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// The Filly and the Apple Tree 
// Story: Wise Words of an Apple 
// by Laichonious the Grey 
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Sweet Apple Acres: the stronghold of the Apple Family. For generations the ponies of the sprawling and industrious family have cared for the orchard. Many lessons have been learned there, and many are sure to come.
One brisk and lovely day on the farm, Applejack and Apple Bloom were out applebucking in the shade of the older apple trees. Birds sang little ditties for the farm fillies as they worked and the breeze carried the cool scent of fall. Apple Bloom had been unusually quiet that day. So Applejack decided to see what troubled the little filly.
“You’ve been mighty quiet, sugarcube.” She said, giving another tree a strong kick.
The yellow filly gave a shrug. “Ah’m... thinkin’,” she mumbled.
“‘Bout what?” Applejack tossed some stray blonde hair from her face and looked over to her little sister.
Apple Bloom bit her lip and looked around at the orchard. “I... Ah was just thinkin’ about the stories, y’know, the ones from old tahms, how the Matriarch came an’ made Equestria. An’ then she left.” She plodded over to their stack of empty baskets.
Applejack smiled. “Well she had other things ta do. She couldn’t stay all the tahm.”
“But, why would the Matriarch leave like that? Doesn’t she care about what happens to us?” Apple Bloom brought another basket over to Applejack and placed it under the tree. AJ bucked the tree, sending a cascade of apples neatly into the basket before answering.
        Apple Bloom already knew most of these stories, it seemed like she had never thought about what they meant. “Sugarcube,” AJ said, placing a foreleg around her little sister, “it ain’t like that. She didn’t leave any more than we leave these here apple trees.”
“But, we never get to see ‘er! The trees get ta see us all the tahm.”
Applejack chuckled. “Okay, maybe Ah gotta explain it a bit better. Come ‘ere, Ah got somethin’ ta show yah.” She started walking to the edge of the orchard. 
Apple Bloom’s little hooves quickly brought her to her sister’s side. “Do yah think that, well, cuz Ah don’t understand, that’s why I don’t have my cutie mark?”
“Nah, understandin’ somethin’ doesn’t make you get a cutie mark, hun.” 
Apple Bloom huffed at the ground. 
“That don’t mean it don’t help to understand,” Applejack added hastily.
“Where’re we goin’ anyways?” the little filly asked, glancing around at the trees. This was a part of the orchard they didn’t frequent all too often. The trees here were very old and had stopped producing as much fruit as the others. But they were strong trees; they had been here as long as the Apple Family, some of them even longer.
Applejack smiled at the old grove. “There’s a tradition in our family that when an Apple gets ‘er cutie mark, she gets a tiny appleseed.” She swallowed a lump that had suddenly grown in her throat. “Now, Pa, he gave me mah apple seed and he said to me, ‘Applejack, you take good care of this tree. If yah do a good job, you can be sure ta make this family grow.’” She paused as they approached their destination. One grand old tree shaded the whole clearing where they stood. She sat under its spreading branches and patted the ground next to her. Apple Bloom sat next to her and leaned into her sister. 
“Ah wanted to do a good job, trust me. There wasn’t a doubt in mah mind I could take care of an apple tree. Ah’d been helpin’ Ma and Pa, Big Mac and Granny, ever since Ah could remember, out in the orchard. Ah fancied m’self mighty good at it, yah see. Ah thought Ah knew all there was ta know. So Ah thought ta m’self, ‘I reckon this little tree’d do real good out with the old, strong ones in the west fields.’ An’ that was mah plan. I did ev’rythin’ Ah was supposed ta; potted the seed in the nursery, gave it pleny a’sunshine and water, fertilizer an’ all that. Before Ah knew it, it was all ready ta plant. Ah took the little feller out here and found a nice spot with these here old trees.” 
She put a foreleg around Apple Bloom again. “Now, Ah didn’t want nothin’ bad ta happen to mah tree. Ah was gonna take care of it, right and proper. So Ah spent all day out here, makin’ sure no weeds got too close, scaring off all the critters who’d wanna eat its leaves. Haha! I even spent the night with mah tree when the timberwolves were about, had a pot and everythin’ to keep ‘em from takin’ the little branches. I made sure to keep the ground nice an’ soft so the roots could spread out an’ make mah tree strong like this feller here.” She rubbed a hoof over the rough bark of the old apple tree.
“It looked like all mah hard work was payin’ off too. Mah tree grew nice an’ tall and had plenty a’ leaves. I was right proud of it. Well a couple years went by, an’ it was time for mah tree to start havin’ apples on it. It had so many blossoms on it, ‘twas a sight ta see. But, there was somethin’ wrong. The flowers didn’t look quite right. Ah didn’t worry about it too much at the tahm, Ah was sure Ah’d done good and made that tree as good as any other out here on the farm. Ah came back the next day an’ found the ground covered in little white petals. Mah poor tree had too many flowers. It couldn’t keep ‘em all cuz they took too much energy ta keep around. It still had plenty on it, so Ah didn’t worry none.”
“What... what happened?” Apple Bloom’s eyes were wide with interest, she leaned into Applejack and stared up at her big sister.
AJ smiled down at the little filly and stood up. “Follow me. You gotta see it.” She led her little sister through the old grove of dappled shadows and crackling tree litter. She figured nopony had been out here since she left the place all those years ago. “Harvestin’ tahm came, an’ well, this is what Ah found.” the trees parted slightly and they came upon a clearing bathed in golden sunlight. In the center of the clearing stood a single, frail, dead apple tree. Its skeletal limbs were dry and empty, little bits of bark had fallen to the ground, littering the ground around it with chunks of brittle mulch.
“Wh-What happened?!” Apple Boom exclaimed. She stood at the edge of the clearing, staring at the dead tree. “You’re the best applebucker in th’ world, Sis! How could this happen?”
Applejack went over to the dead tree and placed her hoof on the trunk. “Everypony makes mistakes, Apple Bloom. Even me. Ah didn’t think about th’ consequences of puttin’ a new tree with old trees. Y’see, these trees are real old, they’ve seen a lot and they’ve been through a lot. They’ve got this whole place to themselves. Look around, Apple Bloom. What do yah see?”
The little filly glanced at the straight rows of old apple trees. “Just a bunch of old apple trees,” she said perplexed.
“Tha’s right. Just a bunch of old apple trees. Y’see how there ain’t any other trees growin’ here? Ah reckon not a soul’s been here in more than ten years, ‘sides us, and this here grove is takin’ care of itself. These trees are so big, their roots are all over this place. They’re so strong that anything bigger than a bush gets choked out by them.” 
“Mah little tree, heh, it didn’t stand a chance. What’s more, these trees are survivors, there was a big ol’ tree plague a long tahm ago, killed half of Sweet Apple Acres. It was a fungus, like mold, no way to cure it. Well these trees stuck it out, they survived. It hurt ‘em, they weren’t the same afterwards and eventually they couldn’t make any more fruit. They stuck around though, and we didn’t cut ‘em down ‘cuz we know that if another plague comes around, these trees got it first an’ we can use ‘em to save the other trees.” Apple Bloom gave her a doubtful look. “Same way you get a shot from the doctor fer th’ flu each year. Ah’ll explain more later.”
She sat in front of the dead tree and motioned Apple Bloom over with a hoof. “There’s more to it than that though. Y’see, ‘cuz Ah was out here all th’ tahm with this tree, scarin’ away critters and diggin’ up the ground, Ah made it too dependent on me. It caught the tree plague, and ‘cuz its roots were being choked and ‘cuz I was diggin’ up the ground, it didn’t have the strength to fight it off. The mold got to the roots too, makin’ it hard for it ta get water and all the stuff it needs from the dirt. Ah didn’t let any critters near it, but if I did, they would a’ broken off the branches that weren’t strong enough to hold ‘em. The tree could a’ been spendin’ its energy to fight the mold, but instead it was tryin’ ta grow branches that couldn’t even hold an apple.”
“Doesn’t the tree know when to stop growin’ an’ fight for itself?” the filly asked while looking at the sad tree.
Applejack shook her head. “Nope. The tree only knows how to grow, that’s all it wants ta do. It’s up to us ta teach it the best way to grow but we can’t baby it none either. That’s what Ah meant when Ah said the Matriarch ain’t left us. She’s got a whole big world ta take care of, she can’t always be here. She’s got other places to make an’ plant, an’ grow. If she was around all the tahm, we’d never learn anythin’ fer ourselves. We’d want her to take care of us. But she cares, Apple Bloom. She didn’t want us to be alone, so she left the Princesses here to look after things, just like...” Her voice faltered, a tear collecting in the corner of her eye.
“Just like how Ma an’ Pa left you and Big Mac to look after me,” Apple Bloom finished for her, nuzzling into her sister’s shoulder.
“That’s right, sugarcube,” Applejack said, holding the filly close. She sniffed. “That’s right.”