Applejack

Applejack is an earth pony and one of the main characters of the series. She lives and works at Sweet Apple Acres farm with her grandmother, brother and sister. She represents the element of honesty.

Personality
Applejack is reliable and hard-working, although headstrong about doing things on her own. She tackles the annual apple harvest all by herself while her brother Big Macintosh recovers from an injury in Applebuck Season, while simultaneously helping out all of her friends with an assortment of tasks. This proves to be more than she can handle, yet she refuses Twilight Sparkle's many offers of assistance. After she averts a stampede that was headed to Ponyville, the townsfolk hold a ceremony in her honor, where her close friends exult her willingness to help anyone. She receives her trophy without much fanfare and goes back to her applebucking, nearly dying of exhaustion before finally being able to look past her pride and request help.

Applejack speaks with a Southern American accent, similar to the accent of the southwest Missouri Ozarks (where there are a number of apple orchards). She seems to have no reservations about getting dirty or messy, much to Rarity's dismay. She also seems to dislike things that are "too girlish" like frou-frou dresses, though it's revealed in The Cutie Mark Chronicles that, for a short time as a young filly, she wanted to be a pony of elegance. She is almost always seen wearing a light brown stetson hat, which she usually only removes when sleeping, and is the only one of the six main characters to keep her mane and tail tied back instead of letting them fall loose, in a "pony tail".

Though she's normally kind and considerate, Applejack lacks patience with aggressive or rude behavior and has no hesitation in returning it in kind. In Look Before You Sleep, she lets her feud with Rarity ruin Twilight Sparkle's sleepover, and in Fall Weather Friends she allowed herself to become just as underhanded as Rainbow Dash in her attempt to win. In both of these situations however she eventually proved herself the better pony by being the first to apologize.

She is more ill-tempered than the rest of her friends, with the possible exception of Rainbow Dash, who once ironically put it, "Sometimes, she's sour apples". Though she is careful to keep it under control, it can get the better of her sometimes and it often makes a bad situation worse. She is quick to argue with Rainbow Dash in Over a Barrel, making the feud between the Appleloosa and the buffaloes worse.

Also, because Applejack is known for her honesty (note her element), she appears to not be used to lying, as seen in Party of One when Applejack seems to have the most difficulty in coming up with excuses for why she couldn't attend Gummy's after-party, as well as displaying obvious physical signs of lying (sweating and a nervous grin)

Hasbro.com description
''Having grown up working hard to keep her family's famous apple business growing, Applejack has come to be known as the most down-to-earth, resourceful, and dependable Earth Pony this side of Ponyville! A proud pony to the core, she's not afraid to get her hooves dirty and to her, there's nothing a little horse-sense and elbow grease can't take care of. Incredibly, honest, Applejack would never stoop to tell a lie and this makes her a beacon for those seeking advice. Applejack has impeccable ability to break a situation down to its core and fix it fast, and usually topped off with a wacky country anecdote told with a charming of country twang.''

Hubworld description
''Applejack is a country pony who grew up on her family's apple farm. She's down to earth and dependable, and she's not afraid to get her hooves dirty. To her, any job can be done with a little horse sense and hard work. Applejack has a knack for figuring out how to fix a problem -- fast!''

Skills
As an Earth pony, Applejack is well-known for her athletic abilities, shown to be both strong and dexterous. When she and Dash hold an Iron Pony competition, their various athletic feats draw a sizable crowd. She is also very skilled with the lasso, demonstrating her ropework in Boast Busters, Look Before You Sleep, and Fall Weather Friends. She is described by Pinkie Pie as being "one of the best bakers ever", though this may be hyperbole. Even so, she seems to be able to make several different kinds of foods and desserts using apples as the main ingredient, though she did not seem to catch on that something was wrong with the ingredients she misheard Pinkie Pie listing, implying perhaps that her baking skills are limited to apple-related pastries though it is more likely that she was too sleep-deprived to think. She is also a canny businessfilly; often using events as an excuse to set up a stall to sell her baking and use the money to benefit her family, though she doesn't seem to have made enough profit yet to finance her grandmother's artificial hip (reconstructing the farm after the Parasprite invasion in Swarm of the Century might have eaten up her savings, to be fair).

She appears to be an accomplished herder, stopping a cow stampede only with the help of her herding dog, Winona, and organizing the herding of a swarm of parasprites with the help of her friends.

Her skills at "applebucking", harvesting apple trees by kicking them with her hind legs, are shown to be superb; even when extraordinarily sleep-deprived, she is usually capable of knocking off the apples of an entire tree with one kick while leaving the tree apparently intact, whereas the Appleloosans can only knock off several apples per kick in Over a Barrel.

She gets a little testy with her brother when he warns her she can't harvest the hundreds of apple trees by herself, snapping at him and his "fancy mathematics", which might suggest she's resentful towards math, or academics in general, although she respects Twilight Sparkle's studies and smarts, being the first to talk to her after Nightmare Moon's return in Friendship is Magic, part 2.

Relationships
Twilight Sparkle – Applejack and Twilight Sparkle both respect politeness and honesty and so are very close, both valuing the skills and talents of the other. Applejack often takes the role of 'second in command' on any expeditions, directly consulting with Twilight Sparkle and using her leadership abilities to motivate the others. The two have a few things in common like being hardworking, stubborn, and thinking they can take care of things on their own without accepting help when needed.

Fluttershy – Applejack has the most amount of patience with Fluttershy, pulling her all the way up the cliff in Dragonshy and defending her from the remarks of others.

Rainbow Dash – May very well be her best friend. They spend a lot of time together, and Applejack often restrains Rainbow Dash when she's being too rash, (by biting and holding her by the tail) They both possess great athletic ability and love to test themselves against each other, but Rainbow Dash's rude and argumentative personality grates with Applejack's and often leads them to have arguments. They seem to treat this as another part of the competition however, and neither holds any grudges, often being shown laughing and talking with each other in the very next scene.

Pinkie Pie – Applejack's easygoing personality leads her to accept Pinkie Pie without comment, and she states that like many residents of Ponyville she has grown used to her odd behavior. The two share an interest in baking and get along well, with Applejack occasionally helping Pinkie Pie out at her job. Applejack has also been seen to trust in Pinky's rather abnormal and involuntary twitches

Rarity – Uniquely among the central cast, Applejack and Rarity occasionally show disdain towards each other. Applejack considers Rarity to be stuck up, condescending and finnicky, while Rarity considers Applejack to be ignorant, dirty and lacking in culture. Look Before You Sleep allowed them to overcome some of their issues and form a somewhat better relationship. As seen in The Best Night Ever, Applejack gives Rarity apple fritters, free of charge, after seeing the trouble Prince Blueblood put her through. Otherwise, they can be seen together without any quips or arguments.

Apple Bloom – Apple Bloom is Applejack's little sister, and Applejack is very protective of her. She seems to enjoy the big sister role but can be a little overbearing sometimes. She is prone to considering Apple Bloom 'the baby' and being patronizing or dismissing her opinions. This sometimes causes friction between the two but they remain close, both understanding the feelings behind the other's actions.

Big Macintosh – Big Macintosh is Applejack's older brother, though he is confident enough in her skills to leave the running of the business to her. He instead adds his calm temperament and practical wisdom, cooling his sister’s hot temper and fierce pride when it threatens to get the best of her.

Granny Smith – The oldest pony in Applejack's family. On the episode The Ticket Master, Applejack wanted to raise money by selling apples to fix Granny Smith's hip.

History
Twilight Sparkle first met Applejack and the rest of the Apple family when she was checking up on preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. In the second episode when Twilight Sparkle was about to fall off a cliff, Applejack encouraged her to let go so Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could catch her. This action earned Applejack the element of honesty, in the rather contrived fashion of not telling Twilight Sparkle why she had to let go, and simply asked Twilight Sparkle to trust her, possibly because Twilight Sparkle would have panicked otherwise.

She was one of several ponies that ended up being humiliated by Trixie in Boast Busters.

In Call of the Cutie, she revealed that she was the last one in her class to get her cutie mark, which is something that seems to run in the family. In The Cutie Mark Chronicles the full story of a young Applejack leaving the farm to live with her upper class relations in the big city is revealed. Once there however, she found it hard to fit in and became terribly homesick. The rainbow left in the wake of Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom leads her to return home to the farm. Once there she realized that this was where she truly belonged, finally gaining her cutie mark.

Appearances

 * See also character appearances

Applejack appears in all episodes so far except Stare Master, making her second to Twilight Sparkle in number of episode appearances.

Gallery

 * Applejack image gallery

Trivia

 * Applejack is one of the only members (along with Spike) of the main cast who was part of the original My Little Pony cast. This is because Hasbro lost the rights to nearly all of the original character names, with the exception of Applejack and Spike. Her name and her nickname Appletini (the name for her shrunken stature in Bridle Gossip) were based on alcoholic drinks. Applejack is a strong alcoholic beverage produced from apples, popular in the American colonial period and thought to originate from the French apple brandy Calvados. (The breakfast cereal "Apple Jacks" is another children's product named for this alcoholic beverage.) Appletini, or apple martini, is a cocktail containing vodka and one or more of apple juice, apple cider, apple liquor, or apple brandy. (This nickname can also be interpreted as "Apple Teeny," indicating her shrunken size.)
 * All of her relations in the big city seem to have oranges as their cutie marks, which may be a reference to "comparing apples to oranges".