Of the Earth
For some time now, Applejack had been watching him closely. There would be moments here or there, subtle for those not paying attention, that she recognised immediately. Something was on Sandbar's mind, and as her teacher, she knew it was something she needed to address. But she didn't speak up, at least at first, and instead she contented herself with keeping her eye on him, always waiting for the right moment to finally go to him. That time came at last, as the school bell rung and caused the usual amount of chatter and hurried exiting of the classroom. Most of her students, including Sandbar's particular circle of friends, were making their way out, giving friendly waves to their Honesty Professor. Applejack too waved them off, but noted that Sandbar was busying himself with a particularly stubborn textbook that he struggled to get into his saddle-bags. This was her moment, her opportunity, and as the last of the other students finally left, she spoke. "Sandbar? Ya mind comin' on down here?"
Sandbar, looking up from his bags, hesitated for a time, but nevertheless got an answer out in the end. "Er, sure?" It took a minute, but he finally managed to get his book in, and after hoisting the bags onto his back, the youth carefully made his way towards the front of the classroom. Applejack glanced to the door, making doubly sure that there weren't any other prying eyes here. She knew full well that the lad wouldn't want an audience for a personal talk like this. But her gaze eventually turned back to Sandbar when the latter finally reached her. "Something you needed to talk to me about, Professor?"
Applejack stood up from her chair, walking around her desk before looking the kid right in the eye. "Actually, ah was bout ta ask ya the same thing."
Sandbar was understandably confused by her words. "I...don't know what you mean."
Applejack nodded, looking out of the window just past where Sandbar was standing. "Last couple o' weeks, ah've noticed somethin' in ya, Sandy. Lookin' down when ya think nopony's lookin'. Times when yer talkin' with yer friends and you'll look like ya feel...off."
To that, Sandbar blushed slightly, looking away from her. "Oh...that. It's nothing, really. Just a small thing. Nothing you need to worry about."
Applejack frowned. "Sandbar...ah'm yer teacher. Ah'd be doin' a pretty poor job if ah didn't worry about ya." Her expression softening, she reached out, placing her hoof upon the younger pony's shoulder. "Ya know ya can come ta us about anythin' right? Whatever's eatin' ya...we're hear ta listen."
Sandbar looked back to her, but still seemed hesitant. "But...isn't that sort of Counsellor Starlight's job?"
Applejack chuckled. "Kid, no offence ta Starlight, but ah can lend an ear to a problem jus' as well as she can. Now...what's yer problem?"
Sandbar seemed nervous, which was to be expected when speaking alone with authority, but there was something else mixed in with that. Embarrassment perhaps? Maybe even shame? Whatever it was, it didn't stop him from eventually speaking at last. "Professor...how do you feel...about being an earth pony?"
Naturally, an out-of-nowhere question like that took the Professor aback. "What? Why'd y'all ask a question like that?"
Sandbar winced slightly. "Just...please...I'd like to hear your answer."
Though still uncertain, Applejack still tried to accommodate her student. "Well...ah never really think about it, but...ah guess ah'm happy as one. Ah never felt that bein' an earth pony was anythin' ta feel bad about or anythin' like that...so yeah, ah feel pretty good about it." She watched as her student looked away, his expression giving away all the thoughts he must have been processing. And this, in turn, led to greater concern on the part of the older mare. "But ah gather...that ain't how y'all feel about it?"
A long sigh from Sandbar. "It's just...when I was little, most of my friends were earth ponies. Sure, I had unicorns or pegasi to talk to as well, but for the most part it was just other ponies like me. Then..." He gestured all around them. "All this happened. I started spending time with Gallus, Ocellus, all the rest of them. I like them, I really do. They're my best friends. But the more time I spent with them, the more I started thinking about it."
Applejack cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? Thinkin' about what?"
Sandbar shrugged. "These other peoples...they can do so much. Fly, breathe fire, change their shape. They're so incredible and able to do so many things. And when I realised that, I also started to realise that pegasi and unicorns are just as amazing. They have flight and magic and can do so much." He started to look down, his ears drooping slightly. "It's just...you look at what they can do, and what all those other creatures can do...and you start to wonder about yourself. You ask, 'what makes me special compared to all that?' You ask, 'how can an earth pony compete?' And I guess...it's just something that makes it hard to appreciate being...what I am." A silence fell between them for a time, with Sandbar almost ashamed to look his Professor in the eye. But then, after a time, he shook his head. "I guess...I just started thinking that...maybe...being what I am...isn't as great as what everycreature else is."
Applejack stared at him, definitely shocked to have heard what she heard. Clearly this was something the youngster had been dwelling on for some time now, and it was eating away at him. Disappointment and perhaps even shame were there in his face, and all of it directed at himself. A problem like this had not been what Applejack had been expecting, and for a time she wracked her brain to come up with something to tell the kid to make him feel better. Eventually, and after starting to break out into a smile, she placed her hoof under his chin and guided his face up to look at her. "Ya know, Sandbar...ah know the feelin'."
Sandbar looked to her with surprise. "Y...you have?"
Applejack gave him a smile and a nod. "Eyup. When ya spend time with a magical Princess, stuff like this tends ta come ta ya." She turned, looking out at the rest of the classroom. "Twilight were always an impressive gal, what with her magic an' stuff. But then she turned full-on alicorn, and suddenly all that got turned up ta eleven." She chuckled at the memory. "All the stuff she could do before, she could do even better...and she could fly now too." Slowly, she looked back to Sandbar. "Sometimes ah'd wonder how useful a farmer could be. What could she do that would ever need a pony like me hangin' around her?"
Sandbar looked to her with growing interest. "And...what did you do?"
Applejack shrugged. "Simple. Ah realised that, no matter what ah could or couldn't do, ah still contributed ta that good in this world. Ah'm an earth pony, but that didn't stop the Elements o' Harmony from choosin' me an' Pinkie ta carry em. It never stopped us from doin' what we could ta help those who needed help. Never stopped us from savin' the day." She reached out, patting her fellow earth pony on the shoulder. "Bein' what we are ain't no limitation, Sandbar. Ya set yer mind ta it, an' ya can do great things, no matter what ya might have been born as."
Sandbar, hearing all that, looked like he wanted to truly grasp onto those words and believe them with all his heart. But the doubts continued to gnaw at him, and he again found himself looking away from her. "But the unicorns...and the pegasi...the Changelings, the Dragons, the Hippogriffs...they can all do so much... and we can't."
To that, Applejack gave a firm nod. "Yer right. We'll never know magic or flight or any o' those other fancy-schmancy abilities. An' yeah, sometimes it seems unfair. Ya look ta all that flash an' sizzle and ya wonder what it'd be like. It's like a dream. Ya do amazin' stuff in yer fantasy, but then ya wake up an' realise that ya can't do any o' it."
Sandbar nodded frantically. "Yes! That's it! That's the feeling exactly! After you know so much wonderful stuff can be done...how can you ever cope with the truth that you, me, all of us...can never actually do it?"
Applejack sighed. "Ah won't lie ta ya, kid. It ain't easy. It feels like there's always gonna be this wall between ya an' something that seems amazin' an' unreal. An' yeah, like ya said, we'll never do it." Slowly, a smile came to her. "But ya know what? We earth ponies still have a few tricks up our sleeves."
Here, Sandbar let out a sigh of his own. "I know, I know. I've heard it all before. We have a 'connection to the earth' and we're 'what makes the green in our world'. I'm sorry, Professor, I know all that stuff is important, but when you look at all the other things..."
The mare beside him frowned slightly. "Now don't ya go knockin' our connection ta nature. It's important. Always has been. It's life, Sandbar. Life an' growth an sustenance. Without us, ponykind likely would get itself in a right ole pickle...only there'd be no pickles because weren't there ta grow em!"
Sandbar frowned back. "But do we really want to just be known as that? The farming ponies? The one who grow stuff and nothing else?"
Here, Applejack smirked. "Oh, we're a lot more than that, kiddo. Earth ponies make stuff! Ya know those fancy trains an' blimps an' stuff? That was all us. No pegasi or unicorns made em, it was all earth."
Sandbar paused. "I...never knew that."
Applejack nodded, smiling that she was starting to get to him. "Eyup. An' it weren't just machines, but whole towns. Ponyville ya know of course, but we also made Manehattan an' Baltimare. Those places would never exist without us earth ponies laying the foundations, buildin' it up, generation after generation. Unicorns may make wonders with their magic, an' pegasi might soar above it all, but us? We're the ones who make the world that they have ta come down an' live in eventually. We're not jus' the growers, Sandbar. We're the makers. The world ya know, the places you've been to? Without us, without earth ponies, well...they'd probably not be there at all."
Sandbar stood silent for a time, thinking on all of that. "Huh...I guess...we really do make an impact."
Applejack gave a proud nod. "Darn straight we do. So when y'all go around feelin' bad about bein' an earth pony, jus' remember..." She stepped forward, placing her hoof upon his shoulder. "There's a lot more ta us than most may see at first. We don't have horns or wings. We don't breathe fire, or change our shape. We're not the ones who lead the nation, but we're the ones that made the nation. The ones who make things the way they are for all the others to live in an' enjoy. You say we're not special, but ah say there's a specialness ta us that jus' never got appreciated."
Sandbar, after a time, started to smile more to that. "Yeah...I guess there really is."
Applejack too started to smile more. "Earth ponies can do great things, Sandbar. We can be heroes, we can be farmers, we can learn an' grow an' make the world better." She placed her hoof into his chest. "An' if anypony tells ya different, that earth ponies aren't 'as important'..." She smirked a little. "Ya know what ta tell em."
Her student nodded enthusiastically, looking to her with utter adoration. "I will, Professor! I will!" He turned, rushing out towards the door of the classroom, but when he got there, he stopped, looking back to his teacher with an appreciative smile. "And Professor? Thanks. I'm glad you said all that to me."
In response, Applejack gave a tip of her hat. "Jus' doin' mah job, kid." Then, a knowing look came to her. "And if ya still feel down, try talkin' ta Spike. Somethin' tells me that little fella has a bit o' experience feelin' this way."