When Applejack regained consciousness, she was on a bed. Not her bed, nor any in the farmhouse, no, because she knew what they felt like and this bed was none of those. It was framed by cold metal , uncomfortable, and insufficiently padded.
There usually wasn’t an alicorn hovering over her at home either.
“Twilight?” Applejack twisted into a sitting position. “Where am I?”
“The hospital. You fainted.” Twilight said simply. “I’m sorry, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have been so brash. I was frustrated and didn’t work my way up to the revelation.”
“Revelation…” Applejack repeated. She began to remember the immediate lead up to her loss of consciousness.
“The revelation that I own your farm.” Twilight cleared her throat nervously. “And yes, that sounds very bad on its own, but Granny Smith and I created a rigorous contract that protects both of us from mistakes and bad intentions.”
Applejack scooted back in the bed so she could lean against it. She felt a stab of anxiety in her heart. “Sorry sugarcube but I’m gunna have to parse that one bit at a time.” She said quietly. “Why do you own mah farm?”
“Your grandmother sold it to me, basically. Your family has made a lot of bad financial decisions over the years. Her choices were either to sell or lose the farm anyway.” Twilight explained.
Applejack averted her eyes to try to keep her scowl from settling on Twilight. “That don’t sound fair. Who made them ‘bad financial decisions’.”
“Your grandmother reverse-mortgaged some plots to pay for various things, and some of the loans are older government subsidized loans and deferments, from around the time of Sweet Apple Acre’s founding. But the lion’s share was signed by your mother and father.” Twilight recounted. “I even uncovered that some of the neighboring farms are your family’s land, but are currently under lien by banks. Well, not any more, but it’s convoluted, and some of the lending was outright unethical. I think the banks took advantage of Granny Smith.”
Applejack latched onto the last part of that. “So what can I do to shake them off?”
“What do you mean? I payed everything when I took possession of the farm.” Twilight cocked her head.
“But ya said they did it unethical! They took advantage of Granny!”
“But none of it was illegal. Yes, it was unfair to convince a mildly demented senior to a reverse-mortgage, but there’s no consumer protection laws for that. Not yet anyway.”
“Demented?” Applejack felt bombarded. Every tidbit she learned led to more questions.
“Err...” Twilight shifted on her hooves uneasily. “See, that was another thing I should have eased into. You see, Granny Smith has been acting very erratically since we made the contract. She’s been avoiding me and her obligations. That’s why I came to you.”
Applejack couldn’t take it anymore. She pushed off the stiff hospital bed sheet covers and rolled off the bed onto her hooves.
“Applejack, what are you doing?” Twilight took a step back from her. “You need to be examined to make sure there’s no permanent damage from your faint.”
“I’m not rightly sure I care.” Applejack said emptily. “Twi, I’m goin back to the farm. Talk with me on the way there, won’t ya?”
The walk from the hospital to Sweet Apple Acres was long enough for Twilight to explain all the little details of the day Granny Smith had approached her, everything she’d learned about the debts, about the contract, and finally about Granny Smith’s odd behavior.
Applejack listened silently. She didn’t know what to think. All she could feel was confusion. Twilight seemed to be glossing over the fact that she owned the ground under which they were trotting, which until that day Applejack had thought had been her own. Without owning a farm, what kind of security did her family have as farmers. If there was no security, there was uncertainty, and from uncertainty came doubt and fear.
Applejack knew with all her heart that Twilight Sparkle was a good pony and the best organizer she’d ever met. But she wasn’t a farmer. Applejack’s mind went to stories she’d heard from relatives around Appaloosa, where city slickers were buying farmland and embarrassing themselves frying to make profitable farms. Twilight wasn’t a fool, but would she know the right thing for the farm?
“I just want things to remain the same.” Applejack finally spoke up as they came within line-of-sight of the farmhouse.
“That’s what we all want, Applejack. That’s why Granny Smith asked me not to tell you or Macintosh.” Twilight said, but with a slight frown she continued. “But I’m not sure she’s doing the right thing. She’s wasting money and refusing to communicate. It’s like she’s pretending that everything’s okay, when that’s the very reason the farm was in such dire straights to begin with.”
“Granny’s stubborn alright.” Applejack nodded.
“As I said, I’m afraid that she’s demented.” Twilight said sadly. “Applejack, are you able to step forward and be the Apple Family’s agent to act towards the fulfillment of the contract?”
Applejack scrunched her nose. “Stop sayin that. Granny ain’t demented. She’s always good for her word so there ain’t no need for me to get involved.”
Twilight shied away slightly. “Umm, maybe I’m being a bit to hasty… But you can understand my concerns, right? Granny Smith is, ahem, not very good with money obviously. Sure she’s a mean haggler but business finance is a whole different animal, so to speak.”
They reached the front porch and stayed by the threshold. Applejack let Twilight continue.
“Applejack, you’re my friend. I know I should be able to trust my friend’s grandmother implicitly but I just can’t. We don’t have the same connection that, you know, you and I do.” Twilight took a step closer and lay a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “I know you won’t avoid me or refuse to communicate.”
“Money stuff makes me uncomfortable.” Applejack mumbled.
“You won’t have to anything except talk to me, Applejack. The money stuff is my problem now. You’ll come to me with the list of requirements, I make disbursements, and you return the receipts. I mean really, it’s more like I’m your accountant than anything else.” Twilight giggled. “It’s all in the contract.”
Applejack didn’t find it as funny. Wasn’t there a saying about friends and money? “So, um, where does Granny keep her copy of the contract. I think I’ll be havin a look at it, and see what I can make of it.”
“I wouldn’t know, but that does prompt a point I’ve been dancing around.” Twilight fidgeted. “Could you be the one who tells your grandmother about this change? I’m afraid she might get upset and blow up at me when I tell her about this.”
“Well it don’t strike me as proper goin behind her back like this either.” Applejack rubbed her chin. “Twilight, Y’all know I trust ya with my life, but I wanna get Granny’s side of the story before I go rushin into anything. So as much as I’d like to, I can’t agree to nuthin right now.”
Twilight was quiet for a while. “That’s for the best. I’m just anxious for the sake of the contract. If nopony steps up to keep to one side’s responsibilities, the whole thing could be at risk. That would be…” She shivered. “I don’t want to put you through that.”
“Uh… What?” Applejack squinted at her alicorn friend. “You mean like some kinda penalty? There’d be some penalty against us?”
Twilight glanced around evasively. “That’s a big part of contracts you know. Keeping both sides on the same page isn’t possible without teeth to the agreement, metaphorically speaking.” She hopped off the porch. “I encourage you to read it through, thoroughly. I’m not trying to trick anypony. Just… Find Granny Smith and encourage her to transfer to you willingly. There are mechanisms for me to force it but I don’t want to.”
Applejack was simultaneously impressed and unnerved by how thorough this contract sounded. She would be happier with Twilight never thinking about the farm again if she analyzed and deconstructed it the way she had. The land was a thing to cherish and understand, not tabulate and nitpick over. “Sure thing Twi. I’ll get a straight answer about what she’s done. Trust me.”
Twilight nodded. “I’ll try to be back tomorrow. I have some paperwork from Princess Celestia to work through in the meantime.”
“See ya.” Applejack watched her leave for a few moments, but the discomfort became too great and she turned her back on her friend. Applejack pried open the screen door to the house and was surprised to see Big Macintosh reposed at the dining table, not out in the orchards like she’d assumed he would be. “Uh, hey Big Mac. Ya hear much of anya that?”
Macintosh shrugged. “Eeenope.”
Whether he really hadn’t heard, or like everypony else was pretending for the sake of continuity, it didn’t matter much. “Never mind then. I dunno what I’m talking about.” Applejack shuffled off to her room, where she could recover from the shock of the day in earnest.