Applebuck Season

Dear Princess Luna..

Four more to go!

Applejack and Big Macintosh are surveying their apple orchards, they have the 'biggest bumper crop o' apples' that Applejack has ever seen. Big Mac, who is injured, says it's probably too much for her to handle.

"Too much for me to handle? Let's see how you 'handle' this!"

From what we've seen, Applejack frequently is off gallivanting with her friends, while Big Mac works on the farm, presumably doing the majority of the work. Big Mac expresses doubts that Applejack is going to be able to handle this all on her own, and Applejack flies off the handle at him for doubting her.

"Are you callin' me yeller?!"

Now here's some BS for you. Applejack was one of the anti-Trixie instigators, because hyping up your magic show apparently makes you worse than Hitler, yet here we have Applejack, boasting and bragging about how she is going to harvest all the apples herself. Lame.

As Applejack starts harvesting apples, the ground starts to shake. We cut to Ponyville, where Rainbow Dash is flying about and notices the earthquake. She cries out, "Stampede!" and we see a herd of cattle charging towards town.

Tramp, tramp, tramp, the cows are marching!

Every pony except Pinkie Pie and the mayor is panicking in Ponyville. Applejack and her pet dog, Winona, race into action to herd the cattle. Pinkie is stuffing her face with popcorn and says its the best rodeo she's ever seen.

"Why am I friends with her again?"

Applejack and Winona steer the herd away from Ponyville and get them to stop. She asks them what that was all about, the cows say they saw a snake and got the willies. Applejack tells them she understands, but try not to aim at Ponyville in the future. The villagers and her friends are proud of Applejack and plan a party to honor her.

Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the jubilee! Hurrah! Hurrah! The flag that sets you free!

They get the party set up, but Rainbow Dash says she hasn't seen Applejack in over a week, not since the stampede. A crowd gathers and Twilight starts to give a speech she prepared.

Such a Twilight thing to do. <3

 Rainbow interrupts her, flying in and knocking Twilight's notes away.

"Oh, screw you, Rainbow! Ahem, I was reading here!"

Twilight pushes Rainbow away, and tries to resume. Pinkie Pie interrupts, saying she gets to tun Sugar Cube Corner and Applejack will be helping, since she's one of the best bakers ever. Twilight tries again to do her speech, and Fluttershy interrupts.

Fluttershy. The pony scared of her own shadow, and being in front of crowds, interrupts.

So we learn that Applejack has all that work at the farm to do, and she promised Rainbow, Pinkie, and Fluttershy she would help them with various tasks. Her friends also think she's a great athlete, baker, and herder. Twilight tries to do her speech, again, asking if anyone else is going to interrupt, and she sees the mayor smiling creepily at her. Twilight gives up.

"HOOCHIE MAMA!"

The mayor has a trophy for Applejack. it is the: "Pony of Ponyville Award, to our beloved guest of honor, a pony of the utmost trustworthiness, reliability, and integrity. Ponyville's most capable and dependable friend: Applejack!" They draw back the curtains and Applejack isn't there. Spike starts cheering, and everyone stares at him. Applejack arrives and obviously hasn't slept in a while. She staggers through the crowd, thanks them, is mesmerized by her reflection in the trophy, then drags it back to the farm.

"Aw, shucks."

Twilight was concerned for her friend and headed out to the farm. She sees Applejack try to kick a tree and miss, then kick over a basket of apples, and finally falls asleep. Twilight tries to call out to her and you do not ignore Twilight Worth.

"You'll learn some respect!"

She teleports in front of Applejack and wakes her up and asks her what is going on. Applejack explains it is Applebuck season, which is what her family calls harvesting season. Twilight asks why no one else is helping, and Applejack explains Big Mac hurt himself and all her other relatives are back on their own farms.

Twilight keeps teleporting in front of Applejack. Applejack tells her she's fine and to get back to work, but we see Applejack is having blurred vision and still misses trying to kick trees.

"I love this power! It's so..me!"

Twilight asks if she needs help because she doesn't think Applejack can do it all on her own, and Applejack takes it the wrong way, thinking its a challenge. Applejack says she will prove it to Twilight that she can do it on her own.

"Maybe I should just sneak in and harvest them, it's not like she would even notice.."

Rainbow is waiting for Applejack to help with her trick. Applejack arrives, saying she fell asleep and when she woke up saw she was late. Rainbow explains her trick, which is to have Applejack jump off a tower, catapulting Rainbow into the air, where she will then do a bunch of aerobatics in the hopes of impressing the Wonderbolts.

"You ever notice how sissy our fences are? Pink and topped with hearts? Come on!"

Applejack climbs up and her blurred vision causes her to miss the target, smacking into the ground.

She hit the ground, the sound was SPLAT! Her blood went spurting high, her comrades they were heard to say, "What a helluva way to die!" She laid there rolling around in all the welter of her gore, and she ain't gonna jump no more!

Wow, douchebag Rainbow Dash doesn't even care that her friend is falling like 30 feet onto her face. We see Applejack try some more, missing the target each time. Rainbow whines that she thought she was working with Ponyville's top athlete, not even asking if Applejack is alright.

"Get up, and get it right this time. I don't care if your leg is broken. You said you would help me."

Applejack tries to just push down on it, Rainbow is not amused, and Applejack says she'll try again. As she lets go it slams down and stuns Rainbow. Rainbow yells at Applejack to wait, but she leaps off and lands on target this time, launching Rainbow into the distance.

"APPLEJACK!! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS........."

Aww, Twilight is enjoying her books out on her balcony. =]

The Library must be a vortex of power or something, as it seems Rainbow always ends up there when she goes out of control. Rainbow says some pony needs her help, Twilight Worth knows she means Applejack and heads out to meddle.

"Do I need to install safety netting here? This is getting old, Rainbow."

Applejack hits her head on a branch and can't hear well, resulting in Twilight becoming angry as Applejack keeps mishearing what Twilight says to her. Twilight tells her she needs help, but Applejack isn't ready to give up yet and wants to prove to them all that she can do it. Applejack leaves to go help Pinkie Pie at the bakery and hits her head again.

Applejack is still messed up, and can't hear well. She starts helping Pinkie and mishears everything. Chocolate chips become tater chips. Baking soda is just soda. Cup of flour is cup of sour, Applejack juices lemons. And wheat germ becomes wheat worms, which Applejack thinks is just fancy talk for earth worms, so she digs some up. Now, Pinkie was standing about 4 feet or so away, and just watched all this happen without a word.

"Worms, soda, chips, lemon juice. I guess I won't say nothin' since Pinkie's reading it out of a recipe book."

They make the muffins (seriously, how oblivious is Pinkie?) and give them away. We then see a pony nurse thanking Twilight for coming to help, as a tent is full of sick ponies. She blames the baked goods, and Pinkie corrects her with 'baked bads.'

"Last night I was dreaming of days that are gone. Of days that you might recall, and just like a photoplay up on my wall, once more I saw it all. It was just a dream you see, but how real it seemed to be. I saw buddies true marching two by two, in my dream of the big parade. I saw angels fair, with the Red Cross there, in my dream of the big parade. I saw Gold Star mothers, sister and brothers, what a sacrifice they made! I saw one-legged pals marching home to their gals, in my dream of the big parade..."

Twilight knows who is to blame: Applejack! Or, wait, I don't know, Pinkie Pie, the one who just watched Applejack put all this stuff together, including running out and digging up worms.

"Why didn't I follow Applejack to the bakery in the first place? I could have meddled and gotten something to eat."

Twilight goes out to try and get Applejack to let her help. Applejack refuses, like usual.

Twilight also wakes her up, again.

Twilight tries to guilt trip her by mentioning all the sick ponies in the hospital, but Applejack will hear nothing of it and leaves to go help Fluttershy. Twilight makes a racist mule joke and one is standing right behind her.

"I don't know about you highfalutin' Canterlot types, but here in Ponyville: No means no, Twilight."

Applejack is grumpy and asks Fluttershy why exactly they are doing this. Fluttershy explains she needs to keep track of the bunny families and tries to tell Applejack to be gentle with them. Applejack snaps at her that she doesn't need to be told what to do, and she and Winona corral the bunnies.

"The captain rides in a jeep. The sergeant rides in a truck. The general rides in a limousine, but you're just out of luck!"

Another stampede goes to Ponyville, except this time it's bunnies, terrified of Applejack and Winona. Ponies get caught out in the street and faint. Twilight is strolling along and sees them and asks what happened. They show her the bunnies and the damage they are doing to Ponyville's plants, as Fluttershy tries to stop them in vain.

The wounded ponies were crying for help from everywhere,
While others who were dying were offering God their prayer,
"Protect my wife and children if it is Thy holy will!"
Such were the prayers I heard that night in Ponyville.

 Twilight says, "Enough is enough."

"I'm sick of this monday to friday Applejack in this monday to friday Ponyville!"

Once again, Twilight tells Applejack she needs help. Applejack looks out and believes she got all the apples and makes an apple pun.

"How d'ya like them apples?"

Big Mac shows up and points out there are still tons of trees left, and asks how Applejack likes them apples. Applejack collapses and Twilight Worth starts going on. Applejack finally says okay, and Twilight is shocked. Applejack, who is lying on the ground on her back underneath Twilight, begs her for help, and Twilight just a acts a more than satisfied.

"Ahhh.... Meddling complete."

The 'mane 6' are all there helping harvest the apples. We see Twilight mass harvesting apples with magic. Twilight is also narrating a letter to Princess Celestia, where she says: Applejack is the best friend a pony could have and is always there to help any pony. The problem is that when she needs help, she finds it hard to accept it, and friendship is about giving of ourselves to friends, it's also about accepting what your friends have to offer. A very Twilight Worth moral.

+1 Unicorns/magic. But hold on a minute, why the heck didn't she do this in Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000?

 Applejack shows up with 6 things of apple juice, and tells them that she may have won the Prized Pony award, the real reward is having them as her friends. Spike awkwardly shows up, then offers them the poisoned muffins, which Pinkie said she had thrown out. The episode ends with them all walking away in disgust from Spike, who is trying to get them to eat them.

What I learned from this episode:

• This was like turbo mode for Twilight Worth, and the sad thing is she got her way in the end. Big Mac didn't have his bandage on, I think, so he would have been able to help Applejack at the end, but oh no, Twilight Worth had to make sure Applejack felt indebted to her.
• Pinkie Pie should never be left alone unsupervised. The worst part is she ate the things herself after watching Applejack put worms in the mix. Probably wasn't able to control her gluttonous urges.
• Applejack may be the most well-respected 'mane 6' member, even the Ponyvillians think she's the tops.