The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 is an episode of the second season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. It is the fifteenth episode of the second season and the forty-first episode overall. The Flim Flam brothers challenges the Apples to a duel of who can produce the most barrels of cider in one hour, and the winner of the contest wins the right to sell ciders in Ponyville. They accept the challenge, and they must work together in order to win it.

Summary
The episode opens with a shot of Fluttershy sleeping. However, she is quickly woken up by Rainbow Dash who drags her to Sweet Apple Acres in order to be there early for cider season, and also to beat Pinkie Pie in line for the first time. Rainbow Dash sees a massive queue of ponies camping out to get cider, and gets worried that there won't be enough for her. They meet up with Pinkie Pie who is at the front of the line.

Applejack then announces that cider season is open, and begins to serve draught cider to ponies individually as they come down the queue. Pinkie Pie buys not just one, but a whole tray of cider. As the serving goes on, the barrels of cider left decrease, and Fluttershy, who is just one place in front of Rainbow Dash, gets the last glass of cider for the day. Extremely upset by this, she and the other ponies who didn't get a glass of cider begin to complain.

Amidst the chaos, the Flim Flam brothers arrive. They arrive on their large vehicle, which they later reveal to be named the "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000". They kick off a long musical number as soon as they arrive, and sing about their production of cider. Managing to entice the entire crowd into joining in their song, they quickly make themselves popular. The musical number shares many similarities with the number "Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man.

They use this popularity to their advantage. With Ponyville's citizens faced with the dilemma of a limited quantity of manually pressed cider, they turn to the Flim Flam Brothers and their automated cider production. Upset by the arrival of the Flim Flam Brothers and the threat of automated cider production running them out of business, the Apple Family tells them that their handmade cider will never be outshined by anything manual. The Flim Flam Brothers attempt to broker a deal with the Apple Family, who will supply them with their delicious apples, and they will sell the cider under the Flim Flam Brothers name. They call for a 75-25 split in profits in their favor.

Upset at the injustice of the split in profits, the Apple Family denies their offer, which prompts Flam to tell them if that they don't want to partner up with them, they will just have to compete with them. They then shock the Apple Family with a threat about running them out of business.

The next day, cider season is in full kick again. The Flim Flam Brothers once again arrive after the cider has run out, and attempt to sell their own cider. However, Applejack lassos a barrel of their cider away, saying they can't sell cider made from Apple Family Apples. Rainbow Dash, about to drink her glass of cider, has it knocked away by the barrel, ends up eating the dirt it spills over into, and after hearing Applejack saying that the Flim Flam Brothers can't sell their cider, asks if Applejack is playing a "cruel joke" on her.

With the Apple Family confident that their cider will always be better than the Flim Flam Brothers' automatically produced cider, the Flim Flam Brothers challenge them to a duel of who can produce the most barrels of cider in 1 hour. Reluctant at first, Granny Smith tells them they won't compete. However, after being called chicken, in the same fashion as the Back to the Future films, she agrees to a competition.

The two parties meet up at Sweet Apple Acres. The Mayor and Doctor Whooves kick off the competition, and the two teams begin their work. For the Flim and Flam brothers, it's as easy as pressing a button. However, the Apple Family immediately gets into the task, with Applejack bucking trees, Apple Bloom collecting the apples, Granny Smith hand-sorting the apples, and Big Macintosh running the press.

Inevitably, the Flim Flam Brothers' automated production line far outpaces the manual production of the Apple Family. Fortunately, Applejack's friends arrive, naming themselves honorary family members and asking the Mayor if they can participate in the event. Mayor asks the Flim Flam Brothers if they care, and after they say they don't since they'll win anyway, she lets Applejack's friends participate.

Twilight organizes her friends into certain roles. Fluttershy helps Applejack take down the apples from the trees, Pinkie Pie helps Apple Bloom collect the apples, Rarity helps Granny Smith sort the apples, and Rainbow Dash helps Big Macintosh run the press. With the added help, Apple Family cider production begins to increase. Noticing the massive increase in production from the Apple Family, the Flim Flam Brothers override their automatic apple quality control, and increase the power of the apple vacuum. This leads to stalks, branches and rotten apples making their way into their cider.

At the end of the hour, the Flim Flam Brothers have won due to their larger amount of cider produced. This makes the large audience of Ponyville residents, as well as the Apple Family and honorary family members, visibly upset, but Applejack shows her prowess with honesty and tells that the Flim Flam Brothers won fair and square, and they set off to move away from Sweet Apple Acres.

The Flim Flam Brothers begin their sale of cider. They dish out their first few glasses of cider laced with branches, leaves and rotten apples, and in return get it spat back at them. The angry crowd of Ponyville's residents says they refuse to pay for the Flim Flam Brothers' low quality cider, and without a second thought, the two brothers make a quick escape from Ponyville. This allows Applejack to begin selling her cider again, and because she, her friends and her family made so much cider, they have even more to sell this time around.

Applejack begins to send a letter to Princess Celestia about what she had learned, but cuts it off after saying she didn't learn anything and was right after all: "If you take your time to do things the right way, your work will speak for itself."

Quotes

 * Pinkie Pie: Isn't this great? I couldn't sleep last night 'cause I was so excited about cider season, and I had this brilliant idea to come gather and camp out, so I told a few others about it and they all thought it was a great idea too and now it's just a big old cider party! Woohoo! Oh gosh, that's a lot of ponies. Hope they don't run out before you get any.
 * Rainbow Dash: [growls]


 * Twilight Sparkle: Isn't this exciting, Spike? Opening day of cider season!
 * Spike: Yeah! That means it's only thirty more days to sapphire season!


 * Applejack: Cider sales keep our business a'floatin' through the winter. We'd lose Sweet Apple Acres if we agreed to this.
 * Flim and Flam: So? What will it be?
 * Big Macintosh: No deal.


 * Flam: What's the matter, Granny Smith? Chicken.
 * Granny Smith: What did you call me, sonny?


 * Flim: Drink up, Ponyville! Down the hatch!
 * Ponies: [spitting; Ugh etc]
 * Cherry Berry: I can't get the taste off my tongue!
 * Bon Bon: Mine's got rocks in it.
 * Stallion: I wouldn't pay one bit for this trick!


 * Applejack : Dear Princess Celestia. I wanted to share my thoughts with you. [clears throat] I didn't learn anythin'! Ha! I was right all along!

Trivia

 * "Flimflam" means insincere talk, confidence game, or swindling through a confidence game.
 * The story is a homage to John Henry vs. the Steam Drill, an old fable about manpower beating machine.
 * The story also draws parallels to a rendition by Disney of Paul Bunyan; a giant woodsman, wherein he is challenged to a competition against a steam-logging-machine-wielding fast talker to see which could cut down more trees; and in which Paul loses to the machine. Coincidentally, a rendition of the above mentioned fable of John Henry is included in a later compilation.
 * The episode's competition scene is reminiscent of the Spongebob Squarepants episode "Neptune's Spatula", where Spongebob and Neptune are competing to make the patties only for Spongebob to lose and Neptune to win, but when they get free samples everyone is disgusted by the taste as it was not up to standards because of Neptune's concern of quantity over quality.
 * In the episode, the word "cider" uses the United States definition of cider, otherwise known as apple cider, a beverage similar to apple juice except that cider is generally unfiltered and unsweetened—thus having an opaque (as opposed to transparent golden) appearance and tangier taste than apple juice. Outside the United States, the word "cider" is used as an equivalent of "hard cider". This can lead to confusions that the beverage is alcoholized, which is not the case (though extremely subtle clues that the drink represents an alcoholic beverage are apparent, such as the drink's topfoam, the mugs it is served in, and the reactions by some of the ponies after drinking it).

Gallery

 * The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 image gallery