It was morning at Sweet Apple Acres and like every morning, the rooster's crow woke most everypony up. While she had lived on the farm for a while now, Lemon Hearts was still adjusting to waking up right at sunrise. Unfortunately for Lemon Hearts, the rooster's crow did not wake her early that morning. When she got downstairs to eat she discovered that everypony else had already sat down to eat.
When everypony gave her a slight glare she said, "I'm sorry everypony, I know I've lived here for a while now but I still wind up sleeping in every now and then."
Applejack replied, "It's alright sugar cube but if you don't want to miss out on breakfast, you'll have to wake up when the rooster crows."
Granny Smith added, "Well you better not make a habit of it or you'll miss out on your breakfast."
Just as Lemon Hearts was sitting down to eat what was left of breakfast, there was a knock on the door. Applejack opened it and she was immediately greeted by Cousin Golden Delicious. None of the Apples were expecting company that day so they were a bit shocked. Applejack asked, "Hi Goldie, what brings you by?"
Goldie replied, "Well I just thought I'd drop by to visit." She looked at Lemon Hearts and asked, "Who is this?"
Lemon Hearts replied, "I'm Lemon Hearts, Applejack's cousin."
Out of all the ponies in the Apple Family, Golden Delicious knew more about the family's lineage than anypony else. She said, "Hmmm....well I think we had a unicorn in the family way, way back but I don't remember of any being in the family here recently." She cast her gaze at Applejack and asked, "Where did you hear that she was your cousin?"
Applejack replied, "Well...." She headed into the front room and grabbed their copy of the Apple Family lineage and brought it into the kitchen. She continued, "I saw it in here. Let me open it to the right page."
Applejack opened the book to where it mentioned Lemon Hearts and what part of the family she came from. When she reached the page, it came out of the book, like it was not even secured in there. Underneath it lied the true page, which had no mention of Lemon Hearts. Goldie looked at this and said, "Hmmm....I'm not sure if Lemon Hearts is family or not."
Applejack gasped, "I can see that here but Goldie, I thought you knew everything there was to know about our family's history."
Goldie was hoping to stay for a few days, she did not want to have to go right back home. She said, "I just got here and I really don't want to go back home to check on this but I'm thinking we should go somewhere where there may be some record on this."
Lemon Hearts suggested, "Well we could always go up to Canterlot. Princess Celestia has the most extensive genealogy records in all of Equestria."
Applejack replied, "Hmmm....I don't know."
Both Goldie and Lemon Hearts gave Applejack a look that said, "Please, I want to know this." When she saw this she continued, "Oh alright, we'll go up to Canterlot. I just hope that Celestia will let us in there."
Lemon Hearts said, "Well since I was one of her students and I know her personally, I'm sure she'll let us in there to take a look."
Goldie headed towards the door and replied, "Well then, let's get going."
The ride up to Canterlot was full of nervousness and anxiety. Lemon Hearts couldn't help but wonder, "What if she isn't related to the Apples, where would she live?" She knew that the apartment her friends lived in was only large enough to house four ponies and knew that the library only had room for Starlight and Spike.
When the train pulled into the station not only was Lemon Hearts quick to disembark, so was Goldie. Applejack more leisurely got off the train and said, "Hey you two, I know you want to find this out but there's no need to rush."
Both simply nodded and they headed to the palace. Given that Lemon Hearts was a student of Celestia's, despite her not having been in Canterlot for a while, the guards let her in easily and they headed to the throne room. When she arrived Celestia was surprised to see her, "Lemon Hearts, how are you doing?"
Lemon Hearts replied, "I'm doing alright, how about yourself?"
Celestia gave her a smile, "I'm doing alright." She cast her gaze at the ponies accompanying her and asked, "And who are these two?"
Lemon Hearts replied, "This is my cousin Applejack and cousin Golden Delicious...."
Applejack interrupted, "Well we think she's my cousin. We found some information in one of our family history books that puts whether she is related to us in doubt."
Goldie added, "We were wondering, since Lemon Hearts is a student of yours, if we could look in the genealogy records you have here?"
Celestia replied, "Of course you can!" She got off her throne and continued, "Follow me. All the birth records are in Canterlot tower."
Despite having been a student of Celestia's, even Lemon Hearts had never been up there. As they headed to the tower, all three of them had nervous looks on their faces. When they finally arrived, Celestia led them in and they were shocked by the size of the genealogy wing. Celestia turned back and asked, "Would you three want any help finding your family records?"
Applejack replied, "Well...."
Goldie interrupted, "Well we certainly would appreciate it your Majesty."
Celestia gave her a smile and helped them find their family records. Once they found them Lemon Hearts asked, "So how often are these updated anyway?"
Celestia replied, "Well when a pony is born, not only are records regarding that pony's parents, birth date, siblings and location of birth kept in the local records, but they are also sent up here so family trees can be created and inquiries like this can be handled."
Once Celestia grabbed all the necessary material she led them to a table and asked, "Would you like some help going through this?"
Again Goldie replied, "We would appreciate that your Majesty, there are a lot of records here."
Celestia said, "Very well then, I'll help you go through this and hopefully we can find out if Lemon Hearts here really is part of your family or not."
While Applejack seemed a bit uneasy having the princess helping with this, both Goldie and Lemon Hearts were thrilled. After over an hour of pouring over the materials, Applejack came across something she did not expect. She screamed, "What?"
Everypony turned to her and asked, "What? Did you find something?"
Applejack sat their for a minute with a stunned look on her face and replied, "I did." She took a deep breath and continued, "Lemon Hearts, you're not my cousin."
Lemon Hearts' face dropped and the mood seemed to dim in the room. She replied, "Oh, ok."
Applejack walked up to her, hugged her and exclaimed, "I love you big sis!"
Everypony gasped, "Big sis?"
Applejack led everypony over to the records she was looking over and sure enough, in the records of the ponies that were born to Applejack's parents, there was Big Mac, Lemon Hearts, Applejack and Apple Bloom. Lemon Hearts said, "I don't understand. If I'm your big sister, why wasn't I raised on the farm? Why didn't I know I was your sister?"
There was something that Goldie had been hiding for quite some time from everypony. She sighed, "Applejack, Lemon Hearts, there has been something that has been kept a secret."
Applejack became angry and asked, "Goldie, what have you been hiding from us?"
Goldie began, "Well this is something that your parents never wanted anypony to find out about. When Lemon Hearts was born, outside of the doctor, the nurses, your parents and myself, nopony else was present."
Lemon Hearts asked, "Alright but what does this have to do with me not being raised by my real parents?"
Goldie continued, "When you were born and they saw you were a unicorn, they went into a panic. They worried that the rest of the family would accuse your mother of infidelity and worried that Lemon Hearts would not be well received by the rest of the family so they did some research and found a well off family of unicorns up in Canterlot who couldn't have their own foals so they adopted you."
The fact that her parents would just put her up for adoption like that devastated Lemon Hearts. She broke down crying, "Really, they just pawned me off like that on somepony else?"
Goldie hugged her and replied, "Lemon Hearts, you have to understand that they did that for your benefit. Like I said, they worried you wouldn't be well received and your parents worried about what they would think of them."
Lemon Hearts turned to Applejack and asked, "What happened to mom and dad? Why don't they live on the farm with you, our siblings and Granny?"
Applejack held her head low and replied, "Granny has never told any of us much about it except that they were killed by timberwolves."
Despite never knowing them and being disappointed knowing about how they put her up for adoption, Lemon Hearts had tears running down her face. She sobbed, "That's terrible."
Applejack continued, "I know. It happened not too long after Apple Bloom was born so for her, Granny has basically been her mother figure."
Despite Lemon Hearts being disappointed over the adoption situation, Celestia couldn't help but smile over what they had discovered. She asked, "I take it you are happy over what you found?"
Applejack replied, "Happy, Happy?"
In unison her and Lemon Hearts continued, "We're more than happy, we're ecstatic!"
Goldie added, "I'm just happy I don't have to hide this any more."
Lemon Hearts asked, "What about the whole cousin thing though? Why was it mentioned that I was her cousin?"
Goldie replied, "Well there was a unicorn way, way back on your father's side of the family. Your great-great-great aunt Apple Tart's father, Lemon Tart was a unicorn so that is what led to the cousin thing."
Applejack suggested, "Well now that we know the truth about Lemon Hearts, what do you say sis, shall we go home and celebrate?"
Lemon Hearts hugged her and replied, "You bet we should!" She began to laugh, "I can only imagine what Minuette would think about this. She'd probably talk to Pinkie and throw us a 'I just found out I have another sister party.'"
Applejack replied, "Probably but I think this celebration should just stay within the family. It would be more special that way."
Lemon Hearts agreed, "I agree with you there. I'm sure once the others find out about this though, Minuette will insist on throwing some sort of celebration later on."
Applejack sighed, "I know, I know but before any of your friends find out, we're throwing our own family exclusive party."
Goldie turned to Celestia and said, "Well thank you your Majesty for letting us do this."
Celestia replied, "Of course." She realized that it had been two hours since she had led them back and figured that she had better get back to doing her duties. She began to head towards the door and continued, "Well I suppose I better get back to doing my duties and I'm sure the three of you need to get home so you can celebrate."
Lemon Hearts replied, "Yep your Majesty, we need to get going."
As they left the castle and headed to the train station, all three of them were the happiest they had ever been. Golden Delicious was happy that she no longer had to hide this from the whole family. Applejack and Lemon Hearts were both happy that they knew how they were truly related and Lemon Hearts knew that judging by how she was received at the family reunion when she first arrived in Ponyville, that she would be received as Applejack's sister just fine.