Assorted bowls of various sizes littered the table, empty save for a few scant bits of apple here and there. The dull light of the setting sun filtered in through the windows, making the room pleasantly warm in spite of the brisk early fall weather outside.
Applebloom sighed contentedly. "Applejack, you make the best apple salad in Equestria!" she remarked. A yellow filly, she kept her bright red mane in place with a large pink bow.
"Eeyup," assented her older brother Big Macintosh, sitting to her left. A large red stallion, he wore his trademark yoke even at the table.
From across the table Applejack smiled back from underneath her brown stetson hat. "Well, truth is it's ma's recipe sugarcube. Come to think of it, Ah gotta get around to teachin' it to you one o' these days."
Applebloom perked up at this. Sitting up, she began hesitantly, "Um, Applejack, today in school we talked about family history."
"And what did ya learn?"
"Well...Miss Cheerilee asked us about our parents, and I realized I don't know much about momma." Silence reigned for a moment. Applebloom fidgeted with her forehooves, glancing back and forth between her empty bowl and Applejack.
"She was a lovin', hard workin' mother who cared for you, me, and Big Mac with all her heart," Applejack's face fell a bit as she continued, "but one winter she fell ill while a storm rolled in from the Everfree. We got snowed in here, and ma didn't make it. That was all while you were real young, so ya likely don't remember any of it." Applejack brightened a little, and she gave a sincere smile, "But Ah know she'd be right proud of you, Applebloom."
Applebloom sat thinking for moment before replying, "But, Ah mean what did she do? All the other kids talked about what their parents did."
"W-well, she worked right here on the farm, o'course," Applejack said with a very broad smile.
Applebloom furrowed here brow. "Now come on, Applejack, what's the secret?"
"What secret? There's no secret. Nope, absolutely no secret whatsoever. Why, Ah'm surprised you'd even suggest such a thing," Applejack screwed up her face looked up and away from the table, as though something particularly interesting had appeared on the ceiling.
Applebloom crossed her forehooves and smiled smugly, "Now Ah know there's a secret for sure. Ya always make that face when ya fib, Applejack."
Applejack's grin melted away, replaced by a stern expression. "Now listen here young filly-," she began before being interrupted.
"Jackie."
Both sisters turned to Applebloom's left to look at Granny Smith. The aged, light green mare inclined her head toward Applejack with a knowing look and raised an eyebrow. Applejack glanced worriedly at Applebloom before biting her lower lip and returning Granny's gaze with a pleading look. Granny closed her eyes and nodded sagely. Applejack slumped in defeat. All the while Applebloom looked confusedly back and forth between the two.
"Do I hafta?" Applejack asked softly without looking up.
Granny leaned forward and placed one of her fore hooves on one of Applejack's. "Ah know yer worried, sweetheart," she said softly, "but that's why you should do it. Ah know you'll do yer ma's story - her whole story - justice."
Applejack slowly lifted her head to look and Granny Smith, and then turned to Applebloom with a sorrowful look. "C'mon, Applebloom. We gotta go up to the attic."
Ascending from the stairs, the Apple sisters took in the attic of their home. It ran the length of the house, and thanks to earth pony pragmatism was mostly bare. A few unused pieces of furniture, heirlooms that would never be discarded, sat along the sides, but most of the items occupying the attic piled up at the far end. An assortment of trunks and other cases sat, well-stacked and slowly collecting dust. Since the setting sun didn't reach the window on either end of the attic very well they were thankful for the lantern Applejack carried in her mouth.
Applejack slowly walked towards the trunks at the far end of the attic with a look a trepidation, while Applebloom trailed behind. Upon reaching them Applejack reared up and hung the lantern from a nail jutting from a beam holding the roof up. She then began silently moving trunks out of the way as Applebloom looked on with growing curiosity. Apparently finding what she sought at the back of the pile, Applejack grabbed with her tail one end of a small, rectangular chest that had been completely hidden under several others, almost as far back into the pile as it could go. Dragging the chest over, she set it down in front of Applebloom and then sat down. She placed a hoof on the lid of the chest and paused.
"Applebloom...Ah just want ya to know that yer ma was a good pony," Applejack spoke solemnly, turning her head to look her younger sibling square in the eye.
Applebloom stared back, not knowing how to respond.
The hinges gave a slight creak as Applejack opened the lid of the chest. Applebloom leaned forward to see. Reaching inside, Applejack brought out a hat similar to the one she always wore. This hat, however, was black as coal and didn't have a notch at the front of the brim.
"Is that ma's hat?" puzzled Applebloom, "'Cause I thought yer hat was ma's, Applejack."
"They both are, Ah mean were, hers," said Applejack, "But nopony in Ponyville would recognize this one." She gestured to the black hat from the trunk. "It was her...old...hat."
"But why'd she change hats?" asked Applebloom, furrowing her brow in confusion, "This one looks just fine."
Wordlessly, Applejack reached back into the trunk and brought out a yellowed piece of paper, folded in quarters.
"This is why," she whispered, unfolding the paper.
Applebloom stared at the paper for a split second, the gears in her head turning.Suddenly, she recognized the face staring back at her. She had seen it before in a hoofful of old, sepia-tinted photos. Her mother's likeness stared back from the aged parchment. But the face was not the sweetly smiling one she had seen in the pictures before. Drawn in black ink, this likeness of her mother glared viciously at the audience, and upon her head sat what Applebloom assumed to the old hat from the trunk. Below the image bold, all-capital letters proclaimed the mare - named Moonshine - was wanted alive for a princess-ly sum of bits.
Applebloom turned to gape at her older sister. "Ma was...an outlaw?" she asked incredulously. "And what about her name? You said she was called Apple Cinnamon."
"First," Applejack replied, "she sure enough was an outlaw from the early days of Equestria's West, back when it was wild instead o' mild." She reached into the chest again and produced a hoofful of news clippings, yellowed as the wanted poster was. Each headline proclaimed some thieving exploit of a gang dubbed "the Moonshiners". "She headed her own gang, and was one o' the roughest, toughest outlaws in the old West. Supposedly she could take most grown stallions in a fight, but Ah never knew for sure. She didn't talk about those times much."
"And as for her name," continued Applejack, "she changed it when she got here, to Ponyville, and married pa."
"But if she was wanted, how'd she end up in Ponyville?" Applebloom wondered.
"'Cause back then news didn't travel very fast. The authorities were hot on her tail out west, so she figured she'd try runnin' to Equestria. Problem was, she was running outta bits since her last robbery had failed. She staggered on to the farm starved halfta death. Pa took her in and patched her up, and she started workin' as a farmhoof to pay him back," explained Applejack.
"But they started fallin' for each other. Things were lookin' alright 'til one day pa found this here poster hidden in 'er room. She begged 'im not to turn 'er in, and said she was tryin' to start over."
"What'd pa do then?" asked Applebloom breathlessly.
The corner of Applejack's mouth curled ever so slightly upward. "He came the closest any Apple's ever come to a convincin' lie. He went down to the town hall and said his second cousin had come from out West and didn't have any papers. So they filled out some proper forms for her with a new name: Apple Cinnamon. They got married a few months later."
"And nopony ever came looking for her?" Applebloom wondered incredulously.
"Nnnope," Applejack mimicked her brother, shrugging. "The West was pretty big, so Ah guess they figured she was still out there somewhere. Ponyville was still a pretty small town then, too, so not many folks were payin' attention to it. 'Course, pa always said Celestia knew ma had turned over a new leaf for real and kept the heat off of her. Don't rightly know which one it really was."
Applebloom sat still, staring into space for a few moments. Finally she blurted, "Oh, this is so cool! My ma was a famous western outlaw and -"
"Applebloom!" Applejack cut in sternly. "Ma wasn't proud o' what she did and you shouldn't be neither. She hurt and stole from ponies for her own gain, and she gave it up 'cause she realized how wrong it was." Applejack softened, "She was running from it and here in Ponyville, in the Apple family, she found something better. Home. Changin' her name wasn't much of a lie, 'cause she practically was a new pony by then."
After a short pause, Applejack continued, "When you were born, Applebloom, she said we were the greatest adventure she'd ever had. She said if she had to do all over again she'd come straight to Ponyville and leave out all the time in the West."
"Ah'm sorry Applejack. Ah guess that's why ya didn't want to tell me, huh?" asked Applebloom.
"No," answered Applejack, leaning over and putting a foreleg around Applebloom and pulling her close, "Ah was afraid you'd look at yer ma as...that," she gestured to the still-glaring poster. "Ah know you don't actually remember 'er, and I didn't want to leave you thinkin' that she was nothin' more than an outlaw. Ah wanted you to know her as a lovin' mother, like Ah did."
"Well, she musta been the best ma in the world if she taught you to be the best big sister ever."
Applejack sniffed and wiped at her eyes with a foreleg. "Applebloom, what'd Ah tell yah about makin' me cry?"
Applebloom broke out giggling, and Applejack soon followed. Regaining her composure, Applejack smiled and said, "Well, Ah guess Granny was right again. Ah prob'ly oughta start trustin' her from the start more."
She became serious again. "But remember Applebloom. This here's an Apple family secret, and ya can't tell nopony about it. If word got out then it'd just rile up a buncha things what've been laid to rest. Sometimes it's better just to let sleepin' dogs lie."
"But...ain't that lyin', Applejack?"
"Nnnope," Applejack smirked again, "it's just withholdin' part of the truth."
"Okay, Ah guess."
"Good. Now it's gettin' late, and you best go get washed up for bed. Ah'll put this away."
The next afternoon the sun shone down on a small grove of trees settled deep within Sweet Apple Acres. Applebloom trotted into the shade alone, up to a pair of carved stones jutting from the ground. She paused and sat down in front of them. A soft breeze blew through the trees. A moment later she spoke.
"Ma, Applejack told me about ya last night...and, um...," she trailed off.
Applebloom sat in silence again, occasionally fidgeting her hooves. She finally leaned forward and placed a forehoof on one of the stones. It felt pleasantly cool, having sat in the shade.
"Ah love you."
Applebloom rose to her hooves, turned, and trotted out of the grove and back to the farmhouse.
Author's Note
I don't even know if apple salad is a thing. I just needed a food item to mention there.