Obviously not a complete tree -just a few interesting ponies in it ^^ I originally made it just to show my headcanon for where Granny Smith’s original name came from (because I doubt her parents named her “Granny”…) -I’ve seen some people go by Greensmith and such, but personally I really like “Maria Ann Smith” (enough to name one of my nextgen characters that =P) since that’s what the creator of the Granny Smith apple cultivar was named. However, ponies aren’t exactly known for human-sounding names like “Maria Ann”. But you know who has been shown to have human-sounding names in mlp? Mathilda the Donkey! So the apple family now contains a donkey in their family tree, which passed her name down the generations.

So I was just gonna draw that part of the tree, but as often happens with me, I got sucked into mylittlewiki.org/ and was… inspired. (I don’t know why that site is so addicting to me -just reading about a collection of things is really fascinating I guess. I often get lost in bulbapedia as well. Also bonus best toy: mylittlewiki.org/wiki/Baby_Sle… Look into her bloodshot eyes and fear, mortals)

So here we are; part of the Apple Family Tree in my nextgen ’verse :)

(Quick about the Cutie Marks
I’ve included doodles of the ponies’ cutie marks beside each pony (except the g1 canon ones, since we know their marks). Mostly based on the symbol of the toy the pony was based on, though with edits as I felt looked good ^^

My in universe explanation as to why the appearence of cutie marks vary over the generations in my nextgen ‘verse, is that a cutie mark is somewhat affected by the pony’s associations and assumptions. It is a representation of their inner self after all. So as we go back in history, you can see how the appearence of the marks change as trends and cultural shifts occur.)

The First Recorded Apples
The first records of the Apple family actually streches back to before Equestria, when the tribes lived separately. The remnants of a journal belonging to a pony who’s name would roughly translate to “Apple Delight” in modern equestrian, mentions her father and mother, the “heads of the apple family”. Thus making them the earliest known members, although their names have long since been lost to time.

Back in their time, cutie marks were called symbols and they were much more.. more than in current times. The symbols themselves were often very simple, but they had a lot of them. Some, like the Delight’s here, even had symbols that covered the majority of their bodies. (Though, the Dad’s was often mistaken for freckles). More symbols covering a larger area was seen as desirable, as it represented how strong the pony’s tie to their talent was.

Based on the Apple Delight Family. A controversial opinion I’m sure, as Applejack was the first ever apple themed pony to be released. However, as I thought about where to put them in the tree, I came up with this fun reason as to why they don’t have names (the toys are only known as Mommy, Daddy and baby Apple Delight); they lived so long ago that noone knows their names. And while I still could have put them after Applejack and just made them less well known than her… It just felt fitting that the tree started with two parents youknow?

Though, I had to explain away/adapt them being Twice as Fancy (symbols over the entire body and not just the flank), since we don’t see that in the current generation. Hence my idea for how marks change over time ^^

Applejack
The first. Unknown number of generations down after the Delights, lived in Equestria. Probably the most famous of the Apple ancestors, due to her part in befirending Scorpan and defeating Tirek the first time he appeared.

At this point, ponies did not have nearly as many symbols covring such a large area -though it was still a lot more common to have several (most often seven) of a simple symbol clustered together, rather than one detailed symbol.

The Applejack from the first movie we all know and love -though adapted, to suit the canon of g4 ^^ I gave her non-g4 applejack colors, and just tried to eyeball it from screenshots of the g1 special, to not have current applejack be such a blatant clone.

Apple Pie
Well known for her prized apple pies, she enjoyed a quiet life of comfort and renown for her famous baking…. Or she would, if it weren’t for Apple Pie! The horrible hag who kept stealing the first place prize from her ever other year! Apple Pie would manage to clinch it one year, only for Apple Pie to swoop in an snatch it the next. And the absolute worst part was that everyone, everyone kept mistaking them for one another -some even thought they were the same pony! The two Apple Pies fought bitterly with one another, and hated each other’s guts right up until they eventually died. This could have turned into a Hooffield and McColt story.. except their kids didn’t really care and just moved to different towns.

When Pinkie and Applejack became friends and linked forever via the elements of harmony, the two Apple Pies were rolling their graves. When the two friends concluded that they might be related due to a mistunderstanding of assuming the two Apple Pies were the same pony, they were practically spinning.

Oh, and marks had taken a drastic shift in appearence. No longer with several simple symbols, now the trend was to have one, incredibly detailed, symbol. Supposed to represent that the pony in question had a deep understanding of their talent.

As far as I can find, there’s one toy named Apple Pie . And hear this, the toy’s gimmick was that it could change mane, between a straight purple-green and a pink curly one. T’was meant to be. I was debating on how to use this… was she one pony, leading two double lives perhaps? Or twins? Or maybe they actually had nothing to do with each other and just happend to look a bit similar and have the same name and got really annoyed that everyone thought they were the same pony, which would be ironic when Pinkie and Applejack also did so? Yeah, the last one sounded really fun, so I went with that =P

The fact that Apple Pie came from the second generation also fit well -since the Delights and Applejack were from g1, and the next ponies I’ll use are from g3 :)

Apple Spice and Maria Ann Smith
I.e. the OG Granny Smith. The two of them had a huge gaggle of children (via genetic donation), and an even larger swarm of grandkids. (One of which was named Johnny Appleseed, because I want that name to exist in the Apple family darnit, and this is a good excuse -maybe named after Maria’s father or something ^^ ) Maria was the one who created the Granny Smith cultivar (Though she didn’t name it that -one of her kids named it after her when she passed), alongside several other types of apples, trying to find a good apple for pies for her wife, who’s talent was baking.

Apple Spice is just straight up g3 Apple Spice. As for Maria… after I started drawing, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to include her actually. The real Maria Ann Smith was a real person. It could be seen as disrespectful to use her name for a fan character for a children’s TV-show? Then again, mlp is known for referencing real life people and places in their names. Though, this is just straight up using the name. After debating, I decided to still keep the name, with the disclaimer that this Maria here is in no way reflective of the real person -just borrowing the name, to explain the Granny Smith naming confusion.

Applejack
The ???th. Father of our Granny Smith, co-founder of Ponyville.

Thought it’d be fun if Applejack got her name from either her grandparent of great grandparent. And making g3 Applejack Granny Smith’s father both gives that, and helps explain where the green and red comes from in the current cast of Apple family. I decided to make him male though, since for some reason I really liked the idea of Applejack being used as both a female and male name in the Apple family.

Candy Apple
Sibling to Granny Smith. I haven’t decided, but most likely passed away by the time the show takes place.

Once again, just straight up Candy Apple. =P

Aunt and Uncle Orange
After finding that his mark didn’t lay in apples, Mosely set out for Manehattan where he met his lovely wife. While from an outsider perspective, they can seem quite cold and too focused on being proper, they are both very loving and warm when not among strangers. Technically AJ’s cousin once removed, rather than her aunt and uncle, but the Apple’s have long since stopped keeping track on those details in everyday speech. Any Apple older than you (that isn’t directly up) is Aunt/Uncle or Great Aunt/Uncle, and any much younger is nibling. About the same age makes cousins.

And by the time the show takes place, marks are still changeing. They are still one or just a few symbols, but are becoming more and more simple and clean. Since ponies think it shows a clear path in life.

I don’t know if canon has told how the Oranges are related to the Apples? So I made my own idea ^^ And I didn’t draw it here, but I’d headcanon that Mosely had a sibling who also moved to Manehattan (Maybe with him and they were roomates for a while?) who became the parent of Babs :) Actually, most of these levels probably include some not-drawn siblings. As I said, incomplete tree.

Braeburn
Lives in Aaaapleooosa! And very proud of that. City life wasn’t for him, so he set out from his parents as soon as he could and joined a small traveling company out to set up a new town. And that’s what they did. Best decision in his life.

Speaking of cousins… I just thought it’d be really funny is Braeburn was the Orange’s kid. They’re so opposite from one another personality wise, while their color-schemes work out so that they could be closely related. So that’s canon to my nextgen verse now. =P

“Our” Apples
You already know their stories.

Decided to lump them all together, since I don’t have much to say here -I didn’t change any designs or draw inspiration from any other generation of mlp.

Except one thing! Do you know what isn’t an apple? Bright Mac. You know what is? Britemac! His name is Britemac now, you can’t stop me. “Bright” or “Mac” might be nicknames or something, but his real full name is “Britemac of the Apple family”.