Applebuck Season

Applebuck Season is the fourth episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, season one. In this episode, with her big brother, Big Macintosh, hurt, Applejack volunteers to harvest the apple trees in Ponyville all by herself.

Episode Summary
The episode begins in Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack points out how much work she has, seeing all the apples in the orchid. With Big Macintosh injured, she decides to take her brother's place. Despite Big Mac warning her that it would be a huge task for just one pony, she vows that she could take care of it by herself.

"How many times do I gotta say it!? I don't need NO help from NO pony!"

- Applejack

As she begins, she notices a herd of cattle stampeding towards Ponyville, but she is able to lead the cows away from the town with the help of her dog, Winona. Impressed by the farm pony's loyalty and reliability, the ponies throw a ceremonial party in her honor. Twilight Sparkle tries to give a speech, while being constantly interrupted by her friends, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttlershy, all excitedly announcing their plans with the guest of honor. When AJ is finally introduced, she is nowhere to be found. When Applejack finally arrives late, her sleep-deprived state causes most of the ponies become concerned enough for Twilight to investigate. "Applebuck Season," she learns, is when the apple orchard is harvested. After hearing the story of Applebuck Season, and learning that her large family only came for her family reunion (in the first episode) and were away dealing with their own orchards, she offers to help, but Applejack stubbornly refuses.

Having earlier promised to help out some of her friends, an exhausted Applejack ends up hindering them more than anything. During her favor to help catapult Rainbow Dash so she can perform special aerial tricks, she is unable to focus and ends up hurting herself by missing her side of the launcher repeatedly. Dash wonders in annoyance if AJ is really Ponyville's best athelete. In the end, she succeeds in one last attempt, but the unprepared pegasus is sent flying onto Twilight's balcony. Twilight guesses that Applejack is involved and returns to Sweet Apple Acres to offer her help. Applejack has difficulty hearing after hitting her head, but still declines.

Later, she helps Pinkie Pie with baking muffins at Sugercube Corner while Mr. and Mrs. Cake are away. Her state causes her to misunderstand her friend's instructions, substituting potato chips for chocolate chips, regular soda for baking soda, a cup of sour lemon juice for a cup of flour, and earthworms for wheat germ. The resulting unsavory muffins give Pinkie and half the town food poisoning (except for Spike, who took a liking to the so-called "baked bads").

Continuing her apple harvest later, AJ once more is offered help from Twilight, and once more she refuses. Twilight expresses her annoyance of her friend being "stubborn as a mule", but apologizes to a nearby mule afterwards.

During her third promised task, helping Fluttershy with rounding up a group of baby rabbits during the "bunny census", the farm pony becomes too frustrated to handle a delicate operation, treating the bunnies like the cattle she herded earlier. The herd panics and stampedes into Ponyville where they eat most of the town's plants, ruining some gardens and making Fluttershy's task harder to finish. Twilight sees all this happening and decides to confront AJ once and for all.



She arrives and tells Applejack that her stubbornness caused as much problems with her friends as with her, and that she really needs help. Applejack thinks that she's finally finished, but Big Macintosh arrives to point out that she only gathered half of the harvest after this whole time. After fainting from shock and exhaustion, she wakes up to hear Twilight appreciate how reliable she normally is, but that she should set her pride aside. No longer in any condition to continue, Applejack finally gives in and accepts, or rather begs for, the help of her friends. They finish in half the time she herself tried to do, and are all treated to apple juice. She thanks them all for their help and apologizes for causing them so much trouble from her stubborn streak.

Applejack learns that it is just as okay to accept help as it is to give help.

Spike comes by in the end to offer the bad muffins he found in the garbage, which the ponies refuse to try, or even touch, and leave in disgust.

Quotes
Applejack: Are you sayin' my mouth is makin' promises my legs can't keep?

Big Macintosh: Ee-yup.

Applejack: This is your sister Applejack, remember? The loyalest of friends and the most dependable of ponies?

Big Macintosh: But still only one pony. And one pony plus hundreds of apple trees just doesn't add up to-

Applejack: Don't you use your fancy mathematics to muddy the issue!

Twilight Sparkle: Now, if I can just make a point without being inter--

Fluttershy: Twilight?

Twilight Sparkle: ...--rupted!

Twilight Sparkle: Anyone else? Anyone? No? Well then, as I was trying to say... UGH! Never mind!

Rainbow Dash: Applejack, what the 'hay' is going on? I mean, I thought I was working with "Ponyville's best athlete".

Twilight Sparkle: Oh no! What happened?

Nurse Redheart: It was a mishap with some of the baked goods.

Pinkie Pie : No... not baked goods. baked... bads...

Twilight Sparkle: AJ, I think you're beating a dead... tree.

Twilight Sparkle: Ugh. That pony is as stubborn as a mule. No offense...

Mule: None taken.

Twilight Sparkle: All right, Applejack. Your apple-bucking hasn't just caused you problems. It's over-propelled pegasus, practically poisoned plenty of ponies, and terrorized bushels of brand-new bouncing baby bunnies.

Applejack: I harvested the entire Sweet Apple Acres without your help. How do you like them apples?

Big Macintosh: Um... How do you like them apples?

Gallery



 * Applebuck Season image gallery

Trivia

 * Originally, the episode involved "applebumping", with Applejack's loss of acuity resulting from using her head to bump apples off trees. The concept was dropped and replaced with "applebucking".
 * The scene when the bunnies were running around the unconscious pony is a lot like the scene in The Lion King when Mufasa was killed by the herd.
 * The line uttered by Roseluck, "The horror, the horror..." is from the Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, later used as the basis for the better-known movie, Apocalypse Now, which also uses the line at its end.
 * The muffins that Applejack made in this episode would not cause food poisoning to humans if properly baked. However, the presence of a live worm in one of the half-eaten muffins that Spike picks up, indicates they most likely were not cooked properly.
 * Contrary to Pinkie's song in Over a Barrel, the ponies in this episode are not "strictly vegetarian", as some of them eat cupcakes baked with worms. They do, however, get sick from the cupcakes.
 * In real life, ponies and other equines are physically incapable of vomiting.