The Cutie-Marky Tales

by CrowMagnon

Applejack's Account

The Cutie-Marky Tales
by CrowMagnon

Applejack's Story

When I was little, a few years before Apple Bloom was born, it felt like my life was going nowhere. My day-to-day routine was to wake up early, do my morning chores, go to school, then come straight back home for more chores, then eat and spend time with the rest of the family before going to bed and starting all over again.

Please don't misunderstand me. I loved my family as dearly then as I do now, but I was also a restless little filly who had never experienced the world beyond Sweet Apple Acres and Ponyville. There had to be more to life, I thought. The outside world seemed so distant and exotic that even a city like Canterlot which can be seen from here felt like some magical fairyland.

I wanted to see it. I wanted to know what it was like to rub shoulders with those fancy ponies. To wear the latest fashions and dine on the finest cuisine. I might have never acted on those desires if dear old Granny hadn't seen my growing restlessness. Despite our parents' worries about sending me off to the big city alone, Granny made arrangements with our aunt Clementine and her husband to let me stay with them for a time.

They were both so gracious. Our cousin Tangerine hadn't been born yet, but they welcomed me into their home as though I were their own child. Sadly, though they did everything that they could to help me feel at home, I was unprepared for just how different everything would prove to be. To truly be accepted into high society meant far more than simply having a lot of bits or wearing pretty dresses. It was an entirely different way of life.

The first thing that she taught me was how to walk. It may sound silly, given that I had been walking quite adequately on my own nearly my entire life, but those lessons made me feel like a newborn foal. It was not enough to simply move from one place to another. Each step had to be a statement that told everypony else that you were a pony of importance and deserving of their attention.

The second thing that Auntie Clementine taught me was how to speak prope--differently. Among the upper class, the manner in which one speaks is an expression of one's station. A dropped G or overabundance of contractions would be taken as a sign of low intelligence, regardless of what was actually being said.

All of this and more contributed to what I found to be an uncomfortable truth regarding my fillyhood fantasies. There is something of a 'club' mentality, as those who manage to gain and keep such wealth are so few. This is especially true of those who are not at the top of the social ladder, but wish to improve their position. To them, anypony else who rises up to their level without having been born to it is seen as competition which must be beaten back down before they can become a threat.

Auntie Clementine and Uncle Mosely did their best to protect me from the worst of these elements, but it was so ingrained into the psyche of their social circle that any slip which revealed my working-class upbringing became a source of worry for them which had to be immediately covered up.

They were worried for my sake, but every time I tried to do what was expected of me, it felt like I was betraying my family and my very identity. I had spent the entirety of my life at Sweet Apple Acres, so any attempts to engage in a conversation without mentioning anything that I had actual experience with quickly became vapid and hollow. So it was that after just a few weeks of living my dream, the desire to return home took root in my heart.

One morning, I found myself staring out toward Ponyville, praying in my heart for a sign that would tell me where I truly belonged. I was afraid that even if I did return to Sweet Apple Acres, I would still feel limited there. At the same time, with nothing that I could connect to in Manehattan, my heart and mind turned ever more toward my foalhood home. That craving for something familiar had grown so strong that I would have given anything just to hear a rooster's crow.

Imagine my surprise when I actually heard one.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" As clear as day, and not off in the distance, either, but from up above! Well, I was so surprised that I tumbled right onto my back, but when I heard it crow a second time, I was back on my hooves and scampering up the stairwell until I reached the roof.

I threw open the door, not sure what I was expecting, only to find nothing there. No roosters, no hens, not so much as a pidgeon. Just me and a city that held no place for a little country rube sprawling out beneath me.

I stayed there for a good while, just staring off into the distance. I didn't want to go back down. Not so long as I had nowhere to go. I likely would have stayed there much longer, lamenting my decisions, if the door had not opened for a young stallion that I had never met before. Even without looking, I knew that he was a pony of wealth simply by the sound of his voice.

"Oh, hello, young lady. Was that your rooster I heard a few minutes ago?"

The question was asked with no ill intent, but I winced regardless, under the assumption that I was being mocked for my rural roots. "That's right, Ah grew up on a farm! Ha ha. That ain't no reason ta make fun of a li'l filly," I snapped, foregoing any attempt to mask my 'country' manner of speaking.

I turned around, wholly expecting to face either disgust or ridicule as a result of revealing my true self. Instead, I saw a well-dressed unicorn who, despite being barely out of his teenaged years, carried himself with a sense of poise and dignity that I have seen more fully grown ponies attempt and fail to imitate. He was clearly a pony of class and high standing, yet aside from Auntie and Uncle Orange, he was also the first pony since I had arrived in Manehattan to look at me with genuine warmth.

"I promise you, on my word as a gentlecolt, I simply heard the rooster's crow and it piqued my curiosity. Oh, but where are my manners? my name is Fancypants, and I think that you must be little Jacquelyn."

I will admit, I was unsure as to what I should make of this. I was just a humble farmpony, but even I knew that the Pants family had been on friendly terms with Princess Celestia herself for almost two hundred years. My own ancestors had met his while petitioning the princess for the land that would become Sweet Apple Acres, and Granny never tired of telling the tale.

"Uh... yeah. Ah mean... uh... It is my pleasure to make your acqu... acquai..." I was so flustered by the fact that a member of such an important family knew my name, or at least the version of it that Auntie called me by, that I found myself stammering and shifting back and forth between my natural way of speaking and a more cultured greeting for a good minute or so.

Oh, I felt so embarrassed that by the time I was finished, I was sorely tempted to simply throw myself off of the roof. Thankfully, Fancypants took it all in good humor and walked over to join me.

"I take it that you haven't been away from the farm for very long?"

"That obvious, huh? It feels like Ah've been away forever, though." Not wanting to bring myself down again, I opted to deflect the topic. "So, what did you want with Auntie an' Uncle Orange?"

If he noticed that I was just trying to change the subject, Fancypants never mentioned it, bless him. Instead, he explained, "Oh, it's something of a Pants family tradition that after graduating from university, we have to start a business of our own without access to our family's wealth. It's meant to teach us not to take our bits for granted.

"My room-mate and I have a few ideas, but banks in Manehattan are more concerned with investing in the stock markets than startups for small businesses, so I was hoping that your aunt and uncle would be willing to invest some seed money into our venture."

Now, keeping in mind that I was just a small filly at the time, I said, "Seed money? Uh... no offense, but ya sure don't look like a farmer."

"What? Oh, haha, no. No offense taken, my dear," he said, while tousling my mane. "As my poor departed houseplants would indicate, I don't have a green hoof by any means. What I mean by 'seed money' is an initial investment to pay for the costs of starting a new business. Leasing a storefront, obtaining the proper permits, equipment and materials, that sort of thing. Then, with some hard work and good fortune, that 'seed' will blossom into a profitable business, and we will be able to pay off our debts enough to grow it further."

Naturally, this analogy gave me some food for thought. "So, ya plant the seeds, ya grow the business... then when it bears fruit, ya have more 'seeds' ta expand? Huh, that actually does sound a lot like farmin'. But why wouldn't the banks help ya? Ain't that what they're for?"

"Supposedly, yes, but their primary concern is make as much money as possible, and the surest way for them to do so is to keep ponies who borrow from them in debt. If I were to take out a small business loan, then by the time we got our doors open, the high interest alone would greatly eat into our profits, let alone paying back the principle."

"Sounds lahk a Code V," I replied. Seeing that he was unfamiliar with the term, I explained, "It's what mah Granny calls it when we have varmints back on the farm. Two years ago, we had a real big flock o' vampire fruit bats move in. We'd push 'em out of one part o' the orchard, and they'd move right in somewhere else, suckin' the juice outta every apple they saw! It took so much work ta drive 'em away fer good that we only just barely got enough apples ta market ta keep the farm runnin'!"

I still remember that proud, beaming smile Fancypants gave me then. It was the first time that a member of the upper crust who wasn't family had looked at me like that. "Why, that is a very good analogy, young lady. Alas, much like your 'varmints', it is the nature of banks to maximize their profits by whatever means are available to them, and that often means keeping ponies in debt their entire working lives."

"But if ya do that, then they can't afford ta make their business better! It'd be lahk sayin', 'here's some land, but ya can't fertilize it or do crop rotations.' The soil wouldn't be any good after a while, even with earth ponies workin' it, an' then it wouldn't be any good fer anypony! What if..."

And so it went that we had a nice long chat. To my surprise, I found it rather easy to think about finance and business ethics when putting it into agricultural terms. In time, I asked him, "Fancypants? How come it's so easy to talk to ya? 'Cept fer Auntie and Uncle Orange, every fancy pony Ah've met here's looked at me lahk Ah've grown an extra head when they find out Ah'm from the country. Uncle Orange tried ta introduce me ta some of his friends, an' they didn't even know what a rooster was!"

"Travel, young lady," he replied with a fond look to the horizon. "Too many ponies don't do it, in my experience. I don't really blame them, though. It is a part of who we are as a species. Most of us never stray far from home. Even to this day, with the advance of civilization and hardworking ponies like Luna's Rangers keeping us safe, there are dangers that lurk just outside the borders of every city and town.

"We are conditioned by the realm of Harmonia itself to seek safety and comfort in the familiarity of our herds. All too often, especially in large cities like this, the meaning of a 'herd' is restricted even further to those of our own social class or shared upbringing. Despite ourselves and how far we've come, most ponies tend to be intimidated by things with which we are unfamiliar, as primitive instincts warn us that the unknown could represent a hidden threat."

"Even roosters? That don't seem right..."

"Hmm. Well, let me pose it to you this way. When you arrived, you were confronted with many things that you had never seen or dealt with before. I imagine that, while your aunt and uncle were teaching you how to blend in with their social circle, much of it seemed rather frou-frou and unnecessary, correct?" I reluctantly nodded to him, and he let out a laugh before continuing.

"No need to be embarrassed, young lady. It is a perfectly natural reaction. You may be surprised to learn, though, that much of what they taught you was originally born out of necessity, in a time when proper etiquette was more than merely fanciful tradition. In ancient times, when ponies first started to build cities and faced the dangers posed by the spread of disease in densely populated places, they understood just enough about how sickness could be spread to create etiquette as a means of avoiding mass outbreaks.

"You, on the other hoof, have spent your life in a wide open place close to nature, perfectly suited to developing a sturdy immune system. Not to mention that you work with the earth and with animals far more than any city pony, so what is normal to you would seem strange and possibly dangerous to somepony who had lived their whole lives being taught that ponies need to behave a certain way for the good of the community."

"Huh... Nopony ever told me that," I replied, allowing myself to think back to the lessons Auntie Orange had tried to instill in me. I still didn't fully understand everything at the time, but when Fancypants put it that way, it did start to make more sense to me. "It kinda sounds lahk you're tellin' me Ah should've stayed on the farm..."

Fancypants placed a hoof on my shoulder, then, and looked me straight in the eye as he told me, "Not at all, young lady. After all, there must always be a few outliers in any herd whose role is to reach out and expand the boundaries of what is known and familiar so that those who lead more stationary lives can learn and benefit from the experiences we bring back. Not to mention finding common ground with those who we would see as outsiders, and forging a new, larger sense of community with them. That sort of generosity of spirit is the foundation of the values which formed our beautiful nation, and the unification of the three tribes.

"In the time that we have spent chatting, I have gained a sense that you have the potential to do that. Perhaps you will return to your farm, but you will do so bringing back the understanding of what we have talked about today, and it may serve you at some point later on. Or perhaps you will stay here and continue to learn the ways of high society, and in doing so, you will expose others to the values which you were raised with.

"Whichever you choose, young lady, I have little doubt that you will succeed. It takes a certain brand of determination and drive to leave one's home for the unknown at such a tender age. Whatever comes next for you, that determination will serve you very well."

When the sun rose that morning, I had felt so low and hopeless, but I had asked for a sign. Hearing Fancypants say those things made me realize for sure that I had gotten one. Sure, it wasn't a sign telling me what was right and what was wrong, but his words had opened up whole new worlds to me, and in that moment I realized that it was not a matter of where I did or did not belong, but whether or not I could put forth the effort to reach out to other ponies as he had to me.

I looked out at the horizon facing Ponyville and thought about all that we had talked about, such as the many ways that money could be used to better the lives of hard-working ponies. I knew that if I returned to Sweet Apple Acres, I could happily devote the rest of my life to tending the trees and animals alongside my family, and never look back. I also knew that if I stayed and devoted myself just as much to learning everything that I could about finance that I could turn that knowledge toward helping many families like mine improve their lives.

I was about to tell my new friend that I had made my decision, but as I turned to tell him, he was already beaming warmly. "Well, I see that you have decided! Congratulations."

For a moment, I did not know how he could tell, but then I saw the last glimmer of light out of the corner of my eye and looked back to find that my cutie mark had appeared! Bits growing on an apple tree, signifying to the world that my talent would be for growing and nurturing wealth. Not just for myself, but for others as well.

"We should go find your aunt and uncle and tell them the good news," Fancypants said as he turned back toward the stairs. "I am sure that they will want to celebrate their little Jacquelyn getting her cutie mark."

I paused for a moment, then, but smiled and followed after him. "Applejack."

When he momentarily stopped and looked back, I smiled back at him and gave a curtsy. No longer feeling so stiff or awkward about it, I made use of the lessons Auntie Orange had taught me and said, very properly, "I apologize for not introducing myself properly, sir Fancypants, but my proper name is Applejack. I hope that you do not take offense?"

Fancypants laughed softly and turned back to bow in return. "Charmingly rustic, and I shall be sure to remember that. If I might say so, I believe that both high society and the world of finance could use a few farmers. Now, would you do me the honor of joining me inside, miss Applejack?"

"I would be delighted to be accompanied by such a fine gentlecolt," I replied, and we managed to hold straight faces for a good five seconds after that before we both gave in to the sort of laughter shared by those who were destined to be life-long friends.

Comments

[RanmaChaos]

I really enjoyed this chapter. You did a great job with Applejack.

[Comickook]

Excellent job on this latest chapter. It might have taken a while, but was well worth the wait. Again, the exchanges, emotional content, humor and future chapter set-up were all quite well-done. I'm definitely going to be looking forward to the last two chapters as soon as you can find the time and inspiration. :-D

[Hopeful_Ink_Hoof]

Okay, now I really want to know what happened to cause this. I mean the others are a bit of something I can figure out or at least speculate on, but where did a rooster come from?

[CrowMagnon]

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Thanks guys, and sorry about the delay. I spent the past two weeks dog-sitting, and it's difficult to find the time to write properly when you're surrounded by animals who seem to deliberately choose the most inconvenient moments possible to pester you.

And there are three more chapters, actually. One each for Pinkamena and Twilight, and a finale that should tie it all together and answer your questions. Hopefully, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Comickook]

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Believe me, I can completely understand concerning real life concerns. And thanks for the correction. :-D