Applejack watched the sun come up over the snowy orchard at Sweet Apple Acres. She saw it almost every day, all through the year, and had a whole hoof full of different thoughts on it. Some mornings she was struck by the beauty of the sunrise, and her farm, and the world. Some mornings she had to admit it annoyed her, reminding her that she had a load of work and the sun wasn't going to stay down just so she could get it all done on time. But lately, more often she'd been regarding it with the suspicious smile that touched her lips that Hearth's Warming morning.
Princess Celestia raised the sun, there was no questioning that. Applejack had seen it herself. And according to the Hearth's Warming story, before Princess Celestia, other unicorns did the job. Magic made the world go 'round, after all. Earth pony magic made the crops grow, and pegasi controlled the weather, and unicorn magic made the sun come up. Every foal knew it, and if they doubted it they could go talk to an earth pony, or a pegasus, or watch Princess Celestia do it herself at the Summer Sun Celebration.
Applejack knew it, but she wasn't sure she believed it.
It wasn't something she could prove, just a suspicion cobbled together from tiny observations and questions she asked herself while she worked. It started with thinking about zap apples. They were magic alright, but they weren't earth pony magic. They weren't unicorn magic, either, though. And she was fairly sure Princess Celestia had never seen or tasted a zap apple. So where did the magic that made zap apples come from?
That made her think about the Everfree Forest in general. There were clouds there that moved by themselves, and Applejack had to figure that they didn't come from the weather factory. There was no way that many clouds could get away by accident. So the forest made its own weather, and grew its own crops.
Did it raise its own sun?
Applejack thought that was silly, at first. For one thing, there was only one sun, and for another she'd seen first hoof that the forest was dark as night the year that Princess Celestia disappeared when Nightmare Moon returned. Clearly, when Princess Celestia didn't raise the sun, it didn't come up anywhere.
Except that there was a time before the Princesses, when unicorns raised the sun. But how did the first unicorns learn to do that? Without the sun, there were no plants, they'd have nothing to eat. Applejack was pretty clear that a pony couldn't do much if there was no food in the world, but if ponies raised the sun there was no sun before there were ponies. The chicken and the egg.
Luckily, Applejack did a lot of work by herself. Morning chores, apple bucking, weeding fields. Even when she wasn't by herself, she was usually working with Mac, which still gave a pony plenty of time to think. And she thought of zap apples again.
Even if the Everfree Forest grew them itself, the Apple family could plant them and harvest them on Sweet Apple Acres. They supported the family through those first, hard times, and now they were one of the products that made the farm special. Applejack guessed that if they wanted to, ponies could stop the zap apples from growing. Pegasi could disrupt the storm clouds, or earth ponies could dig up all the seeds and salt the earth.
And an alicorn might be able to do the same to the sun. Even if the sun would come up anyhow. Especially if that alicorn was a bit pissy from being stuck on the moon for a thousand years, and had a chip on her should already, which got her sent there in the first place.
Applejack suspected this was closer to the truth than anypony wanted to hear. The sun would come up, with or without magic. The plants would grow, and the rain would come. All of it had happened before there were princesses or ponies, and all of it would happen if every pony disappeared. The importance of the princesses, and the different types of ponies was all a lie. Magic was pretty impressive, but it didn't make the world go 'round.
But it was a lie that didn't bother her. Because here it was, Hearth's Warming morning, and she'd just watched Apple Bloom and her class discover Equestria last night. A sweet story about how every kind of pony needed each other, and how caring about other ponies made magic stronger than the worst winter the world could throw at them.
If ponies believed that they needed each other, what was so bad about that? If ponies thought they needed a Princess, one who really didn't stick her nose into their lives too much, did that make the world any worse? Applejack thought it probably made it a lot better, considering the ways ponies would act to each other if they knew they could get away with it.
Applejack knew she was no great thinker, but she had decided this information especially didn't belong in the hooves of great thinkers. She'd cut out her own tongue before she told Twilight Sparkle. Twilight had more faith than anypony in the Princess, and the way she dug into a subject she would probably find out the truth in a minute, backed with cold, hard facts. Applejack couldn't stand to see that. Twilight's faith gave her life the order that made her so happy. In all the scientific examination of things, there were some things she didn't have to question. Princess Celestia raised the sun and magic made the world go 'round.
So Applejack regarded the rising sun with a suspicious smile and raised eyebrows. They shared a secret, and neither of them were going to tell it. Instead she'd celebrate the lie today, and let it warm her. She'd enjoy the faith and certainty in her fellow ponies, something so simple and beautiful and happy and good. Because it might not make a difference to the sun or the crops or the weather, but it made a difference to ponies, and other ponies were the real magic, the thing that made the world special.