//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 - Applejack´s Pride and the foundation of Ponyville! // Story: The normal life of Nitpick Bittersweet // by Ryusun //------------------------------// Why a school teaches history? Some say that it is the foundation of the actual culture we preach every day and we must respect our origins. Others say that it’s a necessity to know our past mistakes and learn from our precursors of the current social world. I somewhat agree. It was Friday, and National History is the penultimate class of the week. The teacher that usually imparts classes was sick and he left a young, beautiful cowgirl in charge of the rodeo. Apparently the guy from yesterday, Big Mac, it’s her brother. Wearing old farming cloths that people of the past century habitually wore, they looked, with their physical traits, appropriate. I didn’t know that southern farmers were this attractive… the girls, of course. “Ok, y'all! We're gonna teach ya' a little history of the foundation of this beautiful town”! AH! Her southern accent was adorably imposing. “Eeyup!” You are a man of few words, aren’t you? “All right. y'all! Pay attention!” She turned on the projector and a surprisingly rustic looking video started. The intro of the movie was given by, well, the one who put the video in the first place. “Hey, Y'all! Time is gold so let’s get down to business, shall we!? Mah name is Applejack, and these people right here are mah family! Mah brother Big McIntosh” “EEyup!” “My lil sis, Applebloom!” “Hey there!” “My Grandmother, Granny Smith!” “I should have been asleep one hour ago!” “And Apple Bumpkin, Apple Cider, Apple Cobbler, Apple Fritter, Apple Pie, Apple Strudel, Apple Tart, Caramel Apple, Golden Delicious, and many, many more right here. Together we are the Apple family!” Oh geez... I wonder why you are called the Apple family. Photos of the town started to appear in a series of montages. “This little town of ours has many wonders for those who live here. We got nature, fresh air and friendly neighbors in every street willing to lend you a hand. No doubt Ponyville is the best town of the whole country!” That's some bias in there, and I was born here. “But not everything was paradise in this little town of ours. Its origins are far more harsher!” A montage of crude photos of the last century started to flow in the video. Wastelands, poor families, sad faces. Practically one of the saddest aspects of humanity. From then on, her tone became serious. “During the civil war of the twentieth century, the fierce battles of the time had ravaged the land! Impoverishment was on the rising and the life expectancy was on the bottom of a barrel. Hundreds of families took the decision of fleeing from their homes, leaving their friends and memories behind in the quest of finding a better place far away from the north lands known today as the Crimson Sun, bearing in mind that not many would arrive to their dream of paradise and safety.” Images of burials, the sick, the hungry, the widowed and faces of broken dreams were shown. History shows that humanity is cruel even among each other. “Those were dark times. Cars, airplanes, medical and technological advancements of the time were beyond public reach, especially when the Civil War of the Northern Lands ended to start the First World War in the nineteen-thirties. As you know, roads in the south didn’t exist yet, so the families who barely fled from the mandatory war effort recruitment were using improvised caravans with many obstacles awaiting in the unforgiving No Man’s Land of that time. But one day, a miracle happened!” A family picture was shown. I know that legendary picture very well. The founding families, the prideful Smiths and the Apple tribe… wait a minute. “By nineteen-thirty six, a strong willed family discovered a small tribe in a land of greenness that not even their wildest dreams could have imagined. Endless fertile terrains, powerful horses and ponies coming back from migration, the emerald-green leaves from the trees blossoming with apples. If paradise was real, then Arthur Smith and his family found it.” A Photo of Arthur and a young female Chieftain was shown shaking hands. I am starting to see an eerie similarity with those two and the protagonist narrating the video. “Arthur, being an experienced farmer and businessman, saw the potential of the land! And with the help of his family and the new formed alliance with the Apple tribe this would become the final milestone in the founding of the small, but beautiful town where we live in: Ponyville.” Okay, I have a plot hole in the history that I will ask later. “Months became years, years became decades, the war was over in nineteen-forty and the small town whose humble origins were only of farming and horses suddenly expanded long and wide to become a small trading town, full of dreaming families seeking to achieve stability and happiness. Schools were inaugurated, markets became bigger, bars were opened, towns and cities were founded in the surroundings, the most prominent being Crystal States Union at the west of here in nineteen-forty nine. The hopes of the people grew each day and the bitter memories of sorrow slowly disappeared thanks to the united efforts of two different cultures and its blossoming friendship.” A photo of the tribe and the Smiths was shown. There is no doubt in my mind; the girl in the corner was Granny Smith, the one that prepared the combos in the cafeteria every day. That means she is over eighty years old at most. Sudden montages of the actual town and the vast farm were also shown. “Now with a hundred years of history, the modern descendants of the union of Arthur Smith and Apple Nature, The Apple family runs the most important business in town, Sweet Apple Acres. Did you know that mah whole family is responsible of the production and maintenance of seven hundred thirty one acres? That’s a lot of land to take care of. Some members of the family live in the middle and the other side of the farm!“ I have practically the owner of the production of the sweet, delicious and godly Gold Brand Apple Cider as a classmate all this time? I need to befriend her, NOW! “We produce several commodities like corn, carrots and more. But our main product is apples, and we are pretty proud of that!” Seriously? I could never have guessed that by my own, y'all! The montage was over and a video of the whole Apple family appeared. “And that’s the short version of this little town history! Remember to always be proud of your origins. And that’s it!” The enormous family made a thunderous ‘Yee-haa’ and the video marked its end. Credits appeared and the names of her friends, Sunset being one of them, were included in the script, costumes, video editing and more. “All right, I hope this fancy video was more entertaining than a talked class. Mah family, mah friends and I have been working on this documental for weeks now. Do you have any questions?” Everyone said no and made a well-deserved applause. But I had some questions and I raised my hand. “Yes, pal, what do you wish to know?” “I have doubts in the exact year when the town was founded. How can it be a hundred years of being Ponyville if the Smiths arrived at the thirties? If we make simple math it’s at least eighty years of history at most” “Easy, pal. The historical relics and documents that the tribe shared marks that they had been there since August 21 of 1915. Since they had been in contact with other parts of the country before the wars even started, they had knowledge of modern writing. So technically the tribe was the first pioneer, but it wasn’t until the Smiths helped in expansion that the town really grew. We must respect the ones who were there first, don’t you agree?” “That makes so much sense if you put it in that perspective.” After all, our country's history remarked that our predecessor weren’t much of the adventurous type and never had the idea to travel beyond their established cities and the capital of Canterlot until the war started. This was stupid since they had over-population problems at that time; at least that’s what official records say. But how much of this information is believable? The only thing that makes this story had a glimpse of truth is that one of the founders was serving food in the cafeteria. I really was bad in my history lessons, how I couldn’t recognize them? “May I ask another question?” “Shoot!” “Why the Gold Brand Apple Cider is always low on quantities every year? My family loves the stuff and my father and uncles made camp once just to get one bottle in the end!” “I knew someone would ask this!” So Rainbow Dash agrees with me again, uh? “We make this special brew with rustic tools so it can have its famous flavor. That’s why we can only produce between nine hundred to one thousand bottles at most in winter season. We always try to make more but things aren’t that easy if we want to conserve our brand quality-” “That’s makes sense.” “Oh, C'mon! I hate it when you ran out of it, Applejack. You should industrialize or something to make more cider in winter!” Most of the students agreed with her. I couldn’t blame her, but… ”I rather camp myself this year outside of the farm and die of a cold just to get a fine cider made of love and passion than buying multiple processed bottles resulting in me drinking an inferior product in the end, Rainbow Dash. So don’t listen to her Applejack.” “Wow, partner, let’s hope you never die out there of cold or anything. And you see, Rainbow Dash? This guy knows how really the good stuff is made of.” Don’t look at me that angry, Dash; you know you think the same as I do. “Big Mac, do you think I'm forgettin something to mention? “Nope.” “Well, that’s it! Class is over, you can go since I'm not exactlty the teacher, you know.” This was an interesting class in the end. Although I wonder who our real teacher was. Now I need to know how the farm perimeter is structured so I can start planning for an encampment a few days before Christmas. This year the cider will be all mine.