The Judgment

by Gabriel LaVedier

Juror #1

Applejack trotted around in her little space, which was a tucked-away corner of the main library. The book spines looked down at her and offered nothing. She never really relied on books unless she absolutely had to. She led with her heart and her gut and came out right most of the time.

“Zecora...” They had all been wrong. Twilight had warned them, until they all got to Twilight. They had followed their hearts and guts deep into the Everfree and came back with nothing but a tale of how wrong they could be. Plus her little sister had met the mare that would become an Apple someday. The heart won when the gut was wrong. But the head had been the rightest one of all.

The choices they made could have all kinds of consequences, ones they never could even predict. Like she had never expected that wandering into the Everfree in pursuit of an evil enchantress would bring a new sister-in-law and give her little sister a brand new path in life.

But they didn't always work out. She had followed her heart, her good intentions, to hide her shame and keep her promises, running away from Canterlot to Miss Jubilee. She had thought that only hard work and stoic acceptance of her fate would make things right. That was the family way. The traditional way.

'Tradition.' That was a big word. It was the biggest word in her family. It was the most vital thing. She had violated it before, to her chagrin. The Family Reunion had been a disaster, all because she broke tradition when it made perfect sense. She had been wrong the whole time and had to learn the hard way by seeing the price of her failure. That had been terrible, but instructive.

But the price of being wrong on this idea, if Twilight and Rarity were to be believed, would harm the entire nation, if not, perhaps, destroy it eventually. That was a high price to pay for an experiment that threw off tradition. Things had always worked out well. Filly Foolers and Populators making foals by the methods they always had. That was the way.

Filly Foolers. Populators. Colt Cuddlers. They existed too. Tradition looked down on them, but that wasn't right. She didn't really know any, of course, not personally. She knew that nice Mister Pierce to say 'howdy' to, and knew that his beau seemed like a nice fellow. There were traditions about Roa, and now Missus Cheerilee was one, and was a perfectly good and kind mare, as ever. No matter what Granny had said against Toola the first day she was in town, they were good folks.

Her family was more than ponies and zebras, but that wasn't tradition. Granny broke and accepted a buffalo into the family, and Little Strongheart's talents made them all look good. Then her brother came home with that lovely Miss Smarty Pants, smart, sweet, and so in love with Big Macintosh. Donkeys were not traditionally loved, buffalo neither. Not in the Apple family. There were no other non-ponies in the family. But even if there was a griffin, or Changeling or Diamond Dog in the future on some branch, the new tradition would be followed, rather than the old.

Traditions could change. They sure weren't always right. They could be, they could start out right. But they could also start out wrong and stay wrong. That was the way of the heart and guts. Brains could think about what a tradition said. And while it could feel disrespectful to question some traditions, it couldn't hurt to ask questions about things that could hurt ponies, or buffalo or donkeys. The nation ran on love and togetherness, not division.

But the very specific new thing could divide the nation. More mares, fewer stallions. Maybe more mares with non-ponies, which would be fine, but the face of the whole nation would change so much...

Applejack looked at her sheet of paper and her stamps. It wasn't just an abstract future she was voting on. She was voting on her own future foals. Her foals with Dash. That made a real difference. All the thinking in the world wouldn't change that fact. Her heart and her gut had to join her head to make sure she didn't make a mistake... but in the end, it was about foals and her future, and Dash.

She inked one stamp and thumped it down solidly on the paper. Head, heart, gut. Decided.

Comments

[Seether00]

Demographics of countries change all the time. It's not wrong. It just is.

[Gabriel LaVedier]

2476571

It's not quite the demographics it's the potential for unicorn control of reproduction and the loss of pony males.

[celelorien]

A solid, honest reaction from our dear AJ. Good to see her really thinking about what makes a tradition good or bad and not just blindly following in her granny's hoofsteps. And Twi's already said that the princesses can tweak the predilection towards one gender or another, so they wouldn't necessarily HAVE to be up to their ears in fillies.

[Gabriel LaVedier]

2480506

That may or not be true. They might just slam eggs together more elegantly than science does. After all, it's probably damn hard carving an X chromosome into a Y.

[Kagitaar]

You properly capitalized Miss, huzzah!

If you hold off on implementation until such controls on gender are in place, then I don't see the issue. It's all hormones at the right time anyway.

[Gabriel LaVedier]

2481879

Even if they have two X chromosomes? That's the issue.

[Kagitaar]

2485854

And magic plus science can't fix that at some point?

[Gabriel LaVedier]

2489171

They'd practically have to take an X from the father of the opposite partner, which would, I guess, mean birthing their own brother-in-law. Unless yo mean paring out all the DNA that makes the X so large and leaving only the same size of a Y. And adding the code to initiate the male body plan. Of course this would need to be from an egg containing her father's X, to preserve the alleles.

[Kagitaar]

2489630

Not getting into a genetics debate, I'll only sound like an idiot at some point.