“How…” Applejack paused, before deciding that simple was probably best. “How long?”

Even then, Twilight cringed at her two words..

“Three weeks,” she said, idly stroking her mane a little faster. “Actually, more like three and a half weeks.”

Applejack took in a deep breath and let it out as one long sigh. Her brain was already firing every which way, and she couldn’t begin to imagine how Twilight was feeling.

“Did’ja tell anyone else?”

Shaking her head, Twilight just barely managed to say, “No, I didn’t. I haven’t even told him.”

“That… that must have been pretty difficult.”

Twilight nodded and kept on nodding until Applejack took a hold of her shoulders and pulled her close. The wings made it a little awkward, because Applejack hadn’t hugged very many pegasi (or alicorns, for that matter), but it was enough to calm Twilight down just a little.

A sound came from downstairs—it was Applebloom coming back from school. Twilight cringed again, and she and Applejack waited until the muffled hoofsteps quieted down.

“Better now?” asked Applejack when Twilight had calmed down.

“Yes.” She smiled, and even though it was weak, it was real.

“Can I ask you why you came to me?” said Applejack. “Fluttershy’s the only one of us with experience with this sorta thing, so I would’ve reckoned that she’d be a good first choice.:

“I don’t know. It felt like the right thing,” said Twilight. She shifted uncomfortably. Underneath her, Applejack’s old bed groaned and sagged, making the two mares settle a little bit closer together. “What… what should I do, Applejack?”

Applejack sighed again and pushed some of her hair out of her eyes. She had never considered thinking a particular strong suit of hers, but Twilight had come to [i]her[/i] about this. Applejack trusted that girl’s judgement—often even more than her own. So if Twilight thought that coming to her was the right choice, then it’d be a warm day in Tartarus before she let her down.

“There was a time when I was little,” Applejack said, after a while. “I’ll be direct about it; it was right after Ma and Pa passed. Every day there is always a lot of work to be done around a farm, and back then there were suddenly fewer hooves to share it.”

Twilight’s eyes met Applejack’s, and they were wide and soft and understanding. For a split moment, Applejack had to fight off the odd sensation that [i]she[/i] had been the one asking for help, and that Twilight was the one lending a listening ear. It took a little bit of effort to brush the thought aside.

“I know for certain that Mac got the worst of it,” Applejack continued, “but I wasn’t slouching neither. Went straight to bed every night after dinner, every limb sore and every inch of my back sore. And I’d lay in this bed, and I’d imagine myself sinking down into it.”

Applejack gestured with a hoof as she tried to put the next bit into words.

“I’d kind of just see myself like a ghost. Falling down, drifting straight down through the floor, down past the cellar. Was almost like a dream. I’d just slide down, down, down, until I got to the center of the earth. And it would be quiet, down there, and empty, and the dirt and rocks would be cool enough to rest my aching body against.”

“Then what?” asked Twilight.

“Then I ran away to Manehattan,” Applejack smiled, a little sheepish. “The nights there were noisy, and the beds were stiff and hot.”

Applejack could tell Twilight was thinking for a minute. Then something about the alicorn’s posture just [i]clicked[/i].

“You’re saying I can’t run from my problems.”

“Well,” said Applejack, “I think you chose to come to me of all ponies for a reason. I think that deep down, you need to do the honest thing.”

“I need to tell him.” Twilight’s voice was resolute and absolute. “He deserves to know.”

“I reckon he does.” Applejack drew Twilight into another hug, and the two of them silently sat there on her bed for a while.

“Hey Twi.” Applejack broke the silence with a little bit of bashfulness in her voice. “Have you, um, I mean to say, do you know..?”

Twilight smiled, knowing her question before it was even finished.

“I cast a detection spell yesterday,” she said. A happy light began to twinkle in her eye as she spoke.

“It’s going to be a girl.”