Finding Your Family

"So, first impressions?"

Cudgel shrugged. "It seems okay, I guess. I haven't really looked anywhere other than the hoose."

"House."

"Right, that... We haven't really met anyone yet. I barely know anything about the place." He moved a little bit closer to Smolder and grabbed her claw. "What if the reason no one's coming to see us is because they're all unfriendly?"

"This is Ponyville," chuckled Smolder. "Friendliness is their bread and butter. Give them a chance, would you?"

"I guess?" Cudgel shuddered, which Smolder could feel through her claw.

"Tell ya what: let's go see the biggest industry Ponyville had until a few years ago, before becoming a college town. This was the birthplace of an agricultural empire."

Cudgel's eyes brightened. "Really?"

Smolder nodded. "Right this way."

She led him through the streets of Ponyville, pointing out the multiple shops that were showing off their merchandise, at each one asking Cudgel if he could spot a pattern, from the red, green and yellow signs to the zapapple jam to the decorative fruit stands in the open-air market. Not being familiar with it, he didn't quite catch on until they arrived at the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres.

"It's all apples?" he guessed.

"That's right," smiled Smolder.

"Hey, y'all!" called Applejack from a distance, walking closer. "Somethin' Ah can help ya with?"

Cudgel pulled back a bit, hiding behind Smolder.

"I'm showing Cudgel, here, around town. Figured it might be a good idea to introduce him to Apple Bloom. Is she in?"

Applejack nodded. "She's up at the house, tidyin' up, last Ah checked. Head on up."

As Applejack returned to her work, Cudgel kept an eye on her, letting out a small, scared whine as he saw Applejack kick a tree hard enough to shake all the apples out of it. He didn't want to be anywhere near her if that was how she dealt with dragons she didn't like.

After a decently long walk up the path, they came to three buildings; a house, a barn and a silo. A very large red stallion was coming out of the barn, and he just waved.

"That's Big Macintosh," explained Smolder. "You're going to want to stay on his good side. Luckily for you, most of his sides are good ones."

"Is he mean?" cowered Cudgel.

"No, he's very gentle. But he's also very strong. He has the capacity to fight off two dozen regular ponies, but he's far more likely to use that strength to help ponies in need than to cause harm."

Cudgel waved back tentatively, following Smolder into the house. Through the front door, they found themselves in a living room, where Apple Bloom was tidying up, as Applejack had stated. "Howdy, Smolder. Who's this?"

Smolder reached back to push Cudgel forward, but he had rushed over to a cabinet where Big Macintosh kept his Ogres and Oubliettes figurines. "You have Nurakk, Devourer of Thorns?!" he gushed, pressing himself against the glass. "He hasn't even come out in the dragon lands sets yet!"

"A big fan of the role-playing games," smiled Smolder. "That's who he is."

"Interesting," replied Apple Bloom, her deadpan expression making clear her lack of interest. "Was there something y'all needed?"

"Well, I was going to ask if you had any time to spare, but he seems to have taken more of an interest in Big Mac's stuff. This is Scootaloo's oldest."

Apple Bloom immediately brightened back up. "Scootaloo's back?"

"Came in yesterday afternoon. Still settling in."

"Well, Ah should go over there right now!"

Smolder placed her claw on Apple Bloom's shoulder. "She's spending some time with Spike. Give her a bit, okay? Dinner, maybe?"

"Maybe," agreed Apple Bloom, calming down. "Ah'm gonna make a pie!"

"Like a blueberry pie?" joked Smolder.

"Har-dee-har-har," snarked Apple Bloom in return. "Anywho..."

"We came out to let you know, and to see where Ponyville all started."

"Ah see." She turned to Cudgel. "We have pictures, if ya wanna see 'em."

Cudgel was just able to pull himself away from the cabinet and join the other two on the couch as Apple Bloom pulled out the family album. "My granny, rest her soul, was one of the founders a' this here town. It was her ingenuity and bravery that allowed our orchard to sustain itself long enough to turn a profit. In fact, it was her product that made the first trade, opening up businesses that are cornerstones here in town."

For the next two hours, Cudgel looked at the pictures, watching them go from grayscale to sepia to full colour as time went on. It wasn't just pictures, either. Sometimes, there were documents that were no longer valid tucked between the pages to show the state of affairs at that particular moment in time. After going through the whole thing, Apple Bloom treated him to a slice of toast with some zapapple jam on it to give him a taste of the product that had built Ponyville and cemented the Apple Family as a powerful workforce within the agricultural community.

"So now Ah'm the one who makes this stuff, followin' Granny's original recipe. Ain't nopony else but us Apples that know how it's made. Many a pony has tried, and each one fails in some way or another. There's some close ones out there, but they ain't the real thing."

"So we can't buy this stuff except from you?" asked Cudgel, licking the drippings off his claws.

"Well, no, we sell 'em to our distributor, and he sends 'em all over." She chuckled a bit. "He tried to have his daughter take over the business for 'im, and she put her own branding on the jars. Applejack sued the company, an' he settled for a quarter million bits by takin' responsibility for hiring a bad manager. She ain't allowed ta take over the business anymore. He's training somepony else for it now."

"Serves her right," snorted Smolder.

"Yeah, the lost revenue was about two hundred thousand, and we easily could'a pulled in more if we'd gone to court, but Applejack wanted to preserve our relationship with their family. Ah heard Filthy say outright that keeping Sweet Apple Acres as a supplier was more important to Barnyard Bargains than the money his daughter lost 'im. Plus, the new guy's well-aware of what happens when you hurt your suppliers."

Cudgel nodded along. This whole thing had been a welcome lesson in the structure of the town, and had definitely left a good first impression on him. He could not wait for that pie he'd been promised.