Bright sunlight streamed through the window of a lavender unicorn’s book filled home. Twilight Sparkle was ready to go about her daily duties as Ponyville’s librarian. Twilight’s faithful assistant, Spike, was still snoozing in his wicker basket upstairs. She was just starting to make some apple cinnamon pancakes when she heard a hard rap on the door.
"The library isn’t even open yet!" The unicorn shouted with usual morning grumpiness, "Can’t ponies ever read the sign on the door!?” Still, she trudged to the entrance, expecting Ditzy Doo to be there. The poor pegasus usually had trouble remembering the library’s hours. Instead, Twilight opened the door to find her orange earth pony friend.
“Good morning Applejack.” She yawned, as the country mare stood there with her signature stetson and green saddle bags.
“Good mornin’ to ya Twi!” Applejack said cheerily. “Sheesh, ya seem more tired than Rarity workin’ on a new fancy outfit! Late night?”
“Yeah, I had to do some research for the princess on protective military armor for the Canterlot guards. Took me most of the night. Come on in!”
“Thanks Twilight!” AJ replied, wiping her hooves on the doormat. “It smells mighty good in here! Whacha cookin’?”
“Apple cinnamon pancakes, I let Spike sleep in today. He went out yesterday on a hunt for more gems,” Twilight giggled at the thought, “he still needs to make that jewel cake.” The two ponies casually walked into the librarian’s small kitchen. The unicorn stationed herself by a griddle and the earth pony sat at her friend’s breakfast table.
“Ah still can’t figure why he ate the ones we paid him with that one time, he seemed really excited ‘bout that cake.”
“Neither can I!” The unicorn laughed, flipping some of the golden-brown pancakes with her magic.
“So what brings you here at such an early hour? If you’re not here for breakfast, that is.”
Applejacks stomach rumbled loudly. She gave a blush of embarrassment as the unicorn levitated two navy blue mugs from a nearby cabinet.
“Naw, you don’t need ta feed me sugarcube, I just had a question for ya and then Ah’ll be outta yer mane.”
“Nonsense, I have plenty of pancakes to go around!” Twilight brought a freshly brewed pitcher of coffee over to the table along with the mugs. “Want some?” she asked.
The aroma of the black beverage made the orange pony give a relaxed sigh.
“Alright Twi, Ah could use a pick-me-up. None of that cream or nothin’, just black, thanks.”
The lavender pony smiled as she poured the coffee for Applejack, also taking the pancakes off the griddle and sliding them onto a plate. The thick flapjacks smelled delicious, the cinnamon and apples were combined perfectly. A sweet orchard smell wafted to the farmer to make that sweet smell she was use too.
“Mmmm,” Applejack inhaled the familiar scent, “Ah didn’t know you could cook Twilight!”
This time it was the unicorns turn to blush as she sat down with maple syrup, plates, and silverware.
“Thanks! It’s my mom’s recipe, she taught me when I was little. Help yourself!"
Applejack wasted no time in putting three steaming pancakes on her plate, then drenching them in syrup.
“I can see that somepony’s a little hungry.” Twilight teased as she added sugar to her coffee.
“Why doncha cook more often?” The earth pony mumbled around a mouth of pancakes.
“Well, I’m usually busy with work from Princess Celestia, I finished that ontology assignment last night though, so I really don’t have much today. And usually Spike cooks meals for me, but he’s still asleep.”
“Asleep?” AJ chuckled, “I can hear the feller snoring from all the way down here!”
True to form, the baby dragon was making sounds like a bear, dreaming of a certain damsel in distress, and the brave knight who was sure to rescue her.
“Yeah, he does tend to snore pretty loud.” Twilight remarked, taking a bite of her pancakes.
“Anyway, these pancakes are awful good!” Applejack complimented."If ya didn’t get yer cutie mark in magic, a good Plan B woulda been baking!”
Twilight smiled at her friend’s kind words. “Thanks AJ, now really, why are you here so early? It isn’t even eight yet,” she said, glancing at the clock.
The orange pony shifted uncomfortably in her seat and swallowed the last bite of her breakfast.
“Well Ah- Ah wanted ta talk ta ya about somethin’ Ah found in the basement yesterday.” Applejack began to dig something out of her saddlebags. “Ya see, Apple Bloom wanted to bake a pie with me, and we were out of flour for the crust in the kitchen. I went down to our basement ta see if we had any extra, and while I was pokin’ around, Ah came across this big ol’ thing.” She finally hauled a large and dusty book onto the table. Twilight recognized it immediately.
“A photo album?” She asked, examining the cover. The leather album’s cover looked pretty plain. It had simple stitching and binding, and was in great condition, except that it was a bit dirty. Small cursive hoofwriting had been scrawled across a piece of paper and put inside a plastic covering. The label read simply, Apple Family Memories.
“Yeah, and this looks a whole lot like Granny’s hoofwriting.” The farmer indicated the title. “Ah looked through here a little bit last night.” She began to flip through the album. “Most of the pictures were taken when Ah was just a little filly, like right after Ah got my cutie mark.” The photo showed a small orange filly, her eyes filled with tears and three red apples on her flank. An older red colt stood close by her side, beaming with pride at his little sister.
“Ah remember Granny takin’ that picture. Or this one, when Mama and Pop brought Apple Bloom home from Ponyville Hospital.” The next picture showed yellow baby filly, comfortably swaddled in a pink blanket. Holding her was a very pretty golden mare with a caramel-colored mane.
“That’s my Mama.” Applejack told Twilight proudly.
“I’d assume that’s your dad then.” The unicorn smiled, pointing to a dark maroon stallion with a mane the color of straw. He held a stalk of wheat between his teeth as he gave a wide grin. “He reminds me a lot of Big Macintosh, except the eyes. You both have your mother’s, you know.”
“We got compliments about that a lot.” The earth pony said sadly as she continued to flip through pictures, “ponies always say that Apple Bloom has Granny's eyes too, but in my opinion AB's are lighter. What I really wanted to show you was this.” AJ stopped at a section near the back of the album were there was a small piece of writing that said:
In Memory of Snow Apple
Who may have left our farm
But will always be in our hearts
R.I.P.
“Snow Apple?” Twilight questioned curiously, “Who is-“
“Ah don’t know,” Applejack sighed, staring at the writing, “Ah’m pretty sure no ‘Snow Apple’ has ever come ‘round Sweet Apple Acres. An’ Apple family funerals are huge events, like a weddin’ or a reunion! The whole dang family comes out! How come Ah don’t remember it?”
The lavender unicorn gasped as she saw a few pages filled with pictures of the same young filly. She had a bright off-white coat with a golden-brown mane. But what really shocked Twilight was the pony who accompanied her in most of the pictures.
“It’s… you.” She finally spoke.
“Ah know,” Her friend said flatly, “that’s why I’m so confused, Ah haven’t seen hide nor hair of this pony my whole life.”
“Well, you look pretty young,” Twilight observed, “You probably wouldn’t remember much of her. She might’ve been a playmate, or a daughter of your parent’s friends.”
“Does this say ‘friend’ to you!?” The frustrated pony jabbed her hoof at a picture of two cribs. Applejacks mom was tucking in the same white filly, across the room, an orange filly was sound asleep. “Fillies don’t have sleepovers at that age Twi; ya see how young we are!”
“Maybe she’s just another member of The Apple Family?” The unicorn suggested, taking the plates and mugs to the sink.
“We Apples know every other Apple in Equestria. There’s somethin’ special about this ‘Snow Apple’, and Ah’m gonna figure it out if it kills me!” She began to shove the large book back into her saddle bags.
“Applejack, I can see how important this is to you, but this is just some pony!” Twilight wrapped a hoof around friend kindly, “Why do you want to find out about her so badly?”
Applejack looked at her friend solemnly, “Ah get this… this vibe when Ah think about her, like somethin’ just ain’t right, like, I should know her, but Ah can’t place where!”
“You probably just forgot about her, and the pictures reminded you. Don’t worry about it,” the unicorn gave the confused pony a gentle hug, “I’ll let you know if I think of anything else.”
“Ah sure do appreciate that Twi, and thank ya kindly fer breakfast.” The orange pony shrugged on her saddlebags and started to the door.
“Anytime,” Twilight said, opening the exit, “and if you feel the need to talk about it again, you’re always welcome here.”
“Ah’ll probably talk to Granny about it when Ah'm done with my chores, but if she doesn’t give me anything, Ah’ll definitely stop by again.” The orange pony trotted out of Twilight’s home with a lighter heart. “See ya Twi!” she called back.
“Bye Applejack!” The unicorn quietly shut the door behind her and headed to the kitchen to do the breakfast dishes. Meanwhile, a sleepy baby dragon noisily came downstairs.
“Good Morning Spike!” Twilight shouted as her assistant entered the kitchen.
“Hi Twilight,” Spike grumbled, rubbing his eyes, “was somepony here? I heard the door shutting."
“Sorry, did it wake you?” The unicorn dried off a plate and put it in its rightful place.
“Yeah, but I was already awake.” The dragon seated himself at the table.
“Oh, yes, Applejack stopped by; she had a question for me. What do you want for breakfast? I made pancakes.” Twilight stood over her creation proudly.
“Sure. I’ll have five.” Spike marveled at the delicious looking pancakes.
“How does three sound?” The librarian levitated Spikes breakfast over.
“Sounds terrible,” The baby dragon moaned.
“Sorry, but I can’t have you getting a stomach ache.” Twilight put away the last mug.
“Ugh,’ Spike said, cutting into his pancakes, “What did AJ have to ask you?”
“Oh, something about a…” The unicorn paused, “A friend.”
“A friend? One of your friends?” Her assistant had already eaten two pancakes.
Twilights eyes widened at Spike’s plate, “No, a friend she had when she was a filly. Wait...” Twilight stopped. She remembered something from the photos Applejack had shown her.
The filly’s eyes were the same exact color as Applejack’s.
Edited by:kingtiger666