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// Intermission: Letter to Celestia 
// Story: Pinkamenace II Society 
// by jmj 
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Dear Princess Celestia,

Thank you so much for allowing me to change the location for my assignment due to technical failure of the balloon. Don’t worry, my new friend Applejack, has taken great care in having the vehicle repaired and it will be in the working condition again before long. Applejack has taken great strides to show me kindness and I am honored to call her my friend. She has given me a room on her farm and introduced me to all the lovely ponies who live or work here. Most of them are her family but there are more than a few who make the short walk from Ponyville on a daily basis. I can tell them apart because all of the members of the Apple’s are named after their business. Apple Tart, Apple Bumkin, Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom, Apple Cake, Golden and Red Delicious (They are twins!). It’s hard to believe there are so many ponies whose cutie marks are based on apples.

Applejack is a strong and capable pony. She grows apples for a living and oversees every facet of the business , from production to brokering business relations. The business does very well, from what I can tell, despite the shallow supply of fertile farmland. Her apples must be of the highest quality but I think she does some sort of consulting to boost her income. She is a very knowledgable agriculturalist and many farmers would pay for her advice. She is probably the most hard-working pony I have ever met and takes great pride in her family and farm. Family is the most important aspect of her character and she includes her friends into that category, how neat! She says once you’re in the Apple Family you are there for life. Isn’t that a great motto? I’ve learned a lot about friendship from her in the weeks I have been here and have paid special attention to the care and friendships that the Apple’s have shown me. I have even begun to help with the harvests and fertilization process of the soils; studying chemical relations in the hopes to revitalize a portion of the damaged soils around the farm. It has been fun to learn about ratios and mixtures but it has been complicated at times as well. I want to help them for all the kindness they have shown me and using my magic and mind for this task seems more fitting than plucking apples from trees. I am enjoying the relationships I am forming, especially with Applejack and her younger sister Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom is a filly still but is very educated in fruit production. She takes more pride in the business than even Applejack! In another year or two I think the filly will take over the production aspect of the business and leave Applejack to the arranging of contracts. She and I have talked at length about the nature of farming and she never seems to bore of the subject. In this subject, I would call the filly a master. She has taught me a great deal about apples, more than I thought was possible. Did you know there is a chemical in apples that turns to poison in your stomach? It’s not enough to ever harm a pony, no matter how many are eaten, but wow!  Apple Bloom has two friends who, almost all the time, live here on the farm. 

Apple Bloom spends most of her time helping on the farm but she has ample time to play with her friends as well. One is an orphaned Pegasus and the other is a unicorn whose sister runs a boutique in Ponyville. I think it’s a testament to Applejack’s kindness to adopt the poor orphaned filly, Scootaloo, and to make sure she has a good upbringing. They call themselves “The Cutie Mark Crusaders” because they have yet to earn their cutie marks and the bulk of their time together is spent in pursuit of their talents. This can be a bit messy as the three fillies come home in many states of disarray from their adventures around the farm. I am also tutoring the young unicorn in magic.

Sweetie Belle, has had very little magic training but she is intelligent and eager to learn more about her horn and how to produce magic with it. She and I spend time each day levitating objects and learning the nature of spells. She is eager but her concentration is broken easily and I don’t think she studies very much. Of course, nopony studies as much as I would expect them to. She’s very interested in clairaudience and clairvoyance as well as magically enhanced ventriloquism and projecting images, usually of herself or other ponies, to the point where I think she has an interest in theatre or stage magic.

The last bit of information on the farm deals with a sick pegasus named Rainbow Dash. Applejack is her best friend. Applejack told me that they used to do all kinds of things together and that Rainbow Dash had aspirations to be a Wonder Bolt. Apparently things didn’t go so well at the try outs and she fell into a depression so deep that it has actually physically sickened the mare. Since then, Rainbow has lived on the farm with the Apple’s. Applejack takes great care to make sure Rainbow Dash has everything she needs and hopes she will, some day, recover from the depression. Dash is apparently a clumsy pegasus because she tends to walk into doors or fall down stairs on occasion. I have, twice, found her with a new black eye or bruise. Upon asking, she gets defensive and generally changes the subject. I wonder if she was clumsy before the try outs and that’s why she was refused by the Wonder Bolts or if it came from deterioration from the depression. Either way, she has seemed to improve in health over the last few weeks and seems stronger every time I look at her. I hope she has turned a corner from her depression and I am sure AJ (Applejack) is pleased with this as well. She obviously cares so much for the pegasus and I would like to see them on equal hooving.

I am so happy to be living with these ponies. I am making new friends every day and seeing, first hoof, the power that friendship is giving them. The ponies here are all linked to each other and happiest when they are together. I have examined their interactions and have been finding not only data on the Magic of Friendship but friendship myself. I hope to travel into the town of Ponyville in the upcoming weeks and make new friends there. I think I will start with Sweetie Belle’s sister, Rarity. I have learned that having friends is not a burden, but a benefit that is only weighable by the emotions it creates. Thank you for this opportunity to learn. I will send another letter when I have more to report on the subject.  
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle