“Hey, Ma!” Applejack called out, as she opened the door. “Ah'm heeee-eeeere!”
“Did you wipe your boots?” called down Clementine Apple's voice from upstairs. “I just mopped that floor!” Cortland, Clementine's husband, grinned slightly as he wiped his own boots on the mat.
“Ah wiped 'em, Ma!” Applejack called back. “College ain't changed me so much that Ah'd forget ta wipe ma boots!”
“That's good to hear.” replied Clementine. “There's milk in the fridge, hear? Fresh just this morning.”
“That's one thing the city don't have, Pa.” said Applejack, smiling. “Milk fresh from the cow. It's all skim this and fat-free that and homogenised.”
“Nothing wrong with good fresh milk.” said Cortland. “Now you go in an' say hi to your Ma, I'm gonna go see if Big Mac's done in the south orchard yet.”
“Bet y'all'd have done that already if y'hadn't stopped t'get me at the station.” said Applejack. “Ah could've taken a cab, y'know.”
“What, an' wait another hour before Ah see mah eldest daughter again?” Cortland gave his daughter a brief hug, before departing.
Applejack smiled at her father, and then walked over to the kitchen for a glass of milk. I wonder if they have milk in Ponyland she thought to herself. Do the cows speak back? Or do they milk something else? Ha, maybe they milk hydras or something...
“So, Applejack, how's my eldest daughter doing?” asked Clementine.
“Ma!” Applejack turned around, and gave her mother a bone-crushing Apple hug; her mother, though only an Apple by marriage, gave as good as she got. “How y'been doing?”
“Tolerable.” said Clementine. “I've been missing my daughters something fierce, though.”
“Ah, don' worry, ma. Ah'm here now, an' Applebloom's arrivin' on t'morrow's flight, an' then we'll all be here for Christmas.”
“I know.” said Clementine, tightening the hug slightly. “Sometimes I wish you were here more than just once a year.”
“Sometimes Ah do too.” agreed Applejack. “But ma classes...”
“I know.” said Clementine, releasing her daughter. “So, any important news for us?”
“Eeeeeyup.” said Applejack, picking up her glass of milk and taking a sip. “But Ah ain't gonna tell y'all until t'morrow, when th' whole family's here.”
Not to mention which, that gives me a bit more time to try to work out exactly how to explain to my parents that there's an alternate universe full of ponies out there...
“Important news?” asked Clementine.
“Earth-shatterin'” said Applejack.
“Concerning you personally?” Clementine raised an eyebrow.
“Eeeeyup.”
“Does your sister know?”
“Parts o' it.”
“You're not pregnant, are you?”
Applejack's cheeks bulged as she struggled not to spit out a mouthful of delicious, fresh, most certainly not fat-free milk.
“No!” she said, once she'd managed to swallow the milk. “What in tarnation made y'even think that that could be what Ah meant?”
“Well, I'm glad it's not.” said Clementine, firmly. “But do you have a boyfriend?”
“No,” said Applejack firmly, “an' mah news ain't got nothin' t'do with any sort o' notions o' romance at all, in the least.”
“Then do you have a girlfriend?” asked Clementine.
“Ma! No, Ah do not, an' Ah ain't interested in girls that way, either. Now could y'stop tryin' ta guess mah news? Y'never gonna get it, anyhow.”
There's another world out there, with another Applejack, another Clementine, another Cortland, another Big Mac, another Applebloom... and they're all ponies.
And I only found out because a pony came to our world and turned human in the process, accompanied by a talking dog that used to be a dragon... eeeyup, no-one's ever going to guess that.
“Well, if you insist.” said Clementine, her tone of voice suggesting that the reprieve would only be temporary. “Who's Twilight Sparkle?”
Applejack spat out a mouthful of milk all across the kitchen table. “Ah – bah – gah – wha?”
Clementine raised an eyebrow. “Twilight Sparkle.” she said. “Who's she?”
“Uh... buh... someone Ah met at school.” said Applejack. “Where did y'hear o' her?”
“Phonecall a while back.” said Clementine. “She was there with you. 'Bout a month after your fall formal.”
“After the fall formal?” asked Applejack.
“Eeeeyup. And might I add, I am totally shocked, shocked, that you didn't wait for legal age to try the hard cider.”
“That don't make any sense.” said Applejack. “Are y'sure it was after the Fall Formal? Not, say, a day or two before?”
“Applejack, are you telling me you were drinking before the Fall Formal already?”
“No, Ma, but Ah ain't seen or heard of Twilight since then.”
“How much exactly have you been drinking, young lady? If you're starting to experience severe memory loss...”
“No, Ma. Ah think Ah know exactly what's goin' on, an' Ah'll explain it all t'morrow, Ah give y'mah word. It's all got t'do with mah news, and Ah ain't gonna explain that twice. She didn' happen t'leave a telephone number, did she?”
“No...” said Clementine.
“Well, that's a right pity. Ah've lost touch w'her entirely, an' Ah'd rather like t'renew the acquaintance.”
“I thought you said you weren't interested in girls that way.” said Clementine.
Applejack blushed bright red. “Ma!” she said. “Ah ain't! Twilight's a good friend, an' nothin' more'n that!”
“Mhm-hmm.” said Clementine.
“Ah'm bein' serious, Ma!”
“Hmmm.”
Applejack rolled her eyes and finished off her milk. “So, what'd Ah talk about?” she asked, fetching a cloth to wipe up the spat-out milk.
“What?”
“When Ah phoned, with Twilight. What was Ah phonin' about? Any terrible warnin's? Deadly disasters plaguing th'world?”
Clementine raised both eyebrows. “Now you're just messing with me.” she said.
“Nope. Ah'm quite serious. What was Ah callin' for?”
Clementine shrugged. “To tell Pa and me that you loved us.” she said. “And that you still had Pa's old hat.”
Applejack paused in her wiping. “Now that jus' plum don't make sense.” she said. “Why couldn' she've called her own...”
Unless she didn't have her own parents to call.
The thought arrived unheralded, unannounced, and hit Applejack right between the eyes.
“Applejack?” asked Clementine. “Something the matter?”
“Nothin'.” said Applejack. She dropped the cloth, and gave her mother an even tighter hug than before. “Ah jus... Ah jus' realised how lucky Ah am t'have you an' Pa. An' Ah shouldn' never take y'fer granted, not ever.”
Clementine patted her daughter bemusedly on the back. “I don't know what news you're going to be springing on us tomorrow,” she said, “but it sounds like it might just be important.”
“In a way, yeah.” said Applejack. “There's more Apples out there than y'could ever guess, but at th' same time, less'n there should be.”
Mother and daughter stood there hugging for a long while, before Clementine spoke again. “Is this about your friend Pinkie?” she asked. “She phoned us two weeks ago, asking about our family tree...”
“Those ain't the Apples Ah was talkin' about.” said Applejack, wiping her eyes. “But yeah, we think we might be related as well.”