Twilight floated a second fritter up to her mouth when she realized the first was gone. “What is in these things?” “Mostly love. Love ‘n about three sticks of butter.”
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Twilight discovers a book about the history of the Apple family, but it's missing some information. While it tells all about Granny Smith's life, there's no mention of a husband or any children. Twilight goes to Sweet Apple Acres to fill in the gaps and gets a lesson about what it means to be a family.
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Eeeyup.
very good story
Anyone have some marble? Because this belongs on a pedestal!
669317
669411
Thank you!
669580
Aww, you're too nice! Thank you, I'm just glad you enjoyed it.
A very different twist to the explanation, very cool. Life is funny like that, family isn't always who you think it is.
Ahh beautiful little story. I love this twist you put on the Apple family history.
I love it
Absolutely love this story, really shows a tenderness and a love that you don't see in many fics, more a lifelong consummate love than a passionate one
669885 and 670226
Thank you! Most of the other explanations are so sad, and while this could be sad, I think it's more happy. It focuses more on love then loss.
670239
Yay! Thank you!
670305
Thanks so much, I absolutely love writing about families for exactly that reason.
673586
Thanks!
You know, I was waiting for your comment, I really appreciate the people who comment a lot on my fics. I had no idea it would be so personal for you, but I'm really glad it was touching.
>stands up from chair after reading story
>applauds loudly
>sits back down
Very good, my fellow brony. This story brought warmth to my heart and a tear to my eye. I'll never be able to look at the Apple family the same way again, and I couldn't be happier about that.
Yes, I greatly enjoyed that. A very elegant explanation for everything, too.
673818
I guess I'll take a bow!
Thank you so much. Pegasister here, but I'm not complaining. I'm so glad you like the story.
675529
Thank you! I thought it was something cool to consider.
676213 I tend to use the term "brony" to apply to either gender. But anyway, like I said before, very good, most enjoyable.
I'm torn. I love the idea and the scenes involving Applejack's families past. On the other hand I feel that Twilight's urge to fix things in between is just a little forced considering her own family situation. I mean half her life she was basically raised by Celestia, Spike is an adopted member of her family, and she suggest's that all of Applejack's friends are honorary family members.
677314
I can see that. I was writing thinking of Twilight's organized mind. She likes things in their place and boxes checked off. She would never call Celestia her mom, or call Spike her brother or son, those labels wouldn't be technically correct even if they fit the spirit of the relationship. I think she would have readily accepted 'honorary brother' for Mac, but that's not how Applejack thinks of him. And when she finds out about Applejack, I saw it as more excitement over an interesting research question. There is unknown information and she wants to find it.
That's where I was writing from, at least. I hope that explains a little.
This is a lovely take on the Apple family! I'm impressed with the depth you brought to them and the explanations you offered for the missing parents. Well done!
Very nice story I finally got around to reading. Very sweet story about the bonds between family members, even when they're not technically related to one another. Actually had me tearing up a bit by the end, so you get props for that!
Well done!
This was a sweet story and managed to explain the Apple family in a way I've never actually seen before. Why does everyone assume their parents are dead, myself included? Aside from the obvious fact that Granny seems kind of old to have kids that age, anyway.
If there were ever to be a canon explanation for the absence of the Apple parents, this is how they could do it. It doesn't involve death and for any kid watching that's adopted, it's a positive message.
I love this take on the Apple family! :D
Bam. Favourited, cause that was amazing.
This is totally my new headcanon now, it's just too perfect.
You are bloody brilliant, good sir!
Well, there's my new headcanon. Every other explanation is usually so depressing. While this one had a sad moment or two, it had more than enough love to make up for it. Thank you for the wonderful story!
Now that's a really sweet story!
danmit man...yu almost made me cry
very creative
anyways really nice fic
so then...
I take it she isn't an orphan? Cause by this point the fanon 'Scootaloo lives in the club house" thing wouldn't have gone on for 3 days before she would have been an Apple.
1697920 That's why that meme has never made any sense to me. There is no way any filly or colt could live, homeless and hungry, on the Apple property for three days at most. Scoots would be Apple Bloom's sister in the blink of an eye. The fact that she isn't suggests that she does have a home somewhere else.
I loved this! I especially loved the fact that they all ARE Apples, and that blood makes no difference. That's the way it should be, and what I'd expect from the warm, family-oriented Apples.
If you want to get technical about it, their parents ARE dead or missing in this story, but then again they're not, because they're a true family.
Fabulous. This should be on EQD if it hadn't been already--so well written, and such a nice contrast to the same old thing.
I love it. i love when something unexplained like this can be made so deep.
i hear this is part of an informal series for you?
2041019
Yes, AJ's backstory from this, and Rainbow Dash's backstory from Of Cottages and Cloud Houses both feed into Somepony's Daughter. I plan to do a sequel to Somepony's Daughter someday, focusing on AJ meeting Dash's family.
852034 Uh...because Lauren Faust herself said it's her headcanon that way? And of course (though you couldn't possibly have known that when you wrote this), because of the scenes with the two shooting stars in "Apple Family Reunion".
Anyway, I stumbled across this story because of the Pony Fiction Vault interview and thought I'd give this one a shot before I dove into a multi-chapter epic.
Turns out, I probably won't do that now. The story is well-written, but something about this whole idea just rubs me the wrong way, and I'm not about to start reading other stories by an author who has this as their headcanon, stupid as that may sound. None of the three is in any way even remotely curious about who their biological parents are? Sorry, but that just shatters my suspension of disbelief into fine powder - I don't believe for a nanosecond that there are adopted kids out there who have zero interest in their original families. I can agree with the idea behind it - adopted families can be just as close as biological ones - but the total lack of curiosity on the part of the entire Ponyville branch of the Apple family killed this story for me. Twilight is probably supposed to come across as someone who won't let sleeping dogs lie, but I fully agreed with her on this issue, and that likely wasn't intended.
Also, the entire concept of how Granny Smith came across the kids is the most unbelievable coincidence in the history of the non-Discorded universe - or are we actually supposed to believe that fate wanted it this way, which is even weirder? Once is believable, twice is suspicious, three times is a conspiracy.
I feel kind of bad about being this harsh, but this fic just struck an entirely wrong note with me, and I'm not even fully sure why I reacted this violently negatively to it. Perhaps it's because there's a lot of potential on display here - the same writing skills put to use to give us a more traditional family background for the Apples in Ponyville (that sounds like a bad indie rock band somehow) could have made for a really great family epic. Instead, we got the three most disinterested adopted children in the history of the known universe. A shame, really.
2058016
Just so that you know, there are a lot of adoptive kids who aren't interested in their birth parents, especially kids who know that they were more or less abandoned. I mean, you don't have to like the story, but be careful about generalizations.
(Also, it wasn't intended as coincidence. It was intended as ponies having heard that Granny took in Big Mac, and assuming she'd do the same for their kids.)
2058130 I didn't say it's impossible. I said I found it nearly impossible to believe, as someone who isn't adopted. From my view, even if my parents abandoned me, I wouldn't exactly want to get to know them, but I'd at least want to know why they did it, and that goes double in Equestria, where you'd think society would help out more than it does on Earth - what drove the parents of AJ and AB to such an incredibly extreme step? Even if that wasn't the case, I'd still want to know where I came from. None of the three Apple siblings strike me as the kind of person who'd completely ignore and abandon their biological origin, precisely because of their deep-rooted sense of home and community. I simply couldn't live with this kind of question mark in my personal life, and I doubt AJ or AB could (Mac at least knows who his biological parents were, or at least his mother).
Also, just because Granny Smith took in one child, people thought it appropriate to push their kids on her anonymously? That doesn't sound right, especially in a sugar bowl like Equestria, where I'd think orphanages are nowhere near the places of terror they are in our world (not to mention that orphanage = horrid is an equation dating back to Victorian times or earlier, and is probably not as generally true nowadays as it was back then). That's another issue I have with this story; the part about the orphanages sounds too "real world". I can see Granny Smith having personal issues with them and therefore taking in Mac, but I have issues with the thought of parents simply abandoning their children as it is, doubly so in a better world than ours. Also, if they're close enough to Ponyville to know about Granny Smith taking in a child, one would think Granny would have at least an inkling of who did this in the first place; her not even going to look for the kids' real parents is yet another problem I have with this story. One would think that an old-fashioned lady like her would try to get the kids into a "real" family, with two parents and all that. (This is not the kind of narrow definition of "family" that I believe in, mind you; it's what I think she'd believe a family to be.)
In short, I see this story as built on very unsteady ground, both in regards to the characters and the world they inhabit. This Equestria sounds a little too dark and too close to Earth for my tastes. Sorry.
2058491
That's okay. This story, as well as Of Cottages and Cloud Houses, and Somepony's Daughter which take place in the same headcanon, are about as dark as the girls books I grew up with. In fact the basic idea came from the books Anne of Green Gables and Ballet Shoes. Not exactly gritty realism, but that is darker than the show, yes.
And I guess we disagree on characterization of Applejack. While I agree that Apple Bloom will probably someday want to know who her parents are, I think it's perfectly reasonable that Applejack, who has her identity tied so closely to Sweet Apple Acres that it's her cutie mark, would resent anything that might imply that her connection isn't solid and true, and not really have anything to say to a pony who doesn't want to be a part of her life there.
But, this is just a story. The headcanon for the three stories I mentioned is unique to them- I don't use it in all of my stories. If you're looking for something closer to the show, I'd recommend The Importance of Being Earth Ponies or Daring Do's and Don'ts. But probably not Best Young Flyer, because of adult situations and humor.
2058665 AWWWWWW! That was so beautiful! I got misty eyed!
MUSTACHES! 
And many manly tears were shed this day...
2041762
Brilliant work on incorporating the same story line with AJ
Why yes, it was quite good.
Very beautiful. I find myself wanting to *smack* Twilight pretty hard but that's not a bad thing n_n
At first I was like
but then I was like 
and now I'm like 
. When I read the description I feared it would be like that movie where they grow a tomato kid in the backyard. Really glad it wasn't that bad.
2626947 I did. Glad that he's back. I tried that series he just finished but found I couldn't get into it. Then again, I liked Melvin... maybe I just have bad taste.
Wait. What would that say about the things I DO like?
2626991 But how does that explain me liking Melvin, Brother of the Joker?
*pauses halfway through* Is Twilight not familiar with the concept of adoption? She's being kind of an idiot here. I mean, if they have orphanages, they have adoption.
Edit: Yeah, honestly I'd really like this... but it relies on my least favorite pony trope to move the story along: Twilight Sparkle being an idiot.
Not being socially adept doesn't make you ignorant of sociological concepts. It's like Spock not knowing what a marshmallow is (he'd do the research!), or Data talking about his boobs firming up (he IS a computer). Twilight would do the research on these things.
My jimmies are restled!
But it was a great story!
Never come across that idea before, but I think I like it; that the Apple clan can grow by more than just blood (or marriage) relations.
Perfection. Smartest idea about the Apples that I've ever even heard of.
AJ is best pony, and there's the story to prove it.
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/masonry/000/164/259/46001%25252520-%25252520caption%25252520hnng%25252520macro%25252520spike.jpg
Too....many....feels!
Though this story doesn't really go with my apple head cannon it was still great. It shows the tight knot bond and open hearts the apples have. Nice job