Apple Bloom smiled as she reared up and bucked a granny smith tree with a grant, causing the apples within to cascade down and land in the baskets she’d gathered around the base of the tree.

The town had been abuzz since Pinkie Pie’s return three days ago. She had returned, not on her own, but with a foal. When asked, she admitted that it was her own.

This had left much of town in confusion, all knowing Pinkie had not shown any signs of being with foal before leaving to go see her family.

Twilight Sparkle, luckily, had explained the situation of Pinkie’s unusual journey into motherhood. It had been, as strange as it sounded, due to a magic rock. Apparently, Pinkie’s sister, Maud, had discovered it during her studies and had brought it home to see if their dad had ever seen such a stone before. He had not.

Pinkie, being the ever curious pony she was, had taken the stone out of the magical bag Maud had been keeping it in on advice from a unicorn professor. When she did, she’d gotten “The Doozy”.

Now, Apple Bloom had heard about The Doozy from Applejack. Pinkie had started shuddering vigorously because something big was going to happen; the something big turning out to be Twilight believing in Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense.

This time, it had been something else entirely.

After Pinkie got The Doozy, the stone had shown with a blinding light and, when it faded, the foal was there, who Pinkie named Surprise.

Apple Bloom was happy about Surprise for several reasons. One, she was happy Pinkie now had a foal of her own, two, she thought her name suited her perfectly, since she'd taken everypony, even her own mother by surprise and three, because she now had another cousin. If she understood it right, she now had a fifth cousin, three times removed.

Pity Babs can’t be happy ’bout it, she thought sadly.

Two days after Pinkie had come back with Surprise, Babs had arrived in Ponyville, saddlebags full, crying. Her parents and older sister had died in a fire in Manehatten, leaving her an orphan. The only reason she hadn't died with them was because her sister had thrown her out of a window into the waiting forelegs of the firepony pegasi. However, before she or they're parents could follow, the ceiling above the window had collapsed, cutting off their escape.

When asked why she’d come to Ponyville, she’d said that she’d been placed in Aunt and Uncle Orange’s care and had hated it just as much as Applejack had. So, one night, she’d packed up all her things, used what few bits she’d had left from her last allowance to pay a train ticket and headed for Ponyville.

Unfortunately, Babs only seemed the slightest bit happier in Ponyville than she had in Manehatten with their Aunt and Uncle. Apple Bloom had lost count of the times she’d found Babs crying, only to wipe her eyes and act like nothing had happened.

Applejack had, luckily, found something to take Babs mind off of things. Applebucking. While it left one to their thoughts, it tended to allow clarity.

It was late in the afternoon now and Apple Bloom realized she hadn’t seen a sign of Babs all day. This was not too odd. Since being given a chance to do some applebucking to take her mind off things, Babs had been bucking from the time Celestia raised the sun, to when Luna raised the moon.

Apple Bloom frowned. Maybe she should go check on her? She only hoped she wouldn’t find Babs sobbing again. It hurt, seeing her cousin cry like that.

The little filly wiped her brow and turned, heading in the direction of the eastern field, where Babs was meant to be bucking today.

Apple Bloom frowned as she walked through the eastern field. Aside from the bushels full of apples underneath each tree, she’d seen no sign of Babs anywhere and she’d been searching for over an hour now.

As she turned to head towards the western field, thinking maybe Babs had finished this field and moved on to another, when she paused. She could faintly hear something she hadn’t expected. Crying. But, it was not the crying of a filly in pain. It was the crying of... a foal?

Maybe Pinkie had come by and brought Surprise with her?

Apple Bloom hurried in the direction of the crying. As it grew louder, she could swear it sounded familiar, as if she’d heard it once before, but couldn’t remember where.

She rounded a corner and found one tree it seemed Babs hadn’t finished yet. There were apples scattered along the ground, yet to be picked up and place in the baskets.

However, Apple Bloom could see something in one of the baskets. It looked like a small bit of Babs’ mane sticking up from the inside.
Apple Bloom gave a sad smile and walked towards the basket and started saying, “Babs, you wanna talk? Like Ah’ve said since ya came here, if’n ya need a shoulder t’ cry on, ya just have t’—”

Her voice caught in her throat. Sitting in the basket was a pony that did indeed look like her cousin, same mane, same fur, same eyes... but she was a foal.

The Babs-look-a-like foal stopped crying for a moment, looking at Apple Bloom, then she began crying all over again, her wails hurting the filly’s ears.

Knowing she needed help, Apple Bloom picked up the foal that looked like her cousin, put her on her back and was about to run back towards the house, when she saw an apple core lying on the ground.

From the moistness of its juice against her hoof when she picked it up, it clearly had been eaten recently. An odd thing she noticed was that the small amount of the skin she could see at the top of the core, it wasn’t any apple colour she’d ever seen before. Pink.

Not sure how she knew it was connected to the foal that looked like her cousin, but knowing it all the same, Apple Bloom tucked it into her bow and bolted across the field, heading for the farm house, hoping her big sister could help explain what was going on.

“Well, this sure is weird,” Applejack muttered as the foal Babs snuggled against her as they sat in the living room.

The moment Apple Bloom had bolted inside, carrying a crying foal the looked like their cousin, she had Big Mac hurry off to Twilight’s castle, hoping the Alicorn to shine a bit of light of the subject.

However, now, as she, her sister, brother and grandmother sat around the living room, Twilight sitting on another of the couches.

Twilight had used a spell that had tested who the foal was and, though they all found it hard to understand the how, the foal was indeed Babs Seed.

Not only that, but the moment Babs had seen Applejack when Apple Bloom had returned, she made motions as if she wanted to go to her. When Applejack took her, she stopped crying and settled down, snuggling into the mare’s embrace.

“This makes no sense,” Twilight shook her head, examining the apple Apple Bloom had brought back, levitating it in her magic. “First a rock turns Pinkie into a mother and now an apple with an unusual skin colouring turns Babs into a foal?”

“And, by the looks of it, imprinted Applejack as her mother,” Granny Smith said, looking at her granddaughter and (great?) granddaughter, the latter dozing happily against the former.

“What’re we gonna do?” Apple Bloom asked, looking from her sister to Twilight. “Can ya turn her back?”

Twilight glared at the apple core as she levitated it into a plastic bag and placed it into her saddlebags, then looked to the filly uncertainly. “I’m afraid I can’t promise anything yet, Apple Bloom,” she said solemnly. “Not at least until I’ve had a chance to study this apple and find out if there’s anything odd about its genetic makeup, or if there’s some kind of potent magic hidden within it.”

Apple Bloom’s face fell and her ears drooped.

Twilight turned to Applejack and levitated a small yellow box out of her saddlebags and over to her.

The farm mare took them, read the box, then cocked an eyebrow at her. “Motherin’ pills?”

Twilight nodded, standing up. “Until I can figure out what’s going on, Babs will need feeding and, if my scan is right, she’s now only a few months old, meaning she won’t be able to digest anything bad breast milk.”

Applejack nodded, understanding.

Twilight sighed. “Now I've got to figure out why a rock made a part of Pinkie come out of her as a foal as well as an apple that turned a filly into a foal.” She shook her head. “I won’t be getting any sleep tonight.” She turned, then glanced back. “Will you need any help with her? Foal supplies, a crib, nursery?”

Granny Smith chuckled. “Nah. Never you mind none, Princess. We’ve still got Apple Bloom’s old nursery set up. We can use that.”

Twilight nodded, said her farewells, then left, heading back towards her castle, bracing for a longer night of studying than planned, now having to figure out things connected to foal related incidents.

Celestia excused the ponies she’d been speaking with, then stretched her wings and cricked her neck to get some feeling back.

“Mind if I join you, princess?”

Celestia sighed as Discord appeared, draped over the top of her throne.

“Have you any news about Pinkie Pie’s sudden motherhood?” she asked, knowing that would be the only reason he’d appeared to her at this time of the day.

Discord nodded, turning into a ball during the forward motion, dropping to the ground, bouncing, then appearing above the ball, picking it up and tossing it into the air, it landing and disappearing into a hoop that had not been there a moment ago.

“Well, yes and no, I’m afraid,” he said, scratching his head.

Celestia sighed, then motioned for him to continue.

Discord folded his arms, a curious, yet happy expression on his face. “Just a few minutes ago, Apple Bloom discovered her cousin, Babs Seed as a foal in Sweet Apple Acres’ eastern field, with a core of an apple that seemed to have pink skin.”

Celestia cocked an eyebrow at that, then smiled. “I take it Twilight is studying the core as we speak?”

Discord chuckled. “Soon. Right now she is on her way to speak with the Apple family about the matter, though I have no doubt she will be doing just that tonight.”

Celestia’s expression saddened. “Wait. Babs Seed? The filly Applejack told me in a letter recently lost her family?”

Discord nodded, that expression still on his face. “Though, with what’s recently happened, she has a new family... and a new mother.”
Celestia blinked, then gave a warm smile. “She imprinted Applejack as her mother, didn’t she?”

Discord nodded.

Celestia’s smile faded, turning into a frown. “Discord, this is not something we can just ignore now. Twice has an incident occurred in which my subjects have been changed—”

Discord shook his head. “Don’t worry, Celestia. The chances of something like this happening again are so slim, if you turned it sideways you wouldn’t be able to see it.”

As he spoke he turned to his side, seeming to disappear, until he turned again, grinning, then clicked his talon and vanished for real with a pop.

Author's Notes:

Ouch. Maybe that was a bit harsh to take Babs parents like that, but hey, now she has a mom again and a loving aunt, uncle and great grandmother, so that balances it out, right?

Now, who will be my next target for foalification? Oh, these two will do. Who am i talking about? Head for the next chapter right now and find out.

Until next time, later everypony