight into how to blow things up. She moved to Canterlot to try to find a career that works with her cutie mark, and is in the employ of Dr. Caballeron when she isn’t at school with Wither’s (one of his henchpony’s) fillies.
Lemon, also five, earth pony, has a cutie mark is a pitcher and lemon. Much like her older siblings, her talent is in helping ponies through their problems. She’s very outgoing, much like her dam.
Hedge, four, pegasus, hasn’t gotten her cutie mark yet, preferring to stay near the farm and work with the animals when she isn’t helping her dam.
Pomarbo, three years old, earth pony, and the only colt, tends toward the shy and reserved side of things. He likes working with his sire, mostly on the business and financial side of things.
Meringue, also three, earth pony, was most affected by Nightmare Moon, turning the once boisterous filly inwards. She is obsessed with perfection and improvement, and has a very stilted way of speaking reminiscent of Maud.
SPIKE: the dragon. During the Dragon Migration he confessed his love of Sweetie Belle. Later, he went through a spurt of greed growth, where he caused an international incident. Later used that same greed growth to save the Crystal Heart from Chrysalis.
QUEEN CHRYSALIS: Scheming and malicious, the changeling queen challenged Celestia to a game of sorts. The changelings would attempt to infiltrate and then conquer an Equestrian city, while Celestia stood by. When she attempted this, disguising herself as Princess Cadance, the Crystal Empire returned, leaving her, the Main Six, and Shining Armor to take the city from King Sombra. Unbeknownst to her, her disguise is uncovered, allowing Twilight Sparkle to hatch a successful plan to turn her invasion around. Beaten at her own game, and pregnant with Shining Armor’s foal and second mare in his herd, she begrudgingly turns over a new leaf and integrates her changelings with Equestrian ponies - which was her real goal all along.
When Discord messed with Tirek, causing Doug to drain all of ponykind’s magic into his bottomless well, Queen Chrysalis and the rest of the changelings gave their love to help keep everypony alive. This transformed them into the changelings from the show, with Chrysalis a bulkier, brighter, and whole version of herself, but still as acerbic as always.
There’s probably a lot more I didn’t cover, and many of these events will be narrated when they come up, so you shouldn’t be too lost if you don’t remember a particular moment.
Yay! Thanx DG for continuing the story of Herd Apple. I'm still reading Continuity Disrupted but it's nice to know that it won't be ending anytime soon
Or whatever. Bc you know...spoilers and shit 
You may want to add a line to the blog post that says something like spoilers below this point.
I thought Doug's name was Doug Graves Apple. I guess he changes it to Doug Apple sometime during CD or EF. I don't want to know if I'm right or not. It was just an observation.
Also this part of the blog post I'm pretty sure is worded wrong:
I say that bc the part cleaving roughly to doesn't make sense. You can't cleave to something to you. Cleave does means i to split apart. So I'm fairly sure it wasn't that. Maybe you meant cleaving slightly from or clinging roughly to
5255173
The first definition is to split apart. The second is to stick/adhere together.
English is stupid.
Edited post to add spoiler ish thing.
5255177
Oh wow! I just looked it up with google. That is really odd. How can cleave mean to split apart & to stick or adhere together? I could understand if one was slang but I didn't see anything to show it was.
About first comment. I was in yhe process of editing it when the exhaustion of the day won briefly and I ended up dozing off. So it may be a little different than it was when you replied to it DG. Sorry if you were notified bout the same comment twice or something. I honestly have no clue what if anything may or may not happen. Just thought I'd say something just in case.