//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: The Tale of Three Ponies // by Izzie1302 //------------------------------// Staring at the ground definitely wouldn’t work, she’d been doing that for what seemed like hours, and it wasn’t the first time. Last week, she tried staring at the kettle, just to see if she could lift it up. Then yesterday, she wanted to see if she could make the apples fall from the trees on their own. She thought it could be just a matter of practice, nopony had never pulled something like that off before, nopony have even tried, maybe she’d be the first one to discover that ponies could learn to have magic. That’d be the most wonderful thing ever! Except, nothing seemed to work. “Com’on! Just a little spark!” she squeezed her eyes, focusing on the grass. She kept thinking about the leaves growing, going the same height as her muzzle was off the ground. But still, there wasn’t any sight of magic coming from anywhere. “Apple Bloom, what in tarnation are you doin’?” Applejack appeared behind her, her basket already full of apples. ”Oh nothin’, really.” She kept looking at the groud. “just… tryin’ to make this damn grass grow,” she storted. “But of course it’s not workin’.” Applejack laughed. “O’course it’s not, lil’ filly, you ain’t a unicorn.” She put a hoof around her neck. “But… do you think it’s possible to learn to have magic? Or maybe I already have it, I just don’ know it yet.” “Haven’t I ever told ya what a unicorn looks like?” Applejack asked. Apple Bloom moved her head negatively. “They have horns, Apple Bloom, that’s where their magic come from.” “Horns? Like the bulls we have at the village?” “No, not like that, sugarcube,” Applejack smiled at the thought, “it’s just a single horn on the top o’ their heads, nothing like the animals ya know.” “Ah,” she sighed. All her attempts were useless all along, it’s stupid she didn’t know the very first thing about unicorns. How could she not know about the horns? Granny Smith had never told anything about that in any of her stories, she just mentioned the magic they had. But then, she didn’t like to talk about them that much. “Y’know, I’ve seen one before, a unicorn,” Applejack started saying. Apple Bloom knew what was coming, her sister had told her that story many times before. “I was just a filly, maybe even younger than ya.” “I know, Applejack, you told me…” “We lived in another village up north, close to the border,” she continued. It was no use to stop her anyway. “Then came the war, the unicorns invaded our village, thanks Celestia we could get out o’ there in time, but I still could see one as we were runnin’. The unicorn looked in my eyes, he started runnin’ towards us but gave up, I guess we weren’t worth it. I was on dad’s back and I looked back, even though he’d told me not to. I was terrified.” “I wish I’d met dad, and I also was too young to even remember mom,” she admitted. Applejack lifted her head to face her. “They loved ya very much, I’m sure o’ that,” she said. Apple Bloom could see her sister’s eyes almost crying. “Well, let’s head home, we picked up a lotta apples for today.” They started walking on the dirt road that led home, Apple Bloom kept looking at her hooves along the way. The dirt, the fields. An Earth Pony, that’s what she was since she was born. The earth was her fate after all. “How long has it been like this, Applejack?” She asked while kicking the sand under her hooves. “Have the earth ponies always lived working for the pegasi and the unicorns? Didn’t we have a land of our own?” “Not that I know of, sugarcube,” her sister answered. “Since I was born, and your Granny Smith were born, and all the other ponies before her were born, that’s how it has always been. Sure we had more territory before since Pegasalia was once bigger, but that’s the Pegasus land, we just live in it.” “Get it.” They continued walking, she could now see Granny Smith going to the balcony to sit in her usual chair, where she’d have a view of all the orchard. She waved at her and Apple Bloom waved back. “I didn’t know ya wanted to be an unicorn, Apple Bloom,” Applejack started taking again. “Well, life sure would be better if we were.” She looked up at her big sister. “For starters, we wouldn’t have to give away half of our food. If I was born as a unicorn or a pegasus, I’d be far away from here.” “I know it’s not fair, but it’s no use to think that way, things ain’t gonna change by complaining.” “Then how will it change?” she asked. Applejack looked at her, thinking of what to say, but Apple Bloom knew what was the obvious answer. “Family is the most important thing, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said. She kind of expected a answer like that coming from her sister, she wasn’t going to say the obvious. “Even though times are tough, you’ll always have your family, that’s what makes our lives worth livin’. And I wouldn’t exchange you, Granny or Big Mac for any stupid horn or wings.” Apple Bloom smiled at that last part. Her big sister was the best pony she have ever met, if somepony deserved something out of life, that pony was Applejack. Only she wouldn’t like it that much, the only way to live a slightly better life was if she had a job in the big city, it’d hurt to have her sister go away, it wasn’t a thing she thought she could handle, she’d never be ready to say goodbye. But that was her sister she was talking about. Applejack wouldn’t go anywhere, Apple Bloom was pretty sure of that.