"Look at you..." Granny circled around the mare curiously. "Ah swear... Look at you!"

Orchard colored faintly. "Look at me?"

"S'what ah said!" Grandma Smith swatted at her sudden new grand daughter. "Yer a big mare, ain'tcha? Still Big Mac in there..." She rubbed her hooves together with a low cackle. "Wait right here a moment." She raced off, well, comparatively. She walked energetically if one were being generous.

She came back with a bulky camera she began setting up the tripod for. "The girls're gonna lose their minds when they see this."

Blossom kept an eye on her, tail giving a flick behind her. "Are ya... really alright with this? With... me?"

Granny eyed the camera a moment. Satisfied, she went in to press her eye to the viewfinder, aiming it at her new child carefully. "Ah'll be alright if ya show me a cheerful smile, like ya want to be here."

Orchard Blossom gave her best smile, forced as it was a little. The bright flash that came made her stagger and blink against it. "Is... that better?"

"Better? Ain't the word I'd use." Granny studied the resulting picture a moment before tucking it away. "Now, 'bout you." She came in closer to Orchard from the front head on. "Ya live way up there?" She waved in Canterlot's direction.

"Ayup." Orchard inclined her head at Granny. "But ah work there an' other places too... Princess magic, my magic."

"What kinda magic is that?" She looked up at the horn on her child. "Ain't much used to havin' relations with one of those... So what's it like?"

Orchard perked at the question. "It's... fun. It's like havin' arms as long as ya want 'em." She spread her wings. "It's like ya can go anywhere ya want. Gravity's a suggestion, not a thing more. " She sighed happily as she sank to her haunches. "The worst part may be bouncin' back an' forth."

"Whattaya mean by that?" Granny gently brushed and prodded at her new filly, grown or not. "Ah'm listenin'."

"Ain't nothin' wrong with bein' an earth pony." She sank entirely to her belly, allowing Granny to continue her inspections. "But ah keep flippin' between havin' it all and havin' it taken away."

"Pardon? Don't rightly get it." That didn't stop her from casually feeling Blossom's wings with light touches of her hoof. "Oh... That ya can fly sometimes, but not others?"

"Yeah! Yeah..." Blossom fidgeted her wings under the examination. "It ain't the havin' em, or the not havin' em, but goin' back an' forth... Ah keep tryin' to do things ah can't while I'm Big Mac."

"Yer always Big Mac." Granny bopped her daughter on the head gently. "But I get what yer sayin'... Ah got old mare hips." She reached back for the old testy thing. "But if I had young hips fer a day, it'd probably be even worse the day faster that." She looked Blossom up and down. "Ya look mighty big an' strong still, so ya ain't missin' that part when yer like this."

"Nope... Just the other parts, which ah got sometimes." She sat up, hooves in the air. "Am ah bein' silly?"

"Ya ain't bein' silly," Granny huffed out. "Ah could see how that'd bother any pony. Shoot... not sure how ah'd fix it..." She frowned with fresh thought. "But ya ain't broke. Don't much matter how cold or hot ya like it when yer being tossed from the tropics to th' arctics by the day. Ya poor thin'." She placed the flat of her hoof on Blossom's cheek. "Ain't much fair. Now, don't know if this is even possible... But what if we..." She put her hooves together just to pull them apart. "Split the one of ya into two of ya?"

Blossom reared back, almost going over backwards. "That doesn't sound fun."

"Don't mean literal-like." Granny smirked at her child. "Don't want you hurt, promise that. But up here." She tapped at her head. "If ya were two ponies instead of one, no more bein' tossed back an' forth. Problem solved? Is that possible?"

Blossom considered that with a growing scowl. "Ah... don't know... But ah do know who could find out!" She got up to her hooves. "Twilight Sparkle!"

Granny perked, but shook her head an instant later. "Be careful with her. A right nice mare, but her head is stuck in the clouds more often than Rainbow Dash, and that's an accomplishment. Don't want her hurtin' a hair on yer back. Still... If she can put things to right, then ya go an ask. Now, just... to be clear." She threw an arm over Blossom. "Yer mah daughter, two ponies or one up there."

She suddenly burst into a snicker. "And the Apples have a princess! They never saw that comin', now did they?"

"What the..."

Both looked up to see Applejack staring at them with her jaw slack. Blossom waved timidly. "Howdy... Sis."

"Howdy," Applejack replied in uncertain tones. "Is..." She glanced between Blossom and Granny. "Everythin' alright?"

Granny advanced on Applejack. "Ah'm annoyed! Ya kept this a secret from me... Still, ya made a promise, and a promise to kin ain't no small thin'. And they weren't bein' hurt... So ah understand." She poked Applejack gently. "Still, means ya were sure ah'd be in the way. Have a little more faith in yer granny."

Applejack flipped her ears back, stepping away. "S-Sorry... They were real scared... Ah didn't want to abandon them."

It was Granny's turn to look a bit sheepish. "Oh... The both of ya!" She stomped at the ground, not as strong a sign as one could hope with her old legs. "Ah may be old, but that don't make me a monster! That there's still the child of mah daughter and mah son." She waved at Blossom wildly. "And ah want her to be happy, like mah other children. Now, no more secrets."

Applejack inclined her hat on her head. "Does that mean we're tellin' Apple Bloom?"

Granny recoiled at that. "Oh, uh..." All her assurance evaporated on the breeze. "Let's not be that hasty..."

Blossom gathered up her grandmother and sister, one wing around each as she drew them close. "Ah'm just... Just so happy this ain't a secret..."

Applejack wrinkled her nose. "'Least 'tween the few of us." She nodded at Granny. "Twilight and the princesses are in the know."

"Ah was the only one out?" Granny pouted, but didn't try to escape the warm wing embrace. "Now, Celestia's too...in charge. And Twilight's too small, so... reckon ya owe me. So when can ah expect mah ride?"

Orchard Blossom blinked at that. "Ride?"

Granny waved a hoof in a slow circle above her. "I wanna see Ponyville from way up high. Don't trust most pegasi that much, but yer my blood. Who else would ah trust more? So take me up nice and gentle and let me see what it looks like up there."

Applejack hiked a brow. "Are ya sure? They got hot air balloons." She pointed to one, only the top was barely visible from where they were. "Could take you up more comfy than riding the back of Orchard Blossom here."

Granny stepped free of her feathery blanket to swat at Applejack. "Ain't the same thin'! Don't trust them things... But ah do trust Big Mac." She turned back to Blossom. "Even if she's goin' by a different name right now."

Blossom met her gaze, the two smiling at one another. Applejack laughed at the exchange. "Well... Guess I can't stand in the way of that. Ah'd trust 'em too. But Ah won't make her carry me up with ya. That's a bit much to ask."

Orchard lifted herself on powerful flaps, hovering a few inches into the air. "Ah ain't no slight thing. If ya both wanna see, then hop on."

Granny shook her head with a rueful snort. "Ah ain't jumpin' nowhere."

"Ah gotcha." Applejack was quick to help her elder up carefully onto Orchard Blossom's back and climbed up herself behind Granny. "All comfy?"

"Woo-ee... Ah don't know how to feel..." She set her hooves on Orchard blossom's back. "But this is excitin'! Like one of them airships, but one that cares aboutcha. Better, ah say."

"Hold on." Orchard Blossom lifted higher and higher, carrying her family with her. "Ah gotcha." Her horn glowed as she squeezed the two mares on top of her, hugging either of them to keep them secure. "If ya want me to go back down, jus' say so."

"Higher!" bade Granny with a big grin. "Higher!" She pointed off to some point in the sky they were approaching. "Go on, flap them wings!" She swatted at those batting wings. "Woo!"

Applejack hugged Granny from behind. "Well, ya sure sound like yer havin' a time." Her eyes wandered a bit more fitfully, perhaps not enjoying herself as fully, though she was smiling. "How ya holdin' up, Big--Blossom?"

"Ain't not a thin'." She still had her earth pony strength, which translated to flying under some extra weight, it seemed. "Wanna look at the orchard, or the town first?"

"Ah can already see the orchard. Look at that!" She turned her waving to below them, to the countless apple trees in the dark light of the evening. "It'd be even better in the day, but ah get it."

"Yeah..." A day trip would be harder to manage, though she considered how she might do that for Granny. "The orchard has a special prettiness in the dark." She swooped in around the tops of the trees. "All the trees we work so hard fer."

Applejack thrust a hoof up with a mighty cry. Whatever hesitation she had was banished in the face of all her apple trees. "A mighty fine sight! Lookin' mighty healthy, full of apples waiting to get in mouths."

Orchard Blossom came to a smooth halt before a proud apple Tree. With a glow of her horn, she plucked two to offer to her riders. "What we're working' so hard fer."

Granny grasped the apple between her hooves. "Now that ain't true. Mighty proud of these apples, mighty proud." She took a loud crunch out of the apple. "But it ain't the apples. If, Celestia forbid, we lost all the trees, we'd still be Apples. We'd find a new way... Apples are about family! Or the ones livin' in the city wouldn't be Apples, and that ain't true, now is it?"

Applejack tapped at her Apple mount. "You live in the city, and yer an Apple, so guess ah can't argue that any."

Orchard Blossom resumed her forward flight, rising as she banked towards Ponyville proper. "The town looks... magic..." To see the town from so high in so late of the day was different than walking through it during the day. "Don't think pegasi know what they got." She perked an ear back at them. "'Cause they never not had it."

Granny gently rubbed the thick neck of Blossom. "Go an' see that Twilight when it ain't the middle of the night. Maybe she can help. Jus' be careful. Ah just met the new you! Ain't ready to say bye yet."

Applejack started. "What's this about Twilight?"

"Oh, just wonderin' if it's even possible to split me into two ponies, instead of one pony with two bodies." Orchard tilted down, coming in for a landing in the center of things with a final trot to a stop. "Ain't even sure if... ah'd want it... but it's worth knowing if I could do that... It's a big thought."

"Mighty big!" burst out Applejack. "Real big... Shoot... not sure ah could make a call like that..." She patted the side of Blossom as she slid down to the ground and offered her hooves up to help Granny off. "But ya got our backup either way, alright? Yer one of us! If... um, ya did split, then both of ya would be my sib."

Author's Note

Heavy thoughts while taking a night flight.

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