@Background Pony #C3AA
Don’t talk to Applejack that way.

Yep. She has lied. More than once. Hypocrite!

OP is a duck.

@DragonBoi471  
Is this how conclusions in your head always go? “Character A has this trait, but if he/she does something that contradicts this trait, he/she never had this trait all along and never will.” What kind of logic is that? We, as humans, would sometimes fall into old habits when pressed with uncomfortable situations or temptations. It’s not like we undergo a life-changing experience and then boom we lose certain traits permanently. I made it a point to myself to never swear or curse, and yet, they still slip by my mouth sometimes. Does that make me a potty mouth akin to Foulmouth from Tiny Toon Adventures? No, it doesn’t. They were just slips of the tongue.
 
No one was born the way they are today, and this episode finely explains how one of Applejack’s best features came to be, so much so, she became the bearer of that virtue.

@DragonBoi471  
Honesty is a sliding scale, not an on off switch. No one is perfectly honest.

@DragonBoi471
 
Again, with the exception of Party of one which was early season weirdness, the times she’s lied have been moments of extreme stress where her honesty was coming into contact with other things she holds dear.
 
As has been said, it’s like saying Pinkie isn’t the element of laughter for getting sad, or Rarity isn’t the element of generosity for being greedy.

@Background is Best Pony  
And yet, years later, she still told lies in Party of One, The Last Roundup, Leap of Faith, and numerous other episodes. Face it, she didn’t keep her childhood promise, ergo she is not honest and never will be.

She probably pooped herself a lot as an infant too, that doesn’t make it surprising that she can walk down the street as an adult without soiling the sidewalks.

She got better.

Re-enacted “Saw” with family pets countless times as a foal; became the Element of Kindness as an adult. -Fluttershy

That was the point. Applejack had such a bad experience with lying in the past, she became a warrior for truth and honesty.

Just because you grew up to be a manchild doesn’t mean that others can’t change.

It’s been six years and six seasons, yet still there are people who completely miss the point of the show.

Yeah, I once stole a toy when a was a little kid. Now I’m a master thief who’s pulled off heists in 23 countries and is on the “Most Wanted” in 19 of them. I mean, we all know mistakes you make as a child forever define your character, right?

Like, the biggest lie I recall AJ making is in Leap Of Faith. There she disguises the truth about the tonic because she saw it was making Granny Smith so much happier. The Flim Flams rubbed it in her face that if she told the truth she would be taking Granny’s happiness away, and it was still obviously skeeving her out the whole episode.

They’re all the opposite of their elements.
 
Applebucking Season, The Last Roundup & now Where the Apple Lies. All Applejack centric episodes in which Applejack makes things worse by trying to keep up her promises.

@DragonBoi471  

 
Because no-one’s perfect and everyone has moments of weakness.

@Background Pony #E100  
They’re realistic.

fallabele characrters are uncol

@DragonBoi471
 
Because she’s a fallable character who makes mistakes?

@Coaldust  
Well, if she swore to be honest from then onward, then why does she still lie as an adult? I thought honesty meant you always tell the truth.

Ponies change, you know. Besides, Pinkie shows well that the Element Bearers are not necessarily the incarnations of their elements.
 
 
 

 
And even now, they can’t be their elements all the time.
 
 

I can’t help but think you missed the point of Where the Apple Lies, OP. She learned that lying is bad because of what happened to her family and the mess she made, and started making honesty her policy from then on.

Because these characters have to represent their element 100% of the time. :P