The Element of Honesty
"What brings you here to the palace, my dear friend, Applejack?" Celestia asked her student's friend.
"Beggin' yer pardon, yer majesty," the earth pony began, "But them new taxes y'all'er imposin' on agriculture, they ain't exactly fair."
Celestia looked shocked. Not fair? The alicorn ruler of Equestria prided herself on her fairness and reasonable judgment. In all of her years of ruling, she'd only once had someone complain about something being not fair about her rule...and that had ended with her sister locked in the moon.
"My dear Applejack, I must ask you to explain," the princess said, a small frown, not of disapproval but a rare one of confusion on her regal face.
"Beggin' yer pardon, princess, but agriculture is almost an ent'rely earth pony dominate field. You'll get a couple 'o pegasi growin' flowers here an' there and a couple of unicorns 'spearmentin with growin' magic, but agriculture, the kind y'all'er taxin'? Almost all Earth ponies. I mean, we're called earth ponies because of our connection to the ground. We don't have any special wings or horns that light up an' do magic, so we jus' rely on our natural strength and earthy talents."
"Weather taxes limit pegasi, and taxes on dangerous spells, unicorns," the princess pointed out.
"Yeah, but y'all only tax dangerous weather like tornadas and y'all admitted that the magic taxes are only on purchases of dangerous spells that only a unicorn like Twilight would even be able ta learn. Yer taxin' the shippin' of all kinds of crops, from my apples ta Golden Harvest's carrots. It ain't fair and it seems ta me that y'all don' understand to much about earth ponies, if y'all'll forgive ma bluntness."
Celestia was momentarily awed into silence. Applejack had always shown a knack for being both respectful and brutally honest, as her element might suggest, and sometimes even somewhat cheeky, as an old letter of hers proved. But she had never spoken so bluntly to the princess, and her honesty hit a nerve with in the princess. Not one of anger, not at all. But one of...shame. For the Element of Honesty spoke the full on truth. Celestia was woefully unaware of the lives of earth ponies, because she'd never experienced their lives. She taught mostly unicorns, and a few pegasi, and had the abilities of both. And while she also had the abilities of an earth pony, she rarely used them and certainly used them less than her powers of magic and flight.
"Ah guess ah best be goin' then," Applejack said, snapping Celestia out of her shock.
"No, wait. You're right Applejack. I need help understanding the plight of the earth pony. I have...woefully neglected that part of myself and my kingdom. As an alicorn and as your ruler, I represent all the races of ponies, not just unicorns and pegasi. I think it's time I learned a lesson or two. Applejack, would you do me the greatest honor of teaching me?"
Now it was Applejack's turn to be stunned into silence. Celestia knew her request had to seem odd to the earth pony. After all, Celestia purposefully held herself slightly above her subjects, always a mentor, never a student. But this time, she was wrong, and after over a thousand years, she could put aside her stubborn pride in order to admit that.
"Ah...Princess, that's...Ah mean...of course," Applejack cleared her throat. "I'll teach ya all I can about earth ponies and our way of life and about the kind of magic we can use, though I ain't exactly a practitioner mahself. Ah could use some lunch though, I'm a might hungry."
"Of course," Celestia clapped her fore-hooves and two unicorn servants appeared. Celestia winced as this reminded her of another flaw in her knowledge. Her servants, guards, and other personal staff were 90% unicorns and pegasi. There were earth pony guards, but only a few, and they'd only been appointed during Shining Armor's time as captain. Before that, she'd never had earth pony guards, only unicorns and pegasi.
Knowing Applejack's preference for simple foods, Celestia ordered sandwiches, and then stepped off of her throne and laid down in order to be at Applejack's level and not intimidate her.
"Right," the orange pony began, clearing her throat. "Earth ponies do things a little bit dif'rently than unicorns or pegasi. I'm going ta start with Ponyville, bein' that it's an earth pony town. We have a couple traditions out there. Where as unicorns change the seasons magically, an' Ah'm sure that's a might lovely sight, earth ponies don' have that option when there ain't any unicorns about. In Ponyville, all four seasons are changed by hard hoof work, with help from the pegasi at this day an' age. In mah Granny's day, ponies created huge fans that were cranked to blow clouds away and when Cloudsdale decided we needed rain, that's when we needed rain. Snow is melted manually, these days by pegasi, in those days by earth ponies runnin' back and forth, sometimes Winter Wrap Up took days. An' that's jus' Winter. Yer a fan of Fall, so I know you know about the Runnin' of the Leaves. All of these traditions in Ponyville stem from an earth pony's need to do things herself. We don' like havin' to rely on magic or wingpower because those things ain't part of us. We gotta do things with our physical strength and our bare hooves."
Celestia was paying rapt attention. She knew most of this, though hearing it from Applejack's point of view was enlightening. Earth ponies strove for independence, though not to the point of breaking away from the rest of Equestria.
"Now on ta food. Earth pony talents tend ta have ta do with growin' things or cookin' things. Very few bakers in Equestria are anythin' but earth ponies, even here in Canterlot and like Ah said before, almost no non-earth pony is a farmer or commercial gardener. Towns founded by earth ponies, like Ponyville and Appleloosa, put a strong influence on agriculture and their whole towns tend to be based around it. Ponyville is more modern these days, but Appleloosa's entire livelihood rests on their apple orchard. Dodge Junction relies on its cherries, and even Ponyville wouldn't be where it is with out Sweet Apple Acres, if ah do say so mahself. Earth ponies put a lot of pride into growin' anythin', even jus' flowers, and on bakin' things. Even Pinkie Pie, who ain't yer typical earth pony, is a baker. Berry Punch's family owns a vineyard. All of us make edibles. An' ya cain't take that away from us or upset that with out hurting our pride as well as our livelihood."
Celestia was beginning to see. But knowing was not the same as understanding.
"Anythin' else y'all wanna hear about today? It's a brief lesson, ah know, but..."Applejack began.
"No, Applejack. Merely knowing isn't going to be good enough. I have to become."
I give this story a fav so as I cam track it's progress. It seems promising.
Hmmm....
I think there would be plenty of earth ponies taking care of the palace gardens.
And maybe that plant that sprung up very quickly in the clump of dirt that AJ was holding in the Hearts and Hooves play WASN'T a stage prop, but it grew thanks to her own earth pony magic.
Hmm. I like this plotline. I think I'll fave it so I can keep easy watch of it.
I have no idea what I'm getting into, do I?
Favd, this flows good, put it on eqd
I think there won't be a problem when it comes to this story's success, it starts great and will probably remain so.
Your gonna go far, seeing that this is just the first chapter and it's already good. :)
Im gonna need more of this, go and produce more
I think I'm liking this.
The only problem I saw so far was the shame that Celestia showed at not having many earth pony guards/servants in her castle. The pegasi are traditionally the ones who serve as the fighting/protecting force. It's in their militaristic culture and in their blood. They train for it it much more seriously than the other races, so it's natural that they would make up the bulk of the guards (and even the Equestrian Army, if there is such a thing). The unicorns would generate the shields and artillery fire, but you don't need nearly as many as pegasi. It's not like the Princess is discriminating against earth ponies in that regard, so there really isn't a reason for her to feel ashamed.
Plus, you mean to tell me the castle never had an earth pony cooking staff before Shining Armor came along? Really? That, on the other hand, actually is something to be embarrassed about. I can just picture the castle parties dining on boring food prepared by some uptight unicorn who used very precise and sterile recipes.
Awesome!
Why does everyone keep assuming Celestia is a 1000 years old?
It's kinda been confirmed since ep 1 that she's OVER 1000 years old. at the very least 1016.
Wait, if Celestia is going to be an Earth pony, does that mean Luna's going to have to work double time?
2035950
I did say over 1000.
2035979 You'll see...I'll give you a hint. Discord turns her into an earth pony...and we all know Discord is fond of practical jokes...
2035795 Earth pony guard not cooking
Why would she want to learn more about being a filthy mud pony?
In all seriousness I really want to see what Twilight thinks about her teacher
crushwho she adores unfailingly living in Ponyville with her as her equal, and in the same role as her, no less.Hmm... interesting story to wake up to, much better than waking up to many tyrant/NLR fics. Now while I do think that Celestia would already understand the Earth Ponies (mine is 1500+ years old and live the first 20-30 years as an Earth Pony), you do bring up the plot in a good way that doesn't demonize Celestia, which is good. I look forward to seeing how she will rectify her lack of education and how Applejack will teach the ultimate teacher. Of course it has been said that One never stops being a student for we never stop learning. I wish you luck with this.
2036040
I despise tyrant Celestia.
I'm not a fan of the fandom's idea of the whole NLR/Solar Empire crap for several reasons which I could probably rant about for a while so I'll keep it to myself for now.
Part of the reason I AM writing this story is because of the concept that one never stops learning, not even after over 1000 years (I see Celestia and Luna as having been in their 20s/possibly early 30s when Luna was banished and only semi-immortal because of the power of the Elements of Harmony, which have now chosen different hosts, so they are now living out the rest of their lives. Alicorns are just rare, overpowerd winged unicorns that are generally born in the royal family as opposed to immortal. For example, Cadence is not immortal.)
She's not my spirit pony, but I do relate in a lot of ways to Celestia, so I'm hoping I can get across my intent in this story.
2036097
It makes me very happy to see the first words being "I despise tyrant Celestia" that made my day, that and not liking the idea of the NLR/SE thing (and if you wish to rant, just send me a PM). You seem to have an interesting concept with the Alicorns, apart from the stories that have "Celestia" and "Luna" being titles passed down I haven't seen one yet that has the Alicorns being truly mortals. I simply follow something I've read in a fic, "Ponies think I am immortals simply because I have yet to die."
I truly look forward to the next chapter and I would like to invite you to join the "Protect Celestia" group here on FiMFiction.
Tracking.
(Joke) Alt. Title: Undercover God
This story. Yes! I too have wondered about the little hype earth ponies receive. I mean, all of Equestria would starve without them. They are important even if they are born without the flashy horns or wings. And I would like to see how AJ teaches Celestia about earth pony magic. I'm sure Pinkie will be there in some form although I'm wondering now if there are other earth ponies like Pinkie--heavens forbid! lol
Because somebody has to post it;
*sees title*
*cough* Jesus *cough*
Hmmmmm... a bit rushed, but I do like the premise... let's see where this goes
2038147 *cough* AMEN! *cough*
Huh.... I just love clicking random stories....
I like the premise to this, I do hope you do it justice.
Faved, Tracked, Liked.
~Skeeter The Lurker
That's a promising first chapter. (A short one but, in my opinion, that's hardly a bad thing to start a story.)
Now, to truly judge it, more chapters are needed.
THis story looks like it's going to be good. Can't wait to see how Applejack reacts to that line.
I hope there are more chapters. And perhaps you mention not all earth ponies are farmers and bakers. Miss Cheerilee is a good example, just as not all pegasi are weather ponies and not all unicorns have to bother with magic.
I'm interested to see where you go with this though. So Fave!
I definately like where this is going.
I think this is an interesting premise, Celestia wanting to learn more about the Earth ponies. She's definitely shown some interest in that direction in canon - you mention the Running of the Leaves, for example. It seems like a very fun concept to explore.
I find myself kind of thrown out of the story by Applejack's voice, though. Her accent feels a bit too strong to me, almost more like Granny Smith, and so I had a hard time engaging with her character. I know from experience how tough it can be to write in the voice of characters with very particular canon accents, though, and I think it's cool that you're putting effort into trying to get it right.
Also, I know this is a short piece and I'm a big fan of brevity over Lavender Unicorn Syndrome, but I felt like the interaction between Applejack and Celestia was a bit abrupt and could have done with a little more overt cues of the characters' emotions. For example I'd expect Celestia to show a little surprise at seeing Applejack show up to talk with her, since they don't have a lot of one-on-one interactions in canon. She might wonder if something was wrong with Twilight, or perhaps spend some time reflecting on how much she did (and didn't) really know about Applejack from their few interactions and the various friendship letters. Similarly, Applejack seems very comfortable slipping into the role of lecturing Celestia about Earth pony issues. You do a good job setting up that she finds the request somewhat disquieting, but I think there's some opportunity to follow through by showing that she's nervous lecturing Celestia like that, or that she might second-guess whether Celestia knew some of what she was saying and whether Applejack was wasting her time going through details the princess was well-aware of.
In any case, thank you for the story!
2049034
And thank you for the feedback.
AJ's accent is hard to do, since it's hard to place the "ya's" versus the "y'alls" (as a person who's lived in Texas and North Carolina her entire life I'm very familiar with southern accents and like AJ, many southerners use 'y'all' as both a singular and a plural")
As for Celestia reacting to AJ visiting her, my background for that is that she knew Applejack was coming but not why.
But again, thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate friendly, constructive criticism like that, it helps me grow as a writer (my true art is the theatre, as opposed to writing).
Have an Applejack.
2050172
I know what you mean about the southern accent. I lived in Oklahoma for five years, and it's just infectious. It took me a long time to stop saying y'all after I left...
2050238 My accent is non-existent most of the time thanks to my parents having neutral accents, though anytime I visit my Texas family I come home talking like Applejack, and when I'm working I suddenly get more southern.
Writing dialects is a pain. I can imitate them perfectly if I'm speaking, but I'm not truly a writer (though I find it fun).
Hmm. Not much going on here at the moment, but I really like the concept and can't wait to see where you take it. I'll be keeping an eye on this fic!
MOAR!
For some reason, I'm becoming a fan of the "Celestia Brought Down To Normal" genre. This is a good story in that regard. And I can't wait for more, especially considering the Discord tag on the fic...
2147062
Hopefully I can bring more to this story.
when will chapter 2 be published? it's been a while
2206441 I apologize, my grandmother passed away this week and I haven't been a writing mood.
I'm also a very very slow writer when it comes to fiction.
2206891I am SO SO SO SO very sorry to hear. take all the time you need, no rush
will there be a chapter 2 or is this cancelled?
It's too sad that this has been cancelled... It really seemed like a great concept.
Buuut, I guess I can't blame you if you'd rather write on other stories.
Maybe someone will make a continuation or a tribute at some point.