“If ya’ wanted to talk to ponies ‘bout the benefits of eatin’ a lot of apples…”
Cookie looked at her.
"Y'know what? That sounds like a great idea."
And at that moment was born a beautiful partnership; though Cookie seldom used his skills of winning ponies, finding the practice distasteful at best and completely unethical at worst, he maintained them through the years nonetheless. With his nigh-perfect advertising skills and the Apple family's swath of excellent products, they set about building a corporate presence dwarfing any other company in Equestria. (Cookie had long pondered the idea of corporations, but like advertising, had dismissed the idea as easily spiralling out of control and not to the benefit of the common good. What had changed, he couldn't quite say; just that, standing in Applejack's kitchen and staring at her sardonic smirk, a wire had sparked within him, cracking the whip on an engine he hadn't know he'd had.)
A few decades passed quickly, so absorbed in the work was Cookie, and it felt like no time at all had passed before Apple Family Inc. had the resources to buy the land necessary for the creation of its own independent state.
"Two can play at this game, Celestia," Cookie thought to himself, misty-eyed, as he signed the contracts sealing the deal and officially creating Apple Land. "Two can play at this game."