The Last Roundup

The Last Roundup is the fourteenth episode of the second season, and the fortieth episode overall. After reading a note from Applejack stating that she will not return to Ponyville after competing in the Equestria Rodeo, the friends go on a journey to find her.

Production and release
This episode was first mentioned in the description of "The Friendship Express" DVD a month before it aired on television. It was storyboarded by Sabrina Alberghetti and Nicole Wang.

Summary
The beginning of the episode has Applejack running an obstacle course with multiple turns and hurdles. Once she throws a bale of hay over a line, she finishes the course, and is congratulated by Apple Bloom, who says that she wants her to win the Rodeo, and increase her collection of blue victory ribbons.

Rainbow Dash and Derpy are then shown at the town hall. Derpy tries to help Rainbow Dash put up ribbons, but she ends up destroying most of the town hall. The Mayor then gives a short speech about Applejack's participation in the Canterlot rodeo. Applejack is sent off to Canterlot with much appraisal and encouragement, and promises to bring back a victory as well as the money.

A week later, her friends and family set up a surprise party in her barn. However, instead of Applejack turning up, a courier with a note does, and ironically it's the courier's birthday. After Pinkie Pie gives the courier a piece of cake, they read the note, which is from Applejack, and read that she won't be returning to Ponyville, but will send the money.

The Apple Family is baffled to why she wouldn't return, stating she loves Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres, and her family. Massively saddened by this, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity immediately set out to find her, telling a crying Big Macintosh that they will search "all over Equestria" if they have to.

The 5 friends go to the rodeo and begin to show a picture of Applejack to the ponies there. No one seems to know where she is, but one pony recognises her, and points to a desert in the distance. Although startled with the prospect of going into a desert, the group immediately takes a train to the town - Dodge Junction.

Pinkie Pie, who ran to the nearest toilet after an uncomfortable journey, manages to coincidentally find Applejack, who was using the toilet as Pinkie Pie was frantically knocking on the door. Jumping around exclaiming she found her, the group runs to her and begins asking why she didn't want to come back to Ponyville. The five find out she is working at a cherry farm, run by a pony called Ms. Jubilee. When they asked why she wasn't coming back, Applejack tells them that she thought working at a cherry farm would be a nice change, and the five try to get to the bottom of the situation by helping Applejack sort the cherries and working for Cherry Jubilee.

Applejack, who is running the machinery by walking in a large wheel, immediately gets bogged down by questions and interrogation from her friends as to why she won't come back to Ponyville. This causes her to lose her temper and becoming more and more intimidated, she begins to spin the wheel to fast, overwhelming Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who are sorting the cherries. After Fluttershy shouts for Applejack to stop, she stopped the wheel, then got off the wheel and walks off, annoyed and covered in cherry after the cherries on the production line poured all over the group. Calling for drastic measures, Rainbow Dash says to "send in the big guns", at which point the screen focuses on none other than Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie then meets up with Applejack on the cherry orchard. After Applejack tells her to not ask any questions about Ponyville, she talks on and on, about cherry foods and dishes, and fun things to say. Finally, Applejack can take it no longer and begs her to stop, when Rainbow Dash and the others appear, with earplugs, saying that the only way to make Pinkie stop is to tell them why she abandoned Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack finally says that tomorrow morning during breakfast she would tell her friends everything, and when Pinkie doubts her, she gives a Pinkie Swear. The next morning, Pinkie Pie is hopping around gleefully as the five rush up to Applejack's bedroom. But, after knocking and seeing that the room has been abandoned, Pinkie Pie immediately goes into a rage, after Applejack apparently broke her Pinkie Promise.

Applejack is found nervously and anxiously waiting at the train station, apparently about to ditch the current town and move on after her friends compromised her. When she sees her friends running towards her, including Pinkie Pie, who is very mad at her promise being broken, she jumps on a coach and asks the four ponies pulling the coach to run away from her friends. Her friends then spot an unused horse-drawn cart, and with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy pulling, they begin to chase Applejack down. Fluttershy stops the cart to avoid hitting a rabbit, to Rainbow Dash's disappointment. When the rabbit runs away, they resume the chase. When they catch up, and after some quick bribes for the drivers of Applejack's coach to try and get them to slow down or speed up, Pinkie Pie jumps over Applejack's coach, to ask why she broke her promise. Applejack weeds herself out of it by saying she never went to breakfast, so she didn't need to tell them anything. Pinkie Pie accepts this excuse, and jumps back onto her cart, but botches the jump and ends up knocking both herself and Rarity out of the cart.

As the coach comes up to a level crossing, Applejack pushes the drivers to speed right through the closed barriers. With the train blocking her and her persuers, she believes she got away. But then, she sees Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy fly over the train with the cart. Rainbow Dash tackles Applejack, which spills the contents of her bags. A load of medals end up on the ground, but sadly none of them are the blue victory ribbon Applejack wanted everyone to see. Twilight ignores the lack of a blue ribbon and congratulates Applejack on her hoarding of medals. But Applejack explains that she didn't win any money, and therefore felt that she could not return to Ponyville, after the big sendoff they gave her, empty handed and a "failure".

Her friends tell her that they don't care that she didn't win, and don't care about the money, with Fluttershy saying that the hole in the town hall can be fixed by anyone at any time, but the hole in their hearts from missing a friend won't get fixed.

Applejack's learned lesson is that while it is easier to be proud when you finish first, there's no reason to hide when you don't, and that instead of running away from your problems, you should instead run to your friends and family.

The episode ends with Rarity and Pinkie Pie, who were left behind after being thrown off the cart, using a pushcart to travel along the railroad back home with Rarity angry at Rainbow Dash for leaving her with Pinkie Pie in the desert, saying that she'll get it.

Quotes

 * Rainbow Dash: Huh? Now, careful, Derpy! I don't want to do any more damage than you've already done.
 * [crash]
 * Derpy Hooves: I just don't know what went wrong.
 * Rainbow Dash: Yeah. It's a mystery.


 * Derpy Hooves: You okay, Rainbow Dash? Anything I can do to help?
 * Rainbow Dash: No! Nothing! In the name of Celestia, just sit there and do nothing.
 * (Derpy sits down)
 * [wood splintering]
 * Derpy Hooves: Oops. My bad.


 * Pinkie Pie: Speech! Speech!
 * Applejack: Oh, shucks. I'm not much for speeches.
 * Pinkie Pie: Alright then, no speech!


 * Fluttershy: Oh, I hope Applejack is surprised by this surprise party!
 * Rainbow Dash: Well, that is the point.
 * Fluttershy: I know, but I hope she isn't so surprised she's startled, because while being surprised can be nice, being startled can be... very startling.
 * Pinkie Pie: Surprise!
 * Fluttershy: [gasps] Oh, Pinkie, you startled me.


 * Rainbow Dash: I hope this lead doesn't turn out to be a dead end. I don't wanna go back empty-hooved after we promised we'd find her.
 * Fluttershy: I don't know how we'll break it to the Apple family.
 * Twilight Sparkle: I don't know how we'll break it to Ponyville!
 * Pinkie Pie: I don't know how I'll make it to the next stop!


 * Twilight Sparkle: I don't care what she says, Applejack's not telling us something.
 * Rainbow Dash: Twilight's right. We gotta get her to spill the beans.
 * Pinkie Pie: What?! She had beans? Ugh, I told her I was snacky!


 * Pinkie Pie: Well no wonder, because I made it up myself! Cherrychanga is mashed up cherries in a tortilla that's deep fried. Cherrychanga. Great name, huh? Oh, but maybe I should call it a chimicherry. Ooh, that's good too. Which do you think sounds better? Cherrychanga or chimicherry? Or what if I combine them? Chimicherrychanga! That sounds the funniest! I like funny words! One of my favorite funny words is 'kumquat'! I didn't make that one up. I would work in a kumquat orchard just so I could say 'kumquat' all day! Kumquat, kumquat, kumquat! And 'pickle barrel'! Isn't that just the funnest thing to say? Pickle barrel pickle barrel pickle barrel. Say it with me! Pickle barrel kumquat, pickle barrel kumquat, pickle barrel kumquat, chimicherrychanga-!
 * Applejack: No! Make it stop, make it stop!


 * Pinkie Pie: Nopony breaks a Pinkie promise!


 * Pinkie Pie: Rarity, catch me.
 * Rarity: What? Pinkie- [screams]
 * [crunch]


 * Rainbow Dash: Darn it! Now you got me acting all sappy!


 * Pinkie Pie: What did you think, Rarity? Chimicherry, or cherrychanga? Chimicherry, cherrychanga? Chimicherry, cherrychanga? Chimicherry, cherrychanga? Chimicherry, cherrychanga? [continues under]
 * Rarity: When I get back, you're gonna get it, Rainbow Dash!

Trivia

 * This is the first episode in which Derpy Hooves' name has been mentioned, and the first that features her sharing a few lines with a main character.
 * The scene in which Rainbow Dash attempts (but ultimately fails) to catch the wooden beam that has fallen is a reference to many Superman scenes.
 * In the crowd of ponies seeing Applejack off, there appears to be a miniature unicorn version of Derpy Hooves. (Same mane, body and eye colors, but with a horn instead of wings) Some bronies believe her to be Dinky, Derpy Hooves' daughter.
 * The four "train pulling" colts from Over a Barrel returns as normal cart pulling colts.
 * When the ponies are working at the cherry farm, the conveyer belt scene is a reference to I Love Lucy's famous chocolate factory scene.
 * Twilight Sparkle mentions that the town in which Applejack has run away to is named 'Dodge Junction'. This may be a reference to Dodge City, Kansas, a town famous in America for its role in the wild frontier of the Old West. This is also fitting to the theme of the town.
 * Rainbow Dash asks if Applejack saw "Wild Bull Hicclop" and "Calamity Mane." These are references to the real life Wild West figures Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.
 * In one scene, Pinkie Pie can be seen with two of her cutie marks. This is an editing error.
 * Cherry Jubilee shares a name with the G1 pony and co-star of the original My Little Pony television series.
 * The Cherrychanga or Chimicherry, as an indecisive Pinkie Pie says, has its roots in the Chimichanga, a northern Mexico food and Chimichurri, an Argentinian food. There is also an alcoholic cocktail called a cherrychanga.
 * When Pinkie Pie is enraged (specifically during the close ups) her voice gains an almost demonic echo.
 * The music in the opening scene is similar to the theme music from the western TV show Bonanza.
 * This is the second time Big Macintosh is seen crying.

Gallery

 * The Last Roundup image gallery