The Prompt: It is our duty to build the tools and toys that will inspire the next generation to imagine a better future.
or, Damn it all, something about apples!
Lunchtime at the Ponyville school was always noisy and chaotic, and today was no exception. Apple Bloom and her friends were right in the middle of everypony these days, and it was always fun chattering with all their friends. For some reason, today, Apple Bloom noticed one of the other fillies had an apple with her lunch.
A pony in Ponyville eating apples was hardly unusual, but today, Apple Bloom suddenly started to think about how that apple got there. It wasn't as simple as Sunny Daze probably thought!
First off, Sunny's mother probably put it there. But that was too easy.
She probably bought it off Applejack, and didn't give it a second thought past that. But Apple Bloom knew that while Applejack carted the apples to the town to sell them some days, most of the apples they harvested were bucked down by her big brother, Big Mac.
Though, you know, her siblings were both raised by their Ma and Pa, at least for a while. So something had to be given to those ponies. They'd helped turn Sweet Apple Acres around, before Apple Bloom was even born, or so she was told. Did that mean they had something to do with the apple Sunny Daze was taking a bite out of?
But if you counted Ma and Pa, then Granny Smith had to get credit for finding those seeds in the first place! Or at least she found the zap apple seeds. Apple Bloom thought, but she wasn't quite sure if Granny had found the actual apple seeds, or if it had been her family back then. Anyway, she guessed all of those ponies setting up Sweet Apple Acres to start with had some kind of responsibility for apples being in Ponyville now.
Of course, they only got that land because it was part of Equestria. So maybe the army way back then had something to do with it too?
But apple trees couldn't grow without sunshine, and so Princess Celestia had to have some credit too, right?
Apple Bloom wondered if Sunny knew that Princess Celestia sorta-kinda helped to get her that apple.
Even then, that wasn't enough! Somepony had to make the cart Applejack carried the apples in! All the barrels were made by somepony else too. That wasn't even counting whoever made that paper bag she brought her lunch in, and the table they were at, or the school, or--
Apple Bloom stopped herself there. All those ponies, the cartwright, cooper, paper... bag-maker... they all had families, and those stores were probably set up ages ago just like Sweet Apple Acres. All of those ponies and all of those years, and it all went into that apple core sitting on the table in front of Apple Bloom's friend.
Her silly ruminating was disrupted by a hoof poking her in the side. Scootaloo gave Apple Bloom a weird look. "Hey Apple Bloom, why are you staring at Sunny?"
"Huh? I ain't starin'! Hush up an' finish your lunch, Scootaloo!"
Apple Bloom glanced again at the apple core, but pushed all the thoughts aside. Soon she'd be doing her own part for ponies that came after her, and somehow fitting right in to history like that was satisfying in its own kind of way.