Canterlot Tales

Canterlot Tales

by Inkspots

Prologue

Twilight dashed under the awning of the Ponyville Train Station, escaping the heavy snowfall beyond. Her luggage floated along behind her as she threaded through the crowded station. It was the day before Hearth’s Warming Eve and trains were bearing ponies to holiday vacations all over Equestria. She was looking for the train to Canterlot though.

“Twilight!” came Applejack’s voice over the crowd. Twilight flapped into the air and spotted the tan stetson she was looking for. “Come on the train’s about to leave.”

Twilight landed and ran the rest of the way to the train platform. There, Applejack and Rarity were hovering around the door waiting for her. She ran onto the train, levitated her ticket over to the conductor pony and followed Rarity and AJ down the cars.

“We’re in one of the large compartments towards the back of the train,” Rarity explained.

“I’m so sorry I’m late girls,” Twilight said. “But it was so cold this morning I had to spend an hour blasting icicles off of the Library.”

“I hear you, we’ve been wrapping saplings all week. Hopefully the frost doesn’t kill too many trees this winter,” Applejack said. “Here we are.” She slid open one of the last compartments. Inside was Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, as well as Derpy, Cheerilee, and a grey pony with a brunette mane that Twilight didn’t know, but had seen around Ponyville. Twilight lifted her luggage up to the overhead rack and sat down between Applejack and Fluttershy. Almost as soon as she did the train made its first jolt forward, then began pulling out of the station.

Once the train was under way Fluttershy leaned over to Twilight.

“Oh, Twilight, I don’t think you’ve ever met Octavia,” Fluttershy gestured towards the grey Earth Pony.

“No I haven’t, pleased to meet you, I’m Twilight Sparkle” Twilight extended a hoof.

“And you, Princess,” Octavia responded.

“Please, you can call me Twilight.”

“Oh, of course,” she replied.

“Octavia is a really phenomenal musician, she helped me tune my bird choir, and she’s going to be playing in the Canterlot Philharmonic’s Holiday Show,” Fluttershy explained.

Octavia blushed and looked away. “You’re going to make me look like a braggart.”

Fluttershy looked away as well. “Oh, sorry.”

Twilight turned to Applejack.

“So, was it hard to get away from the farm this year?” Twilight asked.

“Big Mac’s got Carrot Top helping out around the farm while I’m gone. I think he would have paid for my ticket to get me out of there,” Applejack replied. “Those two are spending quite a bit of time together these days.”

“Well that’s good to hear,” Twilight said.

Ten or so minutes into the ride things had quieted down. Rainbow Dash was fidgeting on her bench until she couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Okay, I’m bored,” she called out.

“Yes and complaining about it is so very helpful,” Rarity said. “Well I have an idea-”

“I have a better idea, let’s tell stories!” Rainbow Dash cut in.

“That’s not better, that’s what I-”

“And I know who always has a good story under her hat,” Rainbow Dash said, leaning over to Applejack.

“Oh, me?” Derpy pointed to her knit cap.

“Uh, well, I meant someone else Derpy,” Rainbow Dash admitted.

“Oh really, well who could you mean?” Applejack took her stetson off and swatted at Rainbow Dash, who laughed and leaned back to her seat. “But I don’t mind the idea.”

Derpy sunk back into her bench.

“But we should all tell a story, that’s only fair,” Applejack said quickly, perking Derpy up. “I’ll start us off though. Hmmmmm.” She rubbed her chin for a moment. “Have I told you about the founding of Ponyville?”

“Yes,” everyone said in unison.

“Oh, well what about the story of Jamie Appletree?” she asked.

No one had heard that tale, so Applejack cleared her throat and began.

Chapter 1: Applejack’s Tale

“Now, I’ll admit there’s a number of Apple Family ponies who don’t agree with this tale, but Granny Smith’s been telling this tale to me and Big Mac and Apple Bloom for as long as I can remember, and it’s a good story either way,” Applejack said.

“Jamie Appletree was a farmer pony back hundreds of years ago, when there weren’t many towns worth mentioning except for the ones near Canterlot. In those days, ponies didn’t grow orchards, they tended gardens and fields, and had plenty to eat, but no one cultivated trees. They just went out into the forests during certain times of the year and picked what they could.

Now, Jamie got her name and her cutie mark from bucking wild apple trees. She knew when they were ripe, and she was mighty powerful in the legs. She asked her folks if she could take some of the seeds from the apples and start planting them. For years the family refused, not wanting to give up good tilled land to trees they had no experience growing. But after denying her requests for so long, they finally gave in.

Jamie planted a small grove, just twelve trees. Some from seeds, some were wild saplings. She tended them all year. Come harvest time, they bore no fruit because they were young trees. Her parents were miffed, but they didn’t want to upset their daughter so they let it slide. Her brother Plow Blade though, was beside himself. With her tending her apple trees he was left to do most of the work around the farm.

A few years later her parents passed on, and her brother took control of the farm. While she was in mourning he chopped down her saplings and burned them in the fireplace.”

“Well there’s a villain if ever there was one,” Rarity remarked.

“Well Rarity, I wouldn’t be too hard on her brother. Clearly she was onto something, and she had a passion burning in her, but farm work is team work. He was a grieving stallion left with a farm to run and no help,” Applejack replied.

“But to react like that, it’s horrid,” Rarity said.

“Just listen to the tale,” Applejack replied. “So the story doesn’t say but I suspect they came to blows. I know Big Mac and I are close as kin can be and we’ve fought over less. At the end of the day though, Jamie Appletree left her brother’s farm. She got a land claim from the royal ponies in Canterlot and struck out to start her own life on the frontier.”

“Oh, like the ponies in Appaloosa?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Not quite. When a pony these days heads out to prospect they have a whole lot of support, and if things go bad a place to come back to. Jamie Appletree had no friends, no family, and no home. The last of her money went to getting her land claim. And the frontier in those days was probably four or five times as deadly as the countryside now,” Applejack replied. “Really all she had was a good hoof for farming, strong legs, and a drive to prove her brother wrong.

She started out heading through the forest where the wild apple trees grew. She lived off the land, and I mean it. Field grass and wildflowers for months on end. She spent a whole year just watching the wild apple trees.”

“That sounds like the most boring year possible,” Rainbow Dash said.

Applejack glared at her. “And just how many kinds of clouds are there, Dash?”

“Well, so many. Like nimbus clouds and stratus clouds and cumulus clouds-”

Most of the other ponies were chuckling so Rainbow Dash stopped. “What?”

“Yeah that’s real interesting Rainbow Dash. I don’t know how I live on a farm without going mad with boredom,” Applejack replied.

“Fine, I get your point. Just, get to the cool frontier stuff, like roping cattle and snake bites,” Rainbow Dash said.

“That’s coming, just be patient. So she figures she’s learned all she could from the wild apple trees. She takes a whole sack of seeds and a dozen saplings and headed southwest from Canterlot, to the area that’s now Hoofington. There, she staked her claim and planted her orchard. A dozen saplings and ten dozen seeds,” Applejack explained. “Now, I've been to that grove near Hoofington, and it’s a beauty. The oldest apple orchard in Equestria. It’s got a stone wall and a fancy copper gate, but at the time it was just cleared forest with a log cabin on the edge of it. Jamie Appletree kept herself fed the first couple years on grazing and foraging local plants and trying to cultivate them too. Eventually her trees started growing, and she thought she was about a year or two away from getting fruit off her dozen saplings when disaster hit.

Fall was setting in when she started seeing claw marks on the trunks of her trees. She knew instantly what it was: a bear.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Rainbow Dash, please,” Cheerilee said. The pegasus felt sufficiently scolded and quieted down.

“Thanks Cheerilee,” Applejack said. “Anyway, as Fluttershy could tell ya bears tear things up to sharpen their claws and mark their territory. Jamie couldn't afford to lose her first crop of apples to the bear, so she waited out in the orchard overnight. Just as dawn rolled around the bear came lumbering out of the nearby forest. She had her trusty handaxe and-”

“Oh no, tell me she didn't,” Fluttershy begged.

“It was a different time and a wild frontier. Look, she didn’t go looking to hunt down a bear, but she had to protect her livelihood,” Applejack said. “So there the bear was, slinking up through the edge of the grove. Jamie Appletree was hiding behind her biggest tree with her axe in her mouth, listening to the bear. Then she heard it, the crunch of wood as it snapped a sapling in half. She knew what she had to do, but like any reasonable pony, fear was in her heart. She steeled herself, then stepped out from behind the tree to find the bear staring at her.”

Derpy let out a yelp, prompting Cheerilee to give her a comforting pat on the foreleg.

“The bear swung at her, but she dodged his strikes. Then it took aim and looked to claw her right across the neck. She threw a leg up to block the blow, saving her life but breaking the leg. Then she swung with her axe,” Applejack was making wild gestures with her hooves. “She got him right-” She looked over at Fluttershy, who had plugged her ears and was muttering quietly. “Right in the neck,” Applejack finished quietly. “After that is was a matter of a few good bucks and the bear was down.”

Twilight nudged Fluttershy, giving her the clear to start listening again.

“Now, that might seem a victory, but Jamie Appletree was out on the frontier with a broken leg and some nasty scratches. She patched herself up as best she could, but eventually she realized she needed a doctor if she was going to heal up in a state to buck apples ever again. Only problem was she was miles and miles away from anypony or anywhere, the days were getting colder, and she only had three good legs under her.” Applejack explained. “But she had to make the trek back to civilization or she might die out there.

She closed up her house as best she could and began walking. The nearest town was Trottingham, which was a mite smaller back then, but still the nearest thing to her. And when I say near, I mean sixty miles away. The whole way to Trottingham it was rainy and windy. She ate what she could, which was barely anything, and it was too wet to make a fire at night. She was a hoof in the grave when she wandered into Trottingham. Covered in mud and blood and dirty bandages, she looked a fright. She got to the middle of town and fainted.

When she woke up she was in the house of a doctor named Bitter Herb. He asked her what her name was and she told him. He told her she’d need to be in bed for a few months. She didn’t have anything to pay him with, but she promised him a third of her first apple crop for fixing her up. He was a little suspicious, since apple farming wasn’t a thing yet, but he agreed, being a generous stallion as it were.

Jamie Appletree spent the whole winter in Trottingham, healing up under the care of Bitter Herb. They grew rather close, but as soon as spring rolled around she was itching to get back to her homestead. Bitter Herb agreed, as long as he took the journey with her. They traveled out to her land claim and Appletree knew she’d be getting her first crop that autumn. Bitter Herb was amazed to see a hoof tended grove like that. When he returned to Trottingham he sent a few letters out, and soon word was spreading that some crazy pony on the frontier was growing apple trees. Well this news made the rounds among the farmer ponies until it got to Plow Blade, who knew it must be his sister out on the frontier. Determined to see her fail he hired up some helper ponies to cover the harvest season and traveled out to her land claim come harvest time.

Well, turns out a number of ponies had the same idea, but they were looking to get in on the first hoof tended crop of apples. Jamie Appletree was right though, when her brother and the other farmers arrived, they found twelve apple trees bearing fruit. Plow Blade was bowled over like sleeping cow.

Bitter Herb got the apples he’d been promised, and all the rest were quickly bought up by the farmers who wanted to take them home and try their hooves at orchard farming. Once the commotion died down, Plow Blade was still there. Plow Blade tried to apologize for how he treated her in the past, but she refused his apology. She was just too proud.”

“Well the shoe is on the other hoof now. I didn’t expect to feel bad for him of all ponies,” Rarity said.

“Just goes to show you, everypony changes,” Applejack said. “Anyway, various farmers tried their hoof at growing Jamie Appletree’s seeds, but none of them were familiar with orchard tending, and few of them had any trees take. But every year Jamie’s crop got bigger and bigger. Soon, other ponies started moving out to the frontier and staking land claims near hers. Soon, there was a little town built up around her orchard, with about a half dozen other farmer ponies trying to grow apple trees too. Bitter Herb even moved out there to be near her, and she didn’t mind that too much, but she was suspicious of the other ponies. She had worked so hard on her trees, and no one had believed she could do it. She didn’t want to help anypony else figure out how to properly work an orchard. That’s why she built the stone wall around her grove, so ponies couldn’t watch her tend her trees. The only reason she even sold her apples was because Bitter Herb convinced her to.”

“That certainly sounds like an unhappy life, and not at all like the Apple Family I know,” Twilight said.

“Right you are,” Applejack said. “Jamie was in a dark time in her life, and if things had gone differently, she might have never gotten over it, and there might not be an Apple Family. But about ten years after her trees started bearing fruit a storm came. Lighting struck her orchard and set it ablaze. Some ponies tried to help, but they couldn’t get water over the wall fast enough, other ponies didn’t lift a hoof because Jamie Appletree had been so cold to them all those years. After a whole day going the fire burned itself out. Jamie had no home, and all but one of her apple trees were burnt to cinder.

Now, if not for Bitter Herb, she might have never put a hoof to earth again, because she was convinced the whole town was out to get her. But Bitter Herb calmed her down, bandaged up her burns, and was there for her when no one else was. He finally made her realize that people didn’t come out to the frontier to steal her life’s work, they wanted to learn from her, and that she had a gift she had hidden away and squandered.

Jamie Appletree finally saw reason. Having no trees of her own to tend she went around to all the orchards nearby and started teaching them how to work a proper orchard. Once she started acting amicable, she found herself neck deep in friends. They rebuilt her house, replanted her orchard, and when she finally got up the nerve to marry Bitter Herb, the whole town came out to the wedding. Jamie even sent her brother an invitation, and the two finally reconciled.

Jamie Appletree and Bitter Herb went on to have a mess of kids, at least six, maybe more. And that’s how the Apple Family got started.”

Everyone stomped their hooves as the story ended.

“I don’t know, that’s just... too perfect an ending,” Rainbow Dash finally said.

“Well I’m not saying everything in the world gets wrapped up in a pretty bow, but a good pony comes to her senses eventually,” Applejack replied.

“So you’re saying all of that was true?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well jeez Dash, I wasn’t there. I reckon it’s mostly true, as true as matters. I didn’t say she worked magic and grew apples in a day,” Applejack replied.

“I think it was a wonderful story,” Cheerilee said. “And you have to come by my class some day and tell the children.”

“Speaking of children, I’m sure you have some stories you could tell us about Sweetie Bell and her friends,” Rarity said. “Oh I do hope they don’t give you too much trouble.”

“Oh no Rarity, they’re good students. You have to expect young mares to get into trouble from time to time. It doesn’t make them bad ponies,” Cheerilee said. “Now, Thunder Clap would count as a bad pony.”

“Who’s Thunder Clap?” Pinkie asked.

Cheerilee shuddered. “The worst foal I ever taught.”