"Ya mean it?" Big Mac shook loose his emptied cart with the rattle of metal from the vigorous motion. "Really?".

"I'll need Orchard's help." She smiled, in part thanks to getting that part right. "It's time for a new meeting."

"Ya got it." He snapped a salute. "But first... ah gotta get home." He pointed out the door. "Ya don't live so close."

Sugar leaned left to look out the door past Big Mac. "Well. If it takes you long enough you have to sleep outside, why don't you, um, Orchard can pick you up and get you home in a hurry, right?"

Big Mac's ear twitched. "Huh... I shoulda thoughta that. If she feels like it, that'd be real nice."

"If she..." Sugar trailed off, flopping to her haunches. "Wow... You two really are separate..."

"Ayup." Big Mac began climbing into his harness step by step. "What changed yer mind?"

"It's easier when the left hoof of a pony won't help the right hoof." Sugar tapped her hooves together. "Harder to say the two are the same pony then, way I see it."

Big Mac uttered a "huh" of surprise as he prepared to leave, pulling his cart along behind him. "Ya got a point there. But we ain't the same pony. She can see me though. So, if she feels like it, she can lend a hoof, but she ain't gotta. She's gotta life too, an' that means she won't always drop what she's doin' to help out her silly brother."

Sugar Belle waved Big Mac off, then closed the door behind him. "That has to be..." She imagined having a twin that she knew everything about, every step of every day, and knowing that ran both ways. "Not sure I could..." Her admiration for Big Mac swelled with the thought that he was handling it, without even a fuss. "You are such a... good pony." She sat behind her counter and smiled at the door. She was ready to greet the day!

Orchard hopped to her hooves in the dark of the night. That was pretty normal for her. "Yeah yeah." Though there was no voice speaking to her, she had seen it. "'Course ah'll help ya, dummy." She casually stopped being there, appearing where Big Mac was curled beside his cart by the side of the path. "Look atcha..."

Big Mac was quite knocked out, slumbering peacefully. "Let's get ya home." She eased the cart with brushes of her considerable bulk so she could get one wing over it and the other over Big Mac. "And..." They weren't there anymore. She dropped Big Mac off in his room, floating him up through the house... until she ran into somepony.

The small form scrambled back out of the way, sleep banished from her eyes. "Woah! Um..." Apple Bloom looked between Big Mac and the princess, carrying him in her magic. "Did ah miss somethin'? Where ya goin' wit' mah brother?"

That was the moment Blossom thought to herself. Had she ever had the conversation with Apple Bloom about what was going on? "Ah'll explain. Let me put him t'bed first." Under Apple Bloom's careful watch, Blossom made her way into her brother's room and tucked him in on his bed, pulling up his blanket. "There ya go..."

She fled the room, door closing silently behind her with her magic. "Alright. Now." She looked to Apple Bloom, who hadn't left on her own. "Ya deserve an' explination."

"Ah'm waitin'." Apple Bloom crossed her arms. "Why is my brother's mare OC standin' in fronta me?!"

Blossom reacted to that by slightly raising her ear in a questioning manner. "OC?"

"OC." Apple Bloom made a quick exit before rapidly returning to the scene with a comic book clasped in her jaws. She spat it out, revealing a super hero comic. "If a fan of a thin' like this makes their own take on it, that imaginary pony's an OC." She pointed at Blossom. "An' you sure look like Orchard Blossom, Big Mac's OC."

"He weren't tryin' to copy no comic book." Orchard Blossom inclined her head at the book. "He was just tryin' to help you."

"Ah know that! Ain't got a better word fer it." She crossed her arms and fixed her gaze upon them with an expression of deep scrutiny. "So who are you and what are ya?"

Blossom considered what she was. "You remember that dream? The one wit' Luna an' that big monster?"

"How could ah forget it. What's that got to do with nothin'?" She waved her hoof in dismissal, unable to make the association right away. "No use distractin' me."

Blossom reached to pat Apple Bloom, but the filly danced away from her hooves, denying that option. "Ah'm his sister. Shoot, Ah'm yer sister."

Apple Bloom proved she could hike a brow with the skill of her other sister, Applejack. "Yeah... Ah may not be an' expert ah--"

"What's all--" Applejack slowed to a stop, seeing who was walking to who. "Oh..."

Apple Bloom darted up onto her back. "This strange mare was carryin' Big Mac around!"

"Awful funny thing to do." Not that Applejack looked worried for Orchard Blossom's presence. "Sorry fer not bringin' you in on this."

Apple Bloom waved a hoof at Orchard wildly. "You heard her... Wait, what? Bring me in? Were you lying to me?!"

"Just didn't mention it." She gathered her little sister in her arms, ruffling her with one hoof and hugging with the other. "Big Mac went and became two ponies on us. That there's one of those ponies."

"Howdy." Blossom inclined her tiara. "Nice to meetcha 'gain."

Apple Bloom hummed with new thought. "Ya kiddin' me." She rubbed at her ribbon in a fidget. "Really? Wait! Ah got a sister that's a princess?! Why didn't nopony tell me!?"

Blossom relaxed at that reaction. "Here ah am, tellin' ya."

"That don't hardly count!" She bounced down and trotted up and around Blossom to inspect her. "Wow... All mare. All princess... So..." She reached up to bat at one of Blossom's wings. "Do these work? Does yer horn?! Can ya do magic? Can ya fly?!"

Blossom brought down her wings in a powerful gust of wind that propelled her a few inches into the air. "Ayup. Ain't learned many fancy spells, um... but ah got one built in that's pretty great."

Applejack snickered at that. "Wooee, that one is quite enough if ya ask me. She can teleport anywhere she's ever been before."

Apple Bloom's eyes went as wide as saucers. "Anywhere?! No matter how far away?" She waved as if trying to grab some distant point far beyond her. "Anywhere?!"

"Ain't found a place ah can't go yet. If ah been there, ah can go back, whenever ah want." She tapped at her chin in a moment of thought, bobbing in the air as she was. "Wanna visit someplace?"

"Yes!" Apple Bloom bounced left and right, excitement growing. "Wow, that's amazin'! So... Where ya been hidin'? Ya ain't no small pony. Don't figure you were under no rock."

"No." Blossom went to the nearest window and threw it open with her glowing horn. "Up there." She pointed to the distant Canterlot up in the distance. "Live up there, in an apartment."

"What? What?!" Apple Bloom twirled to Applejack. "Ya know what that means, right?"

Applejack slowly tilted her head. "What's that mean?"

"Big Mac can handle city life, an' you couldn't." Apple Bloom extended her tongue in defiance.

Applejack laughed tensely. "Well... guess he did beat me there... but this ain't Big Mac." She waved at Blossom. "This here's Orchard Blossom, a sister of ours."

Not that the praise didn't work on Orchard Blossom, her smile growing by the moment. She actually had beaten Applejack. It weren't no big thing... But she'd done it. Big Mac would be so happy when he woke up and learned that... "We're Apples. We win togetha."

"Ah'll drink to that." She and Blossom met with firm clops. "Now, it's late. Little ponies aughta be in bed!"

"Aw!" Apple Bloom hopped up, grabbing one of Blossom's legs. "But I have so many questions!"

Blossom gently patted Apple Bloom. "There there. Alright, one more question afore ya head off to bed."

"Hmmm!" She had a hoof to her chin, holding extra tight with her other arm. "When can ah see ya when ah ain't gotta go to bed? I want the other girls to meetcha too!"

"Shoot." She had to go and ask a difficult question. "Ah'm a night pony. Ah tend to be up when you ain't. Hm..." She landed carefully, making sure Apple Bloom was safely placed on t he ground. "But that's a fair question. It ain't like ah don't like spendin' time wit' my favorite little sister."

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Hey."

Blossom realized the mess she had just stepped in. "Oh, um... Shoot... Applejack, ya know ah always saw you an' I... more of equals."

"Not always." Applejack frowned, but it turned into a snicker. "There was a time when ya thought you were the big brother and weren't shy 'bout tellin' me to give you the respect that came wit' it." She patted Blossom on the shoudler. "Ah'm just ribbin'. Ah'm jus' fine bein' equal. We're Apples first. Siblings. Ain't make no difference if it's bigger or smaller. 'Sides, we're both heroes now! Ain't nothin' keeping us apart."

Blossom's vision blurred and she reached up an arm to try to clear out the problem. Oh, she had started crying without warning. "Shoot, um... Shoot... Sorry..."

Applejack smiled so gently. "Take all the time ya need."

Apple Bloom looked between her two siblings, unsure of the emotions at work there. "Ah should get to bed... You two alright?" When they nodded, she fled off to the bathroom, leaving them to their chat.

Blossom rocked back as something crashed into her. "Wha?" She focused on what it was, realizing Applejack was hugging her tightly. "Um..."

"Jus' hush up and hug me back, ya lug." She nestled in and the hug became two directional, the siblings holding firmly to one another. "Ah know ah messed up afore." Applejack slipped back a step. "But that ain't bein' repeat. Ya got a problem, jus' come on over an' talk. Ah know that mouth a yers likes to flap these days, so take advantage of it."

"So which is it." Blossom smirked as she folded her wings properly. "Should I hush up or get to talkin'?"

Applejack pawed at her, bapping with her hooves with a wry smile. "Ya know what ah meant. Now... ah know you two went an' decided yer two ponies, an' that's fine... but if ya need to talk, it ain't like Big Mac ain't right there. Doubt he'd mind if ya wanted to ask me somethin', even if was through him. Not like he won't already know what's goin' on anyway..." She rubbed behind her head awkwardly. "So jus'... you know, do that. Ya wanna talk, talk. 'Bout Blossom or 'bout Big Mac. Yer both my sib, so it ain't like ah don't wanna help."

"G'night." Apple Bloom scooted past, on her way towards her own room. "See you soon!" With a gentle click, she closed her door, leaving them alone again.

Blossom took a step back, bumping into the wall that had the window she was actually aiming for. "I should go... But thanks, sis. Ah'll remember that, honest. It's, um... good, knowin' ya got my back like that."

"Go on wit' ya." she waved Blossom off as the princess vanished with barely a pop, more of an editing mistake. "Ah'll never get used to that..." She went over to the window and drew it shut against the chill of the night. "G'luck..." What was Blossom off to? Policing? Fancy Pants? Some fancy Canterlot shindig?

Maybe she'd ask Big Mac the next day? "Nah." Bothering him about his sister's exploits? He probably got enough of that with her. No, Applejack would let that lie, and get some sleep.

Author's Note

Did you expect me to resolve that right away? Pfft!

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