Applejack passed a stack of apple pies to Apple Bloom. “And these four are to take to the old ponies’ home across from Quills & Sofas.”
“Okay, AJ,” Apple Bloom said, loading them onto her cart, and beaming. “Thanks for letting me make this delivery by myself. After last time, I wasn’t sure you’d trust me.”
“Of course I trust you, little sis… now get a move on. Them pies won’t deliver themselves!” Applejack gave her younger sister an affectionate slap on the flank, and the filly towed her cart into town.
Big Mac stood behind a tree in the orchard, watching his little sister leave, headed towards Ponyville. He put on a pair of dark glasses.
Back in the farm house, Applejack took the last pie out of the oven, putting it on the windowsill to cool down. “There… that’ll be nice as a treat after dinner.” Exhausted from a morning baking pies and pastries, she decided to go upstairs to put her hooves up and catch twenty winks… okay… if she was going to be honest with herself, which she always was, maybe forty.
Two hours later, a bleary-eyed Applejack stumbled down the stairs and headed to the kitchen for a glass of water. She took a sip and rested her elbows on the windowsill, watching the world go by. After a few moments, she saw Apple Bloom come in through the gateway at the front of the farm, trotting eagerly back to the house.
Apple Bloom would sure be happy about that pie they’d be having after dinner. But wait… where was the pie? Applejack looked around frantically… she hadn’t knocked it off the windowsill, had she?! The pie was nowhere to be seen! There was only one rational explanation: a pie thief!
Ten minutes later, Applejack had gathered the suspects in the living room: Apple Bloom, Big Mac, and Granny Smith. Winona sat in the corner regarding what was going on.
“Some pony has eaten the apple pie that was cooling on the windowsill!” Applejack said.
The other ponies looked at each other.
“The pie,” Applejack continued, “was for the four of us to share. Whichever pony took it, you were going to get a fair portion anyway, but now the rest of us will have none. I’m very disappointed in you… whoever it was.” She looked each of them in the eyes. “But I already know which of you it was… I’m giving you a chance to come forward and confess, and you won’t be punished.”
None of the ponies confessed.
“Apple Bloom! It was you!” Applejack accused, pointing at her younger sister.
Apple Bloom was stunned. “What?! No!”
“You love apple pie better than any of the other ponies in this family. Of course it was you!”
Apple Bloom shook her head. “No, no, no… I’ve been in Ponyville for the last two hours… how would I steal your pie?”
Applejack thought for a moment. Her younger sister’s defence did make sense.
“Besides which, if I was gonna steal a pie,” Apple Bloom continued, “I had a whole wagon full of them… the old ponies’ home wouldn’t have noticed if one pie had been missing. Neither would the school house.”
Applejack sighed. Her initial hunch hadn’t been right. She turned accusingly towards Granny Smith. “You’ve been pretty quiet during this whole thing!” she said.
“What?! Where’s the fish?!” Granny Smith spluttered, waking up.
“Where were you this afternoon?” Applejack asked.
Granny Smith thought for a while, trying to remember. “I’ve been with your great-aunt Apple Rose all afternoon.”
“And what were you doing?”
Granny Smith’s eyes shot open, all traces of sleepiness now gone. “Ummm… never you mind, young miss. That’s my business.”
Applejack looked at her grandma with curiosity. “Can Apple Rose confirm you were with her?”
“I’m sure she would.”
Her older brother was the final pony to come under Applejack’s suspicion. “So, Big Mac, where were you all afternoon?”
Big Mac gulped and looked at Apple Bloom. “I’d rather not say.”
Applejack walked straight up to the stallion and stood, her muzzle an inch away from his. “Confess, Big Mac! Be honest!”
Big Mac shook his head. “Eenope!”
Applejack knew that was all she’d get out of him. It had to be him, but she couldn’t prove it.
Winona walked casually out of the room and out into the orchard. There she found Spike, resting under a tree. “I know it was you.”
Spike looked up. “What was me?”
“You stole the pie!” Winona barked.
“What? What pie?” Spike asked.
“Nobody else could have done it, but I’ve seen you hanging around Sweet Apple Acres for the last couple of hours. You ate the pie, didn’t you?”
Spike looked around furtively. “No, it was… it was Apple Bloom!”
Winona shook her head. “Alibi.”
“Granny Smith!”
“Alibi.”
“Big Mac!”
“Alibi.”
“Well, I give up then,” Spike said, shrugging his shoulders.
“It was you!” Winona insisted. “But now every pony thinks Big Mac — your friend — is guilty.”
Spike looked at him curiously. “I thought you said he had an alibi.”
“Big Mac was following Apple Bloom around in town, making sure she was safe,” Winona explained. “But he’s never going to admit that because he doesn’t want Apple Bloom to think he doesn’t trust her.”
Spike started looking guilty.
Winona looked at him with her puppy dog eyes. “Please confess to Applejack, Spike. She’s a forgiving pony, you know that. And you know how much she values honesty. If you don’t, then Big Mac will be punished for a crime he didn’t commit.”
Spike’s heart melted. “Okay, okay, it was me. I’ll go tell Applejack.”
Winona smiled, and accompanied him on the trip to see her owner.
Applejack was as forgiving as Winona had said she would be. That night, the six of them, shared a great big apple pie, conveniently left over from Apple Bloom’s deliveries.