//------------------------------// // Math: Part One // Story: Math // by Abramus5250 //------------------------------// Math It was a nice sunny day in Ponyville; the birds were tweeting, the cloud were few, and puddles from the rain a week before had finally dried up in some of the more shaded areas. Yes, it was a great day, but it was anything but an ordinary one. “Okay Applejack, I just have to know; why do you need this textbook again?” Twilight asked as she and her farmer friend walked out of the library and in the direction of the orange mare’s farm. “I didn’t take it you were one for learning more a advanced mathematical techniques.” “It ain’t for me, Twilight; it’s fer Big Macintosh,” Applejack said as the pair walked. “He’s been hidin’ something from the rest of y’all, especially you, Twilight, and I’ve finally convinced him to come clean about it. Mind you, it took a heap o’ convincin’, but I need this book for both his sake, and my own.” “Both of your sakes?” the purple pony asked. “Just what does big Macintosh need with a book on statistics?” If anything, she thought he'd want something on farming, or maybe dating; she wasn't the only pony who had heard of his so-called "bad luck" with mares. He worked too hard and socialized too little in her opinion, though if she ever bothered to ask anypony else, they'd say the same thing about her. “Well, you see, bein’ a farmer ain’t just plantin’ seeds, feedin’ hogs and harvestin’ apples,” Applejack replied. “There’s a might more to it than just that. Ya gotta know how to read the weather, ta know what foods will get ya through winter better, and what sorts of supplies make the best barns and such.” “I still don’t see what that has to do with statistics,” Twilight said, a bit nonplussed by her friend’s statements. "Proxemics, definitely, logistics for sure, and maybe genetics, but statistics? That's a bit... different from what I'd expect a farm pony to need to know." “I was getting’ to that,” Applejack said, rolling her eyes slightly. “Anyways, when it comes ta farmin’, ya gotta know what’ll give y’all the best sorts of produce. That meanin’, do we plant corn this year in the south field, or alfalfa, dependin' on the fertility of the soil and the expected rainfall each month? Which direction should our rows be facin’ when they get planted, seein' as how some of the field-borderin' trees are a bit taller than last time we had that crop? Has an early rain made the ground too soft fer us to use some of our bigger plows, or is the soil too dry fer us to be plantin' our winter wheat? Do we harvest the last of the cider-makin’ apples two weeks before the frost, or three? What’s the darn ratio of apples in the cider to all the other ingredients, like cinnamon and stuff?” “Gosh, I didn’t know so much technical and mathematical thinking went into farming,” Twilight said, the implications starting to fully become apparent to her. Sure, reading the weather and knowing the seasonal changes was one thing, but all of this... it just boggled her mind. “I just thought it was... you know...” “Plantin’ and hopin’ fer the best?” Applejack asked, arching an eyebrow at her friend. "Milkin' cows and balin' hay; is that whatcha thought we did all day?" “Well, yes, actually,” the purple pony replied. “I never really read up much on farming, except the progression of its technological improvements and methods throughout history.” “Well then, you’ll finally get to see just how much brain power goes into makin’ a farm successful,” the orange pony said as they walked up to the barn. “Come on now, Big Macintosh should be inside, waitin’ for us.” The two mares walked inside, and indeed, Big Macintosh was sitting over on a bale of hay, seemingly off in his own little world. The sudden shutting of the barn door behind Twilight seemed to snap him out of his thoughts, causing him to look from Twilight to his sister and back. “Applejack? Twilight? Why did y’all need me in here?” the big red stallion asked. “Ah got some chores that need doin’ on the north fields, and-,” “Brother, it’s time you confess to Twilight, of all ponies, your true passion,” Applejack said bluntly, removing the textbook from one of her saddlebags. “Come on now, take this.” Big Macintsoh, seemingly stunned by his sister’s assertive stance, gingerly took the book from her and lay it down on a bale near his hooves. Flipping it open to a random page, he looked up at his sister. “Y’all sure about this, AJ? Ah mean, we could always do this some other time, since I got mah chores-,” “No, Big Mac; as much as I know there’s plenty of chores that need a-doin’, yer just gonna have to swallow yer pride on this one and just tell Twilight here the truth,” Applejack said. “Truth?” Twilight asked, looking from stallion to mare. She had chosen to remain silent until she had an opening in which to speak. “What truth?” Tons upon tons of possibilities flowed through Twilight's brain, some far more insane than others; was Big Macintosh in love with one of the family apple trees? Was he really a unicorn? Were his sisters secretly trying to get him a date for some upcoming festival? Applebloom had learned her lesson about things like that, but maybe Applejack needed to get in in her head that her brother liked to be alone. “Big Mac here is a cert-i-fiable genius,” her friend said, drawing out the word “certifiable” as if doing so made it more important. To the purple unicorn, it just sounded like Applejack didn’t really know what the word meant, or how it was said. “He’s likely the smartest in our family, and that’s sayin’ somethin’, given all our relatives across the country.” “A prodigy?” Twilight asked. She wouldn't have picked the stallion in front of her to be something like that; muscular and silent, to be sure, but... a genius? “Yes siree, he’s a gen-u-ine wiz on them fancy mathematics,” Applejack said, looking back at her brother. “Hey! Get back here, brother, you gotta show her fer yerself!” The big red stallion, during the conversation, had been silently trying to sneak away, but given the fact he was the biggest stallion in Ponyville, that’d be like Spike trying to disguise the fact he was a dragon by painting himself bright pink. In a resigned nature he made his way back to the book, looking deep into its contents before looking back up at his sister and her friend. “Okay, I’ll do it, but... don’t think less of me fer it,” he said, flipping to another page. “Why would I think that?” Twilight asked, taking a step forward. Seriously, what was his secret? Did he guard some sort of magical treasure? Were the Apple stallions tied to some ancient cult of assassins and scholars? Did he have two tails? “Because... farmin’ ain’t just about the trees and the crops and the animals,” Big Macintosh said. “There’s far more to it than just that. it's just... most ponies don't think it is, and we Apples take pride in what we do fer our communities. i just... never really saw other ponies' knowin' of mah smarts as bein' important is all.” “I know about the stigma; Applejack told me all about that on the way here,” the purple pony replied. Okay, so maybe some of her guesses were... pretty far-fetched, now that he just kept talking about farming and the community. If it wasn't for Applejack's insistence, Twilight doubted he would have even been talking to her. Not because he didn't like her, but because he was about the shyest pony short of Fluttershy, and that was saying something. “Did she tell ya that the only correct way to harvest regular apples is to measure the mean ripening period every year and then determine the best time to harvest the largest numbers in the shortest amount of time?” the big pony asked, his voice suddenly taking on a distinctly, and frankly unheard-of (to Twilight, anyway) tone of... intellectualism? “What? No, I, uh,” Twilight tried to say, but her words failed her as Big Macintosh continued. “The standard deviation of every year’s mean is how we know just how many cider apples to harvest, somethin’ yer friend Rainbow Dash should think about whenever we run outta cider,” the big pony said. “Within one deviation is just 68 percent of the apples we could have, and within two deviations is 95 percent. We’ve rarely had a harvest year in which we could both harvest and process 95 percent of our good cider apples. We’ve never yet had a year where we were able to harvest more, but someday, when there’s more of us to work the fields and orchards, we just might. I'm not even gonna try and tell y'all about how hard it is to try and find variance among these here samples of our hay," he added, gesturing at the stacks in the barn. “I, um, uh,” Twilight tried to say again, her brain beginning to lose focus as the large pony continued. “See, it’s not just these standard deviations, but the overall means as pertainin’ to the total number of individual sites,” the red stallion rattled off. “See here, in this book? It’s all clear as day, right on the printed paper.” Twilight, almost unbidden, walked over and looked in the book. She saw symbols that were definitely not those of the same language she had grown up speaking, but at the same time, they seemed awfully familiar. It had been a good while since she studied mathematics; friendship had taken over her more "scientific" aspects of her life. "See? Clear as a bell, I tells ya. And don't get me started on those fancy folk out judgin' us by crop tonnage and not quality; the nerves of some ponies, not knowing the difference on how ta properly calculate a z-test and a t-test..." Big Macintosh continued for another good thirty five minutes, telling Twilight all about the inter-connectedness of farming, logistical growth equations, variance determination and sustainable harvest. He even went into a small rant about how population dynamics of their pigs were entirely dependent on the goodwill of ponies and the inclination of weather-based phenomena for good rains. Then, with a sudden finality, he closed the book and looked up at his sister, who was almost asleep from all this “fancy mathematical” jargon. “If y’all need me, I’ll be out doin’ more chores,” he said, walking past her and out of the barn altogether. He didn't sound mad, or even gruff; just... back to business as usual for him, was all. Applejack, startled out of her stupor by his sudden departure, looked over at her friend, who kept looking back and forth between the book and where Big Macintosh had just exited, as if expecting some great secret to emerge from the pages upon his disappearance. “See? What did I tell ya?” the orange pony asked as she walked over and picked up the book. “He’s a smart one, ain't he?” “Uh, um, uh... yes,” Twilight said with hushed breath, and then something strange happened. Applejack didn’t believe her eyes, but she could have sworn her friend’s pupils turned into little pink hearts and... was she hovering an inch off the ground? “He’s definitely a smart one.” Seemingly defying any laws of physics, Twilight almost floated out of the barn after Big Macintosh, her friend just staring at her before she vanished. It might have been her imagination again, but there seemed to be... a small trail of hearts following her friend's path. Applejack didn’t know what had just happened, but she sure knew how to respond. “Aw, shucks; can't say I was expectin' that to happen."