Apple Bloom was lonely and bored. It was a sunny morning on Sweet Apple Acres, and Applejack and Big Macintosh were busy bucking apples. They didn't seem to have noticed Apple Bloom's emotional state, so she decided the best way to make them notice was to be lonely and bored closer to them.
She walked up to the next tree over from Applejack and sighed. Applejack just turned to buck a tree.
Apple Bloom sighed louder, as Applejack trotted over to the tree across the row, and gave that one a buck.
As Applejack turned to the tree Apple Bloom was standing under, the filly heaved an exaggerated sigh.
Applejack looked surprised, “Somethin' wrong, Little Sis?”
“I'm bored.”
“Why don't ya' go find Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo? I bet y'all can find somethin' ya' haven't tried for gettin' your cutie marks. . . like not gettin' in trouble.”
“Scootaloo is gettin' flyin' lessons. And Sweetie Belle is practicin' magic.” Apple Bloom sighed again. “Bein' an earth pony stinks.”
Applejack's eyes went wide, “Now Apple Bloom, you know that ain't true. I don't ever wanna hear ya' talkin that way! Bein' an earth pony is a special thing, and it's somethin' you oughta be proud of.”
Apple Bloom looked down and pawed at the dirt. “Yeah, it's real special how my friends can do neat stuff and I'm stuck here with nothin' to do.”
“Nothin' to do? There's a whole farm here that needs takin' care of.” Applejack pointed out.
“Great.” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Scootaloo learns to fly and Sweetie Belle learns to do magic, and I get to do chores.”
Applejack walked over to her sister and put a foreleg around her, “Well now, chores are important, but that's not all bein' a earth pony's about. If Scootaloo is gonna learn to fly, and Sweetie Belle is startin' to learn magic, I reckon it's time you oughta learn to be an earth pony.”
Apple Bloom looked down at all four of her hooves on the ground. “I think I got it figured out, Sis.”
Applejack shook her head, “If that's all you think it is, we oughta have a little talk. And I know somepony who has the best darn thing to show you what's so great 'bout bein an earth pony.”
“Twilight Sparkle?”
“Ha!” Applejack laughed, then shook her head as she started towards town. “Nope, I reckon even Twilight don't understand this. It ain't somethin' a unicorn would think to learn. No, Sugarcube, we're gonna go see Pinkie Pie.”
Apple Bloom just stared at her.
The Apple family were earth ponies in every way possible, but there was nothing earth-like about Pinkie Pie. She seemed to defy nature, in a way even unicorns and pegasi couldn't keep up with. Apple Bloom wasn't sure how anything about Pinkie applied to regular earth ponies, or what she might have that Applejack thought was a better way of showing what being an earth pony meant than something on the farm. But the filly took off after her sister anyway. Whatever this was, a trip to Sugarcube Corner beat watching Applejack buck apples, hooves down.
***
As the sisters stepped into Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie was setting a box on the counter for the last customer in the store. The aqua unicorn took it and left, and Applejack stepped up to the counter.
“Hi Applejack! Hi Apple Bloom! Need something yummy today?” Pinkie asked cheerfully.
“Actually, I was wonderin' if you'd help me with talkin' to Apple Bloom 'bout somethin'. You got a few minutes where we could all talk in private?” Applejack said.
“Sure! Let me tell Mrs. Cake.” Pinkie said, darting back to the kitchen. A few seconds later she came back out, and lead the Apple sisters upstairs to her room.
In Pinkie's room, Apple Bloom stared into the vacant purple eyes of Gummy the alligator, while Pinkie said to Applejack, “What are we talking about? Are we planning a surprise party? That would be fun!”
“No parties today, Pinkie. It seems Apple Bloom's a little sad.” Applejack explained.
“Oh no! Why are you sad?” Suddenly Apple Bloom wasn't staring at Gummy, but at Pinkie. Pinkie was inches from Apple Bloom's face, her huge blue eyes full of concern, the strange alligator perched on her head.
“Well, 'cause I can't do magic or fly. I'm just an earth pony.” Apple Bloom explained, biting her lip.
Pinkie's concern flashed into a huge grin. “I know! Isn't it neat?”
“She don't think it's all that neat.” Applejack said. “She needs somepony to help her see that, and I figured the two of us could do it, and maybe show her that thing you got tucked away.”
“Oh! This is going to be fun! STORY TIME!” Pinkie shouted, with a force that pushed Apple Bloom into a sitting position. Applejack sat down next to her, and Pinkie plopped down in front of them both and started.
“Once upon a time, before the first Hearth's Warming, before ponies had cities or towns or farms or candy, back when Princess Celestia was just a little foal like you, the world was weeeeird. The whole world was like the Everfree Forest. Clouds moved themselves, plants grew where ever they wanted, and the wild animals all acted like. . . wild animals!”
Apple Bloom was unimpressed by this revelation.
“What Pinkie's sayin' is they took carea themselves. There were no ponies to do it.” Applejack explained.
“Oooh.” Apple Bloom said, nodding.
“Right, but the weirdest thing of all was that the ponies acted like wild animals, too! They didn't have houses, or farms. They slept outside or in caves, and ate whatever food they could find. And they couldn't find a single cupcake tree, so everypony was very sad all the time.
“The worst was winter. During the winter, the pegasi all flew south with the birds. And the unicorns used magic to keep warm. And all the earth ponies could do was huddle together in caves and try to keep warm.”
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow, “Ya' sure this is supposed to tell me why it's good to be an earth pony?”
Pinkie smiled and nodded, “Yup! Because one day, an earth pony discovered something amazing! Something nopony else had ever figured out!”
“What was that?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Cupcakes, of course!”
Apple Bloom looked to her sister for a better explanation.
“Fire,” Applejack said. “Earth ponies figured out how to use fire.”
“Right! And with fire they could stay warm and cook food, and when they could cook food they could make stoves and ovens, and with stoves and ovens you can make. . .” Pinkie looked at Apple Bloom expectantly.
“Um, cupcakes?”
“You got it!” Pinkie squealed with a giant grin.
“That's. . . nice, Pinkie.” Apple Bloom said kindly, “But didn't that just let us do what the other ponies could already do? Keepin' warm and all?”
“That's true, Sugarcube,” Applejack cut in. “But a funny thing happened. Soon as we figured fire, the pegasi stopped goin' south in the winter. And the unicorns stopped usin' their magic for heat. Everypony started usin' fire, cause everypony could use fire. Even the pegasi who weren't all that good at flyin', or unicorns who weren't that good at magic.”
Pinkie nodded, “Then there was food. Even with the very sad lack of cupcake trees, there was food around. But it grew all over the place, willy-nilly, topsy-turvy, sometimes even helter-skelter! The pegasi had to fly all over the place to find it, and the unicorns had to teleport, and the earth ponies would walk miles and miles searching for it.”
“I bet the earth ponies figured out farmin'! Growin' food all in one place so they wouldn't have to go lookin' for it.” Apple Bloom said with a smile.
Pinkie smiled back, “Oooh, you're catching on!”
“The girl's a natural.” Applejack agreed.
“Farming made it so the earth ponies could settle down and build villages and cities.” Pinkie explained, “Soon everypony got their food from earth pony farmers, so they all built cities and towns, too!”
“But why'd they get their food from earth ponies when they were gettin' it fine before?” Apple Bloom asked.
Pinkie licked her lips with a loud smack. “Because food from earth pony farms was really yummy, and ponies knew it would always be there. And anypony could buy the yummiest food, not just the pegasi who were good at spotting it from the air, or the unicorns who knew the spells to pull fruit from trees.”
Applejack put her foreleg around her sister's shoulder. “Now, we gotta remember that we can't live like we do today without the pegasi and the unicorns. Pegasi figured out how to control the weather, and we're darn thankful for that. And unicorns got all sorts of ways of doin' useful things with magic. Since the first Hearth's Warmin', we all been in this together.”
“Absotivly posilutly!” Pinkie said with a definite nod. “Everypony needs everypony else, no matter what kind of pony they are. And that's why earth ponies are still so important!”
Apple Bloom stared at Pinkie, confused. “I don't get it. Earth ponies are important cause we did some things before, and we need pegasi and unicorns today?”
“No, silly! Because everypony needs everypony.”
Applejack smiled at Pinkie, “I think it's time you show 'er.”
Pinkie hopped from her sitting position, several feet into the air. “Good idea! Come on!”
Applejack and Apple Bloom followed Pinkie as she bounced down the stairs, through the store, and down to the basement of Sugarcube Corner. She turned on the light, revealing a store room full of sacks of flour and sugar, and in one corner a large blanket covering a strangely shaped form.
The sisters stopped in front of the blanket, and Pinkie grabbed it in her mouth and tugged it off. “Ta-Da!”
Before Apple Bloom was a strange contraption made of pipes painted like candy canes, with four pedals, and a fan on top that reminded her of Tank the tortoise's flying device.
Apple Bloom turned her head to one side, confused. “What is it?”
“This here's a flyin' machine Pinkie built. Ya' just pedal those things, and before ya' know it you're in the air.” Applejack explained.
“So an earth pony can fly like a pegasus?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Nope! So everypony can fly like everypony.” Pinkie said.
Applejack pointed at the pedals. “What do ya' need to fly that thing, Apple Bloom?”
“Well, nothin' but four legs I guess.” Apple Bloom said with a shrug.
Applejack nodded, “Right. An earth pony can fly this, but so can a unicorn, or a pegasus if they wanted. It might be nice to have wings, but that don't do ya' any good if they get broken, or don't work too well. Long as ya' got four legs, this'll work.”
“Somepony smarter than me could probably make one that works with less! Some ponies don't have four legs that work, and everypony is important.” Pinkie pointed out.
“Everypony sure is important,” Applejack agreed, nodding. “Look at the way we do Winter Wrap-Up. Now, I hear tell that other cities use magic, and that might work well enough sometimes, but what if the unicorns got sick? Winter Wrap-Up would be late, and all the earth ponies and pegasi would be standin' there in the snow starin' at each other. Here we do things the earth pony way, and even if every darn earth pony in town was sick, the unicorns and pegasi could at least get started on things.”
“And the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy! Those meanies ran that thing on unicorn magic. So they couldn't make it go any faster without making yucky cider, they couldn't just ask for help. You guys do things the earth pony way, so all of your friends could help you, even pegasi and unicorns!”
Apple Bloom smiled, “The earth pony way is makin' it so that everypony can do somethin', so that everypony can help and work together!”
“That's right, Sis. We use our brains and we use our muscles, and the earth pony way sticks around, 'cause what's good enough for an earth pony is good enough for anypony.”
“Applejack? Pinkie Pie?” Apple Bloom said with a big grin. “It's really neat to be an earth pony!”
“Yes it is!” Pinkie agreed, scooping both sisters into a group hug.
***
A few hours later, Apple Bloom was waiting at the clubhouse when Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle came back. She had been drawing something on a piece of paper, but she dropped her pencil and grinned as her friends came through the door.
“How'd the lessons go? Can ya' fly and do magic?”
“Well. . . not exactly.” Sweetie Belle admitted.
Scootaloo looked down at the floor. “I mean, it's hard to fly, it takes a lot of work.”
Sweetie Belle nodded, “Yeah, and magic is hard too.”
“That's okay. I been havin' earth pony lessons, and I think I got it down now. We can try to get our cutie marks the earth pony way,” Apple Bloom said.
“What's the earth pony way to get a cutie mark?” Scootaloo asked, cautiously curious.
Apple Bloom smiled. “They same way we always do it, without magic or flyin', with our own hooves, every kinda pony workin' together.”
Sweetie Belle perked right up, “I love the earth pony way!”
“Yeah, the earth pony way is cool.” Scootaloo said, smiling as she seemed to forget about her slow progress. “Can we still use the scooter?”
“Sure we can, long as ya' feel like it. But we don't haveta use the scooter if ya' ever don't feel like it.” Apple Bloom explained with a smile.
“Great! Let's go!” Scootaloo shouted.
“Where are we going?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom stuck the paper she was writing on in her saddle bag. “The hardware store. I got these plans for this thing I saw, and we're gonna need some pipes and pedals. You're gonna love this one, Scootaloo, maybe we can all get our cutie marks in flyin'!”
