Friendship is Magic Issue 72

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #72 is the seventy-second issue of IDW Publishing's. In the issue, Applejack discovers an old Apple family pie recipe and seeks to recreate it for Granny Smith.

Summary
The issue begins with Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Granny Smith cleaning up the attic at Sweet Apple Acres. With the Apple family and Pear family having made amends for years of feuding and slowly coming together, Granny Smith wants to return some of Pear Butter's old belongings to Grand Pear. Among the dusty attic items, Applejack stumbles upon some of her mother's recipe books, including a recipe for "Buttercup's Family Apple Pie". Granny Smith has very fond memories of Pear Butter's apple pie but never figured out how to precisely recreate her recipe.

Applejack and Apple Bloom decide to make the pie for Granny and share it with Grand Pear as well. The next morning, they head to Sugarcube Corner and explain their special pie-making mission to Pinkie Pie, who agrees to help. Part of the pie recipe calls for "a little bit of love", which they are unsure about, but they work together to make the pie as best they can. When they deliver the pie to Granny Smith later, Granny likes it but says it is not the same as how Pear Butter made it.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack return to Sugarcube Corner to try again, but Pinkie's experimental baking methods result in failure. When Mrs. Cake enters and Pinkie and Applejack explain to her what they are doing, she offers to help them gather more exact ingredients, though she is also unsure about the "love" part of the pie recipe.

The next day, Applejack and her friends collect flour from the Troyus Mill, butter from Sun Dairy Farms, and cinnamon from Trade Craft's dry goods store. Each pony they meet that owns or runs those places also have fond memories and amusing stories about Pear Butter and Bright Mac. Some of them owe the success of their very livelihoods to Applejack's parents, and all of them are more than happy to help their children complete their pie-making quest.

Back at Sugarcube Corner, Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Pinkie Pie try to make Pear Butter's apple pie again, even using the same model of oven that she used to bake it. Unfortunately, when they bring it to Granny Smith, it is still not as good as Pear Butter's. However, Applejack is still determined to see her mission through. When she thinks about how her mother's recipe is helping her two families reconnect, she finally realizes what the "love" part of the recipe means, and she comes up with an idea.

A short while later, Applejack meets up with Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner with an additional ingredient to put in the pie, and they try baking it one last time. When they bring it to Granny Smith, Granny says they have gone to too much trouble over a simple pie recipe. But Applejack, knowing how important family was to her mother and having learning more about her parents through this quest, insists that Granny try it. When Granny tries the pie, she joyfully says it tastes exactly like Pear Butter's. She thanks her grandchildren for this long-lost gift, and Applejack says she can make the pie for Granny any time she wants.

As Granny Smith goes to invite Grand Pear for a slice of pie, Applejack reveals to Apple Bloom and Big Mac that the extra ingredient in the pie was a single pear, representing the "love" Pear Butter had for both sides of her family.

Quotes

 * Applejack: Whut's this? Buttercup's Family Apple Pie.
 * Granny Smith: Tarnation! Your mother made the best apple pie!


 * Applejack: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
 * Apple Bloom: I think so.
 * Applejack: We're gonna make this pie for Granny!


 * Pinkie Pie: Oh, my! You look like you're on a mission! Are you on a mission? Are we going on a mission? What's the mission? Is it a secret mission? Can we tell anypony? Does the mission have a code name? Do I have to sign an NDA?
 * Applejack: First, we've discussed this before: a bowl of frosting is not breakfast.
 * Pinkie Pie: But it's so tasty!


 * Pinkie Pie: Sugar... flour... cinnamon, sure. Love? Maybe? Don't hurt me, but what is love? I mean, as an ingredient?


 * Pinkie Pie: Called me mad, did they?
 * Applejack: Apple Bloom just said you seemed upset about not making the pie Granny remembered.
 * Pinkie Pie: And she will rue the day! Rue, I say! Rue!


 * Applejack: Aw, that's sweet. My daddy carried my mom's bags for her. Ah never knew that.


 * Sun Dairy Farms Pony: You're looking for the "better butter" then?
 * Big McIntosh: Eeyup.
 * Sun Dairy Farms Pony: That's our little catch phrase for our products. "Better butter." Sounds fun, don't it?
 * Big McIntosh: Eeyup.
 * Sun Dairy Farms Pony: He's a chatty one, isn't he?
 * Apple Bloom: You don't know how hard I'm fighting the urge to just say "eeyup" right now.


 * Trade Craft: [to Apple Bloom] Your parents were pretty smart, little miss. I hope you follow in their hoofsteps.


 * Pinkie Pie: Everything is ready. Operation: Operation is in effect!


 * Granny Smith: That's it! Gracious, that's exactly the pie that Buttercup used to make. How did you do it? What was I missing?
 * Applejack: It was Mom's secret ingredient. Ah think she'd want to keep it a secret. But we can make that pie for you anytime you want it.
 * Granny Smith: Thank you, everypony. I never thought I'd taste that pie again.


 * Applejack: It was right there on the list. "A little bit of love." And Mom loved her family. Both sides. And family was love to Mom. So a little bit of love was a little bit of family. One single pear.