"Applejack, Applebloom... Big Mac. Gather round y'all. I've got something important to say to you." Granny Smith unexpectedly announced from her throne of a rocking chair. "And this is very important. Hurry it up."
"Granny, you know I gotta do the dishes after dinner" Applejack said gently "Can't this wait until af..." "The dishes can wait, this here is important, especially for you." Granny Smith interrupted "And if I don't tell you now, I might never work up the courage to do so. So hurry it up."
Applejack swallowed heavily. Granny needed to work up the courage to tell them all something? Granny was one of the bravest, most self assured ponies that Applejack knew! "Yess ma'am" Applejack said, plopping herself down next to her grandma's throne, alongside Apple Bloom and Big Mac.
"Now, you know I won't be around forever, Applejack. You're gonna be in charge of the clan after I go. So it's important that you learn from my mistakes. Which is why I here am telling them to you now. I'm only going to tell you once, so listen carefully. I'm going to tell you why we don't trust new things, and how your father died and your mother run-oft."
"Granny, I was there when he died. I was right there, I remember exactly what happened." Applejack objected. The grizzly scene was flash frozen into her memory, and she shuddered at the thought of it. It overwhelmed her other memories of the time, and details were missing here and there... but she would never forget. She glanced at Big Mac to see if he was having a similar reaction, but Big Mac just sat there, staring blandly ahead.
"What you don't remember are the events leading up to it." Granny's commanding voice forced Applejack to bow her head in submission. "Now, be you quiet and receive wisdom."
Apple Bloom glanced rapidly between Big Mac, Applejack, and Granny Smith uncertainly. She could feel the tension in the air, but didn't really understand what was going on. "Is this a story about Mom and Dad?" She asked hopefully. She liked stories about Mom and Dad.
"Apple Bloom, I don't think you want to be hearing this story... Granny, she's only a kid! She doesn't need to hear this!" Applejack said, stomping a hoof. "It's gonna give her night terrors."
"I like scary stories!" Apple Bloom announced enthusiastically. "I'm brave enough it won't give me night terrors! I'm not a chicken like scootaloo!"
"Go to bed Apple Bloom. Tha's an order." Applejack commanded.
"Awww..." Apple Bloom began to trot away, but Granny smith held up a hoof.
"She can stay." Granny Smith said serenely
"But Granny!" Applejack
"Girl needs to learn sometime." Granny said reasonably.
"Mac, back me up on this one!" Applejack said.
Mac continued to stare blankly ahead. In the dying light of the sun, darkness and light warred across the tepid pools of his eyes.
"Mac?" Applejack asked, touching her brother's shoulder.
"Ah'm paying attention, I swear!" He announced with a start.
"R...Riiiight" Applejack said carefully. Big Mac always acted awfully strange when Da's death and Ma's runoft were brought up. It must have affected the big palooka even worse than Applejack, and she still had nightmares from time to time. She gently patted her brother on the barrel, and felt that his whole body was tense and shuddering.
Applebloom continued to watch the byplay, confused. "When do I get to hear the story?" She asked hopefully.
"Now." Granny smith said, interrupting anything Applejack wanted to say with a carefully directed glare. "I wasn't always the elderly matriarch that you know me as." Granny Smith began. "Once I was young and uncertain, like you yourself Applejack."
"No way, you were never young Granny!" Applebloom announced confidently.
"Believe it or not Apple Bloom, I was once younger than you are now," Granny Smith said with a playful gleam in her eye
"No way!" Applebloom squealed with delight.
"Careful, you're starting to sound like that lah-ti-dah friend of yours Sweetie Belle" Granny Smith teased gently.
Applejack just scowled. Perhaps Granny Smith saw some of the displeasure in Applejack's voice, as she quickly returned to the story.
"Ahem. As I was saying, I wasn't always in charge of the whole Apple Clan. The matriarch when I was young was ole Ida Red, my grandma. Her husband Yataka had been a very quiet man from a far off land, could barely speak Equestrian. I... failed to include him effectively after Ida died and left the position of Matriarch to me. That'd be my first of many early failures and hard learned lessons. But I digress."
Applejack was shocked that the indominatable old warehorse was even willing to admit to such a failure. In Applejack's memory, Granny Smith had always been a powerful force for inclusion amongst the apple clan, no matter how different they were. To hear that this was actually a thing that Granny Smith had learned from experence and wasn't born with was... well, shocking. And it wasn't even the part of the story that was 'important'. Just a little digression.
Granny noticed the shock on her grand daughter's face "Ida passed away from a freak weather accident just a year after I'd given birth to my firstborn, Braeburn's mother. I wasn't prepared to have been selected in her will as the next matriarch. That's why Ah've been preparing you for so long. Just in case something unexpected happens to me."
"But Granny, If you were so inexperienced, why were you selected" Applejack asked.
"Now honestly, that was tradition. The position is always passed from Grandmother to Granddaughter." Granny smith said "So Auntie Applesauce was right out. Mah cousin Goldie might have been chosen instead, but well... you saw her place. Besides which she never married."
"But Goldie has children!" Apple Bloom objected.
"A mare doesn't have to be married to have kids, Apple Bloom." Applejack said gently, rubbing her little sister's head
"oh." Apple bloom said, then thought a moment. "OH!"
"Most o' them were adopted." Granny Smith said "She swore off stallions after the first two. Spent the rest of her time with mares after that, but that's neither here nor there."
"What does that mean?" Apple Bloom asked, as Applejack blushed.
"Means that she dated mares instead of stallions." Grannie said.
"You can do that?!" Apple Bloom's eyes were wide as eggs.
"Well, yes, iffen' you want to." Granny Smith said gently.
"Good! Boys are stinky!" Apple Bloom said firmly. Granny Smith chuckled. "You might find your opinion on that changing as you get older dear."
"Nuh-uh. I'ma gonna date Scoots and Sweetie!" Apple Bloom said, stomping the ground.
"Better ask them if they're alright with that first, squirt" Applejack said.
Apple Bloom glanced at Applejack and Granny Smith. "More story!" She demanded, impetuously.
Chuckling Granny Smith continued. "Anyway, I'd just given birth to my firstborn when I had leadership thrust upon me. I made some mistakes, especially Balancing the Books. little as I'd say something bad about Celestia. The Interdict made balancing the books even harder"
"The Interdict?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Apple Bloom, the story isn't going to go nowhere if you keep interrupting it like that!" Applejack said frustratedly.
"No, it's O.K, it's important" Granny Smith said. "A long long time ago, the Apple family decided to try to make more money from apples by hording them. This caused a huge famine across Equestria, and huge recession. As a result, we were ordered by the princess herself to sell all of our apples every year, except the ones we preserve for later, and those we have to sell within five years. That's why the best apples in Equestria are sold for the most cut-rate prices. We get fined every time we fail to sell most of our apple stock. I had a hard time setting the prices correctly in the early days, so we got hit with a lot o' fines."
"Is that why the farm's so run down, Granny?" Apple Bloom asked, eyes wide.
"Eyup." Big mac said somewhat accusingly, before anyone else could speak. The others stared at him in shock.
Applejack coughed. "Please continue, and for the love of Celestia, no more interruptions, or I'll be sending you to your room Apple Bloom."
"Right, where was I? Oh yes. I made some mistakes, especially with the interdict. We weren't exactly poor before I took charge, but we weren't exactly rich after. This put a lot of stress on me and my husband, so we didn't have much time for our children, especially after I gave birth to three unicorn triplets. That'd be your dad and his brothers."
"Now wait here a darn tootin minute, This here is the first time I've heard about any brothers, granny." Applejack said demandingly
"Didn't I tell you Flim and Flam were your uncles?" Granny asked head cocked to the side curiously.
"What?! No! You didn't!" Applejack's consternation bled heavily into her voice. She glared daggers at her oblique Granny.
"Oh. Well, they weren't Flim and Flam back then. They were Apple Core, Apple Wedge and Apple Slice. Apple Core's your father, dear." Granny said gently, patting her knee
"I knew that already." Applejack said with a roll of her eyes.
"Just making sure dear" Granny smith said with a serine, yet somehow mocking grin. "If I could tell the tale without interruptions?"