Shakespearicy Theory #1 · 5:14pm Oct 4th, 2020
I'd like to start off a new blog series I've been meaning to do for a while, called Shakespearicy Theory. I want to talk about the various fanons I subscribe to and why, and invite discussion of them comments. But more than that, I want to demonstrate with logic and reason, using evidence from the canon source, why I think my fanon theories, are in fact, canon. So without further ado, I present to you...
Shakespearicy Theory #1
Applejack and Big Mac are Apple Bloom's Parents
Yeah. That's right. I said it!
What else would you have expected me to start with?
And yeah, I know, this fanon theory has been done to death by a lot of people already. A lot of them get parts of it right. But a lot of them get parts wrong. And I want to be clear, this isn't just my opinion or fantasy. Based on the overwhelming evidence, I think it is a true, canon, fact.
But before we get to the main point, we need a little background context to lay the foundation for all the mounting evidence to come after.
First, we need to go all the way back to season 1: Winter Wrap Up.
S1E11 0:35 Twilight Sparkle: "Ponyville was started by earth ponies. So for hundreds of years they've never used magic to clean up winter."
Literally the only image I could find from this scene. sorrynotsorry
Secondly, the episode from season 2: Family Appreciation Day.
S2E12 15:00 Granny Smith: "Long ago when I was a little pony, things were very different here in Ponyville. Because there was no Ponyville."
This leads to a logical inconsistency, that can mean only one of the three following things:
1. Ponies can live for "hundreds of years".
2. Twilight Sparkle is mistaken.
3. Granny Smith is mistaken.
Let's break each possibility down, starting with the most absurd postulation:
1. Ponies can live for "hundreds of years".
If we assume both Twilight and Granny are speaking truthfully, and factually (there is a difference) then this means that Granny Smith was alive before Ponyville was founded and Ponyville is hundreds of years old. Therefore, ponies can live for hundreds of years.
Now, I don't want to just dismiss this outright, because there is precedence for this. To cite the very example from this episode:
However, unlike Princess Celestia, praise be unto She, Granny Smith is hardly ageless, as is evidenced from the show itself, and as we can infer from the series finale, nor is she immortal. But that that doesn't necessarily mean that ponies can't be very long-lived. Because, as I will like say many times in this blog series, Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. However, there is far too much canon evidence to the contrary to reasonable accept this position.
2. Twilight Sparkle is mistaken.
When she says, "Ponyville was started by earth ponies. So for hundreds of years they've never used magic to clean up winter." Her being wrong is not outside the realm of possibility. In season 1, she is a newcomer to the town and is unaccustomed to their traditions, as Winter Wrap Up focuses on almost entirely. However, I am of the opinion that while Twilight may have innocently been culturally ignorant, I find it extremely difficult to believe that somepony as nerdy and fact-oriented as Twilight would misspeak about a historical fact like the founding time of an entire town by such a wide margin (by at least 200%, since hundreds means, at a minimum, >=200, and the average fictional pony lifespan is, if equivocal to humans, is less than 100 years). It is possible that Twilight was misinformed, but she seems like the kind of pony that fact-checks things. Likewise, I don't feel she would speak so confidently about such a fact to Spike without being doubtless of its accuracy.
3. Granny Smith was mistaken.
I could say that Granny Smith lied, but I differentiate between being mistaken, and lying due to intent.
When you give your date the wrong street address for the restaurant because you have dyslexia and say 96 instead of 69, you are mistaken. You didn't intend to give her the wrong information. When you give her the wrong address because you intend to ghost her, you are lying.
And, to be fair, Granny Smith could be a pathological liar. But let's give her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she is just senile and/or has some form of Alzheimer's.
Granny Smith is reasonably far more likely to be mistaken in this case. And this is important, because it sets a precedent for the next logical inconsistency in the show, one with much bigger implications: Apple Bloom.
The first big clue happens right in the first season in The Cutie Mark Chronicles.
In this scene, note:
1. Old Granny Smith.
2. No parents. (Bright Mac and Pear Butter)
3. No Apple Bloom.
If Applejack's parents were still alive, wouldn't they see off their daughter? If Apple Bloom was born, wouldn't she be present? It's incredibly unlikely that Applejack would choose the exact time to leave while her parents were in the maternity ward with Apple Bloom. And even if they were, it would be reasonable to assume that they would be there to welcome Applejack when she returns. Even if Pear Butter died giving birth, Bright would still be there with the newborn Apple Bloom.
Also, keep in mind, this is a flashback, as recounted by Applejack. A pony who is known for her honesty. So we can reasonably take this scene as fact. In fact, Applejack lying about Apple Blooms absence in this case would only work against her efforts to keep her origin a secret. (But more on that later.)
Our meta explanation could be that the show writer goofed and dropped the ball here. But I despise that argument. It's a lazy, cheap, deus ex machina of an excuse and I refuse to acknowledge it in the arena of logic and canon evidence. Especially where is mounting evidence in season six. Even on the meta side of the equation, there is NO WAY at least some of the staff were not aware of the theory that Applejack and Big Mac are Apple Bloom's parents. Prior to season six, I personally bore witness to some off-color convention guest questions on the matter directed at the writers. (FFS guys, let's keep our degeneracy inside the community.)
Therefore, in season six, it is INEXCUSABLE that Apple Bloom was not present in Where the Apple Lies.
To say nothing of the fact that AJ and Mac are arguing over who will get the farm, presupposing that either of them are next in line to inherit the farm directly from Granny Smith. From this we can reasonably infer that their parents are dead already, and yet Apple Bloom is markedly absent.
Maybe she's at school already. Maybe she's just a baby having a nap offscreen. Maybe.
BUT there's more evidence from this very same episode when we meet Filthy Rich and his (at the time) fiancé, Spoiled Milk.
They are (obviously) not yet married. And Spoiled isn't (visibly) pregnant. This implies that Diamond Tiara hasn't been born yet. Even though we know she is about the same age as Apple Bloom, (given that they are in the same class), if not older if we go by how much longer it took AB to get her cutie mark.
BUT you say, what if Diamond Tiara was already born and just off screen. If not born out of wedlock, perhaps she is from a previous marriage. It's a bit of a logical leap but there is precedent of this in the show as well.
But even if we assume this to be the case, it is said at the end of Where the Apple Lies "the whole family ended up in the hospital."
Even if we go with the massive logical leap that Bright Mac and Pear Butter are also in the hospital, in the maternity ward, giving birth to Apple Bloom, it still does not excuse Applejack and Big Mac talking about inheriting the farm "from Granny Smith", inferring that Bright Mac and Pear Butter are dead, and Apple Bloom is not born yet.
"But Shakes, at the beginning of Where the Apple Lies it's Granny Smith that says to Apple Bloom, "Your big sister [Applejack] lied so much when she was a filly, the whole family ended up in the hospital!"
To which I say, yes, but Both Applejack and Big Mac were present, and neither corrected her. In fact, Big Mac directly affirms the statement, "Eeyup." Apple Bloom's shocked and surprised reaction infers that she was not merely elsewhere at the time, but either too young to remember, or more likely, was not born yet at all.
Now I know what you're gonna say...
"BUT SHAKE'S, YOU'RE WRONG!"
And then you go scurrying onto derpibooru and whip out this screenshot:
To which I say, "Fuck you! And shut up!"
That screenshot (from S9E10: Going to Seed) is Granny Smith's flash-back. There is plenty of evidence that she is an unreliable narrator in every sense of the word. That screenshot is fake news and I fucking proved it! The only rational explanation is that Granny Smith is either actively lying, or her memory is in error. Like in Going to Seed, when Granny Smith starts off telling the story (from the screenshot in question) about Applejack to Applebloom she says, "when Applejack was your age"
Which is impossible, because in that scene, Apple Bloom has her cutie mark.
And in the flashback Applejack doesn't have her cutie mark.
And when Applejack recounted the story of her cutie mark (in Cutie Mark Chronicles) she said "I was just a little filly. Even littler than 'yall."
During the run of the show, between Cutie Mark Chronicles and Going to Seed, there were three Hearth's Warming episodes, denoting at least three in-universe years. Therefore it is mathematically impossible that Applejack didn't have her cutie mark in the flashback. Just one of Granny's many expository inconsistencies. Not to mention that in Granny's version of it, she looks like this:
But between this time, to just before Applejack got her cutie mark, she looks like this:
Clearly there is a distortion of her memory in this as well. But you would look like this too from the stress and grief of outliving your child.
What else did your memory fabricate, Granny? What other defense mechanisms did your subconscious create to protect you fragile psyche? Did it insert fond memories of Bright Mac helping Big Mac put on his harness? So you wouldn't have to remember your poor, fatherless grandcolt struggling to fill in a big set of horseshoes?
Did your mind create memories of Pear Butter raising Apple Bloom, so you could repress the memories of your young, pregnant granddaughter? Did you bury the feelings of shame and disgust you felt when you found out who the father was?
My poor, dear, tragic Granny Smith, what pain your life has seen!
Of course you would rather remember it differently.
So what actually happened?
Well if you want to go full Red Pill Shakespearicy Theory, I recommend reading Forbidden Fruits.
Shortly after after Applejack was born, Bright Mac and Pear Butter went to a swamp to collect some crisscross moss. And while there, they contracted Swamp Fever and became the trees we see at the end of A Perfect Pair.
The stress of losing her son and daughter (in law?), as well as raising two foals alone, physically ages Granny Smith. Applejack gets her cutie mark, the Equestrian equivalent of being of-age. Shortly thereafter, Applejack enters estrus and experiences her first heat. Without their parents there to properly educate them about (safe) sex, the dangers of estrus, nor being there to physically separate Big Mac and Applejack while she is in season, nature takes its course.
They (including Granny) learn a hard lesson about responsibility now that Applejack is pregnant. Applejack is kept away from the public eye on the farm. Eleven months later, Applebloom is born via home-birth.
Granny Smith uses her economic clout to pull some strings at town hall, fudging the birth certificate for Apple Bloom, changing her birth parents to Bright Mac and Pear Butter, and, as so to not contradict with their date of death, changes Apple Bloom's date of birth. This sends Apple Bloom to primary school years early, which explains why it leaves her a blank flank long after the rest of her classmates that are the "same age" as her. Or perhaps getting a cutie mark late is a birth defect from the inbreeding. (S1E12 4:00 Applejack: "I was the last pony in my class to get a cutie mark.")
But if the truth about Applejack and Big Mac being Apple Bloom's parents is meant to be Ponyville's best kept secret, they why, OH WHY is Applejack's versions of history not fabricated like Granny's? Why does her retellings of key moments in the family (including Apple Bloom) not include the fabricated addition of Apple Bloom, or their 'parents'?
I think it's because she's intentionally leaving narrative bread crumbs; Clues for Apple Bloom to figure it out for herself, once she's old enough and wise enough to handle the truth. Because deep down, Applejack and Big Macintosh want Apple Bloom to know, and finally be able to reconnect with them as her parents, and as their daughter.
But hey, that's just a theory.
A Shakespearicy Theory!
You did that on purpose and you know it.
Carry on.
Holy shit, Shakes, I know you like incest and all but dayumI'd just chalk it up to Early Season Weirdness, inconsistencies in the storyboards, and too many different writers.
I do, however, like the idea of Bright Mac and Pear Butter becoming the two trees. Even though I think those trees we made from love and Earth Pony magic.
You're welcome.
Ah, but what did our great overlord of the muscular wind say not two paragraphs prior?
"I differentiate between being mistaken, and lying due to intent."
Applejack could still be mistaken. Truthful, but mistaken, if she couldn't remember where the other ponies were, would it be unreasonable for her to simply omit them? :P
Hooo boy... startin off with a doozy...
:x
That took a sharp turn into the Cloudsdale Waterworks factory.
A Ga-- Shakespeariracy Theory!
Thanks for watching! Er, reading!
And thank you, for writing this magnificent theory. I think I'll take that blue pill now.
Pretty well laid out, Shake. Question: does the show ever say just how long Applejack spends in Manehatten with Aunt & Uncle Orange? There's nothing really supporting this idea, and honestly I'm just curious if it could even stick, but what are the chances that Applejack was either already pregnant when she ran away from the farm or became pregnant while staying with her aunt and uncle?
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/c/c2/Uncle_Orange_ID_S1E23.png/revision/latest?cb=20110823211553
+
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/d/d8/Applejack_S01E13_cropped.png/revision/latest?cb=20130419182236
=
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?
What could the Apples be hiding!?
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Maybe she ran away because she was pregnant, intending to have the foal in Manehattan where nopony would know (or ask) who the father was? But the rainboom convinced her to go back, thus keeping her honest with Granny and her brother.
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God DAMN would that make a great story! But unfortunately it flies in the face of the establish fanon that getting one's cutie mark is the Equestrian equivalent of being of-age / puberty.
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To counter with a point I omitted above, Apple Bloom's mane coloration makes it pretty clear that Big Mac is her father. I left this out because it's the basis of a future Shakespeariracy Theory, and I don't want to retread it too much. It could be said that Apple Bloom could have gotten her coloration from Bright Mac, (as "intended"), but as we have established, that isn't what happened. Either case, It wasn't ol' foal fiddlin' Uncle Orange doing the deed. (this time)
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When has that ever stopped anyone?I mean, ah, shame.5370733
Ah, but in the hypothetical I laid out, Bright Mac also has a red mane. Borrowing from the totally-forever-trustworthy source of Wikipedia,
Or basically, neither parent has to have red hair in order to have an offspring with red hair. Big Mac's coat color is definitely the rational choice, but Uncle Orange and Applejack could both have received recessive red hair without the genetic combination to display it themselves. I don't want to detract from your Shakespeariracy (wouldn't Shakespearicy flow easier?) since this is just a hypothetical curiosity, but it has me wondering now even though it is of course using Earth genetics which doesn't really apply to poners.
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The bigger obstacle being that she would have been young to conceive.
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Or: neither is mistaken and ponies don't live for "hundreds of years".
Hear me out. What Granny Smith was part of was the second founding of Ponyville, the first one having been abandoned at some point because the Everfree expanded or the Castle of the Two Sisters got abandoned.
but this doesn't lead to kink... so I'll just retract this.
5370797
Not impossible, just unlikely!
I'll show myself out now.
Headcanon accepted.
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Also made me think of this:
https://youtu.be/BZuuttCwJ78
43:28 "If they knew the truth I'd be under attack because Apple Bloom's the daughter of my sister Applejack!"
-Blackgryph0n, Whooves line is it anyway, Bronycon 2019.
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And somewhere, in a universe that is startlingly close... you're right, Shakes.
As much as I desire this to be canon, I want to point out a glaring mistake you seem to have made with your theory; specifically, the interpretation of what Twilight is telling us about Ponyville and the hundreds of years bit.
I don't believe she was referring to Ponyville itself being hundreds of years old, only that it took ponies that many years to realize how efficient it is to work together with each type of breed: pegasus with cloud management, earth ponies for physical labor, and unicorns for everyday tasks like starting fires. With this info, Granny's statement about Ponyville not existing yet when she was a filly would have a bit more truth, as the actual founding of Ponyville I believe had formed prior to Granny Smith becoming a mother.
I’ve seen this theory from many different sources, and it is pretty neat, that said most of the time it isn’t Big Mac whose the father.... most of the time.
Was pretty fun to read though, any idea what the next ones going to be?
Huh. This is a remarkable amount of legwork on your behalf. I'd expect nothing less from
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I don’t know why, but I have the urge to make it clear that I’m not holding a weapon.
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Officer: "Do you have a concealed weapon in your pants?"
Me: "Yeah, big enough to cripple ur mum."
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>sewer slide
>pear butter dies giving birth
lol no
Eh, that's kinda boring.
Hmm... let's see if we can just...
Ah, there we go.
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Theory updated!
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This was a thing of beauty. I've never seen someone so thoroughly pick apart that particular piece of
fanoncanon before.5371229
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Makes sense.
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Really, she's already a unicorn. Twilight, ever the overachiever, has a head autocannon. (Too lazy to look up the gif, but I'm talking about the Pinkie-Twilight Tag Super from the season 2 finale.
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BONUS GIF
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This is reasonable evidence that AJ is the mother but no evidence that Big Mac is the father other than 'oo incest yay'.
Let's submit a new theory: Applejack and Big Mac are Applebloom's niece and nephew from a 'I'm too old to get pregnant' moment from Granny Smith.
Aah! Dusting the ol' yet ageless theory.
I concur with that theory (except Big Mac impregnating Pear Butter, quite unlikely and it's a wild bet), specially with a FULL episode dedicated on retelling a part of Applejack's and Big Mac's teenagehood and EVEN STILL no sight of Applebloom, not even in a crib/cradle. The staff could, at least, made a nudge/hint to make things clear since then they were aware of many fan theories and memes. For me, it's almost impossible to have those many opportunities to clear things up without presenting the parents, with so many episodes dedicated to the Apple's backstory, and yet nothing to disprove the theory.
Like, why wouldn't Granny appear carrying Applebloom even once? And if she were to be left at home, wouldn't it be irresponsible for them to leave her all alone for a considerable amount of time?
Let's narrow things up. Apple's farm doesn't get many visitors, and those who visit are eventually found. Applejack doesn't leave the farm almost at all, doing her chores diligently, except when doing business. There's a chance it happened while selling apples or within the acres, but still, she's way too stubborn to do the deed with anyone else except those she knows well, who then?, It's known there's not many males and a good portion is too young, old or taken, not to mention even have an interest in her. Only her family members are close enough to her for it to happen as far as we know since there's no other character important enough to her that qualifies that well.
Even the colours of Applebloom blend almost too perfectly with Big Mac and Applejack. There's just too many variables that lead that way and, if we were to take the taboo out of it, it's almost a guarantee.
Applebloom is the end result of The Great Seedling mixing the forced midnight wanks of Mr waddles, thunderlane, and braeburn which was then traumatically put into Macintosh the act of which has stunted his speech and pathologically unable to sleep on his back
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Well... there are cases of pregnancies that happen before outward signs of puberty appears...
And that could square easily with the lack of "talk". Granny Smith could have simply thought that it was not yet needed.
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... I like it.
you have thoroughly proven that Bright Mac and Pear Butter are not Applebloom's parents. Proof of AJ and Big Mac being the parents? Not so much.
You have made a very big assumption here: Pony ages (thus their development) is some sort of parallel to human. There is little to no evidence for this. IF we want to draw parallels between Equestria and Earth, then perhaps we should be drawing parallels between their equine counterparts rather than us. This would mean that they are ready to bear children at two years old and they have a lifespan of around 30 years.
looking at those numbers, they probably go to school at around 6 months and be graduated at around 2yo. But if we look at the fact that 3 hearths warmings passed in the span of the show, we see that at least 3 years have passed in the show. But...the cake twins were still babies at the end. And they were born in season 2. Also using the three year timeline, the CMC should be a lot bigger. Closer to what those kids were in the episode where they wished on that flower. But that episode also showed us that they haven't really grown since season 1, despite all the episodes showing us that they were maturing.
you know this is probably evidence that they do actually have a growth patterns (both physical and developmental) that is similar to humans. Which helps your theory.
I guess the wrench I prepared just tightened your blots. You're welcome.