Homing

by CCC

Homing

“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.”

Comments

[Fuzzyfurvert]

This is off to a good start. Plays well with the source material of Skywriter's work.

The only thing I would suggest is that you might want to tone down AJ's accent. It isn't unreadable, but a few sentences start to look unreadable after the fourth ' in a row.

If you decide to continue this, I would be mighty happy to read it!

[Aatxe360]

I'm only questioning why she has to tell them something they're most likely not going to believe. I understand it to be the plot, but it couldn't be anything else?

[Mysterious Stranger]

After AJ tells the whole story, I can anticipate Mrs. Apple's next question.

"Are you doing drugs?"

Anyway, this was a nice little followup. I agree with Fuzzyfervet that the accent should be toned down a little though.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Short but sweet. A shame AJ didn't encounter the local Twilight, but she does seem to be in a different city. Still, thank you for a touching bit of family togetherness.

4061394
Bearer of Honesty. She figures it's going to slip out at some point. Better to let it happen on her terms.

[CCC]

4059957

This is off to a good start. Plays well with the source material of Skywriter's work.

yay!

The only thing I would suggest is that you might want to tone down AJ's accent.

Hmmm, yeah. I may have gone just a teensy bit overboard there.

I may have overdone it with her a bit, because Clementine doesn't have the accent and I was concentrating more on keeping it out of Clementine's lines...

If you decide to continue this, I would be mighty happy to read it!

I should probably mention that I don't currently have any plans to continue this. But I'm glad you liked it.

4061394

She's the dimensional alternate of a pony who's so honest that it earned her a magical necklace and a position as one of the ponies to go to in case of a Discord-level disaster. Also, family means a lot to her.

I don't somehow see her not wanting to at least try to explain it all to her family.

4061481

After telling the whole story, I can anticipate Mrs. Apple's next question.

"Are you doing drugs?"

And the question after that: "Are you sure?"

Anyway, this was a nice little followup. I agree with Fuzzyfervet that the accent should be toned down a little though.

Yeah, I'm going to have to find the 'accent' dial and turn it down juuuuust a touch in the future, I think. I don't want to turn it down too far, of course...

4061557

Short but sweet. A shame AJ didn't encounter the local Twilight, but she does seem to be in a different city. Still, thank you for a touching bit of family togetherness.

At the very least, she goes to a different school.

Though, since Clementine and Cortland are alive here but not in Equestria, that raises the distinct possibility that Human Twilight might not be alive... a question which may or may not be gain a canon answer in Equestria Girls Two, when it comes out.

[Soge]

This was pretty impressive! You managed to capture the feeling of the original, but still made the story wholly your own. I liked how you characterized Human AJ and her parents, and how short and sweet the story was, never really overstaying its welcome. Great work!

[Lag Incarnate]

Nice little nod to Pinkie Apple Pie there. Probably be much easier to figure that one out, what with all them fancy DNA checks.

[Aatxe360]

4061988

A pony she's hasn't met. I would have a hard time thinking it mattered except to the select few that share similar knowledge, but making it a big deal to others who have no inkling? A bit of a stretch to me.

Sell it to me.

[DeftFunk]

I feel like there are some problems with this story.

[Lunae Lumen]

4061988

I think it's the 'Ah' that pushes the accent too far. Common enough in AJ fics, yes, and it kinda sounds like the way she says it, but not exactly. It looks more like the way a doctor would say "Now open your mouth and say 'ah'". The reader still has to mentally correct the sound of it, only now they have to do it backwords.

Similar thing with 'mah'.

[Jawmax]

However it seems that the closet full of spare Hats and Bows in "Somepony to Watch Over Me" discredits the belief that Applejacks hat is an heirloom from her Pa.

[CCC]

4062364

Thank you

4062447

You'd think so, but DNA checks cost money. And they don't accept balloons or cupcakes instead, even in large quantities.

4062757

I think our worldviews are different enough that it's not worth the trouble. After all, it's only a plot point in a fanfic... it's not that important.

4062940

Could you perhaps be a little bit more specific?

4063980

Huh. Perhaps I've been reading too many fanfics with the Apple accent in, but now when I read 'ah' and 'mah' it's just like AJ says it.

4064725

You're right, it does. But that plot point was clearly established in Roaming, which was written before the hats and bows closet was seen... so I stuck with it for internal consistency.

[InMyMind]

You have something interesting here, but those accents are awful. Give us a few cues, then write normally. We'll pick up whatever accents they may have.

[Sciamancer]

Hah, neat. I found this just a few days after reading Roaming for the first time, and completely coincidentally, too- I read Games then decided to check out your other stories.

Coooool. It was a cute little sequel, true to the original.

[FancyFan]

Its cute, and a nice continuation on the original. I really would like to see a story were human Applejack explains what happened to her parents though.

[CCC]

5387613

That sounds like a good idea.

[ExOttoyuhr]

I wish the written word could adequately express how loud I'm laughing right now. Pinkie Pie... telephoned an alternate universe to find out if she was an Apple! Even by this site's standards, that's hilarious!

Also, great story. Human!Applejack's not going to have the easiest conversation, is she?

[Draco Dei]

5609404
I think that was supposed to be human!Pinkie?

[CCC]

5919453

Yeah... that was supposed to be human!Pinkie.

The story still works the other way round, but I admit that at the time of writing I honestly hadn't considered that...

[xv22shasokais]

Well, now I want to know how the meeting will go.

[TrackingTarget]

5920449
I can totally see pinkhorse trying to find a way to phone people in another universe just to ask if they happen to know if she's related to them. I can also see Twilight letting her do it because she would take Pinkie's word for it when told that "it's like really super important".

[QueenMoriarty]

The sudden realization on AJ's part...

Ow. Those were my feels you just punched.

[CCC]

6525420

An unfortunate occasional hazard.

...I did put the "Sad" tag on it as a warning...

[PresentPerfect]

Roaming was great, but this just doesn't satisfy as a followup. :/

[CCC]

6664864

Roaming sets a very high bar.

[Luna Aeterna Solutae]

I can't help but echo Present Perfect's sentiment, and my own adamancy that a character-driven story cannot be told in a thousand words.
This is so short that there's zero emotional punch, it just kinda flits in and leaves just as quickly.
C-, with points given for a good premise and a fairly solid showing. If about 9,000 words too short.