"Y'all know Ditzy.". Applejack put it out on the table, plain as day.
The band of stallions nodded, shedding bits of humus, apple-spice hummus (for Ditzy had made an one-point landing in the snack tray), and random vegetation. A cricket chirped a sad negative from the tip of Night Melody's horn and hopped off for the fields.
"Ooh! I know Ditzy, too! Wait..."
The elephant-colored Pegasus in the room looked down at her ID tag. "Yep, that's me! So, Applejack- are they your uncles? Is that one your grandpa? His face looks kinda apple-y..."
Royal Bluegrass was indeed red from the neck down, mostly from being firmly wedged between Granny Smith and Apple Bloom, who kept finding her share of the sofa shrinking.
"I think Mister Bluegrass just needs to use the little ponies' room after all that excitement. Don't ya, sugarcube?".
The unicorn popped off the sofa like his other end was on fire and made a dignified dash for the washroom. And cold water. Plenty of cold water. "Such a nice fella, even washes his hooves real good when he's sharing a couch with a lady.", Granny sparkled.
"And the rest of you look like Big Mac thought you were a plow and ran you over the cornfield! Go on, now. Mac'll show you where the field hoofs wash up and curry off. "
"What?", Muddy managed to get out in a mild tone before Applejack cut off the impending stampede.
"Y'all look like someone decided we needed a new field in the living room! Get yer muddy, Muddy hooves cleaned up already!" - with that, she whistled up a single note, and a white-and-brown blur nipped and nudged it's way through the band.
"Hey!" "Ow! That's my tail!" "I think it tried to eat my fetlocks!" - and the ponies found themselves herded out the door as the blur paused long enough to bark joyfully and give everyone still within her best canine grin.
"I'll just go home and get cleaned up. G'bye, Applejack!"
Ditzy found herself being towed back into the room by her tail.
"Um....I know I'm kinda messy. Did you want me to help clean up the porch first? Cause it's no pro-"
"Why don't we do that, Ditzy. Apple Bloom, you and Granny make sure our guests git settled for bed while me an' Ditzy go sweep up a bit."
---
The dust and splinters flew as tails brushed across the slightly buckled boards of the back porch.
"Ditzy, why'd all them fellas act so funny around you? Did any of em' scare you, that why you said you don't know none of them?"
Applejack's tail began to scrape a bit with each swipe.
"...one of them Dinky's family? You don't like em? Cause if they're trouble, you say so. They'll be out on the next train to Anywhere soon as I set my eyes on Twilight. You ain't got a worry they'll get out of my barn 'fore then."
Ditzy's next flick managed to put a broken chunk of porch into the siding, wiggling like a loose tooth.
"Can you keep a secret, Applejack?"
"I ain't Rarity, Ditzy. You don't want a story told, I'm your mare."
Wings drooped until they began to drag lines in the sawdust.
"Can't remember a thing from the day before me and Dinky came to Ponyville, and neither does she. I still don't know what went wrong!"
Ditzy closed the space between them in a few steps, and her voice dropped to a whisper.
"I don't...I don't even know if I'm her real mama. We....we love each other very much, but...I mean...the first thing we remember was stumbling through the Everfree together and out into the edge of Ponyville. Right into Harvest's back yard-"
One wing pointed past the carrot-topped weathervane of the Apple farm's neighbor.
"One mare, one filly, half-fur-bare and scared silly. They told us the Everfree was full of bad monsters and worse magic and we were lucky to even know our own names if we'd been in there for long! I....I don't even know if my name IS Ditzy! I mean, when they asked it's what sorta came out, and it sounds right but-WAAAAAH!"
Applejack's mane became a mix of slobber, tears and bawling mare.
"I! Don't! Know! What! Went! WRONG!", Ditzy sobbed as she banged her head against Applejack's. Bits of down stuck to the mess with each tap.
"Awww..."
She hugged the grey cloud of misery until the tear-storm ran down to a drizzle.
"Ditzy, you been in Ponyville since you was a filly. I can remember seeing you since you was little, all flyin' round like a bumble-bee with the rest of the foal-flock."
"...that's Bumble Bee."
"Whut?"
"Bumble Bee. *sniffle* Parents moved to Cloudsdale when she got her cutie mark. Came back to visit when Trixie took over the town with the Alicorn Amulet. *snerk* Met her when were were watching Twilight perform for the Saddle Arabians afterwards. She looks like me, but when I asked?"
"Oh, we could be sisters! No, I don't have any long-lost sisters or cousins, dear. Oh, hiiiii Lyra! It's been AGES! *squee* are you two MAREFRIENDS now? Tell me all the good stuff!"
"...meadow muffins."
"And now there's all these ponies andtheysaidtheyknowmebutIdon'tknowwhoMEisandnowallIcanthinkofisoneofthemDinkysdaddyormyspecialsomeponiesormygrandpaor-"
*squeak!* went Ditzy as her lungs finally ran out of air and decided to say something about the whole thing by removing her speaking privileges, in favor of a Twilight-worthy bout of hyperventilating panic.
Five minutes after that, the next chapter of destiny would walk back in through the kitchen door to find the two mares dignified and ready to take on whatever the situation desired. That is, one pegasus nose-deep in a paper feedbag trying not to faint, and one earth pony with her head stuck under the sink, desperately trying to wash the pegasus slobber out of her ears before it hardened completely. But it was with dignity.
Or so the story goes.