_“Uhh Hex, this book says mixing them two chemicals will create a noxious gas…“

“Oh hush Mack, what could possibly go wrong?”_

—

To the Apple Family, Macoun Apple, or “Mack”, is the perfect apple: an honest and determined leader who would one day run Sweet Apple Acres. Although that is Mack’s destiny, the brown earth pony colt is a bit more complicated than that, mostly in his interests. Mack loves a good apple like any other Apple; however, Mack enjoys science as much as apples. In school, Mack’s favorite subject was chemistry, and he shared this love with a particular purple unicorn.

Hex Mind, the adopted son of Fluttershy, gravitated towards beakers and books over making friends, often concocting bubbling potions that scared other school ponies. Only one pony seemed to be bold enough to approach the unicorn and his potions: Mack. Together this unlikely pair of the “mad” scientist and the farm boy grew into a close friendship. The colts were inseparable: they were either collecting apples to experiment with from Sweet Apple Acres, mixing potions in Hex’s make-shift laboratory in Fluttershy’s attic, or reading books from the newly recreated Oak Tree Library.

Each colt helped the other develop and become better colts. Unconsciously, Hex’s passion for science and experimentation allowed Mack to explore his own passions outside of the Apple farm and feel himself, while Mack helped Hex better understand the purple unicorn’s bouts of “amnesia” where only Fluttershy and Speckle Heart once were able to help. Hex even helped Mack better understand his own attractions since when older teenagers, the brown farm colt briefly developed deeper feelings for his friend.

No matter the experiment and results or explosions, Macoun Apple and Hex Mind remain close friends into their adulthood, eventually working together to modernize and better develop Sweet Apple Acres once Mack runs the family farm. For now, the two colts simply and safely play with chemistry to better understand their worlds and themselves.

—

Then everything went wrong.

A sixth picture for my “Next Generation Friends project where I draw the Mane 6 brood with their closest friends. Here we have another two Mane 6 NG friends, Macoun “Mack” Apple (left stallion), son of Applejack & Soarin’, and Hex Mind, adopted son of Fluttershy (right stallion). I already touched upon this friendship here. This picture goes a little deeper into the story of the friendship between the farm boy and the “mad” scientist. This friendship allows for an exploration into Mack’s personality: I knew from the beginning that these two would be friends from a love of science, making Mack more complicated and, according to Grease, “not the perfect Apple”. I have also been wanting to draw these cute nerds for months but could only now get the right picture.