Recap / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S2 E14 "The Last Roundup"

A rousing sendoff at the Ponyville train station.

Pinkie Pie: Speech! Speech!
Applejack: Oh, shucks. I'm not much for speeches.
Pinkie Pie: All right then, no speech! [runs off]
Applejack: ...but...
Pinkie Pie: [runs back]

Written by Amy Keating Rogers

The episode begins as Applejack runs an obstacle course to practice for the upcoming Equestrian Rodeo in Canterlot. As she's won ten Ponyville rodeos in a row, everyone expects her to return with lots of blue ribbons (and tons of prize money to fix the damaged town hall; Derpy Hooves has outdone herself in the screwup department). After a flattering goodbye from all of Ponyville, AJ sets off for Canterlot.

A week later, everypony has gathered at Sweet Apple Acres to throw a surprise party for Applejack's return... but she doesn't show. A delivery pony arrives with a telegram from Applejack:

Twilight Sparkle: "Family and friends: Not coming back to Ponyville. Don't worry, will send money soon." ...that's all there is.

Stunned at Applejack's refusal to return, Twilight and the others declare they'll find Applejack and bring her back. They set off to search for their friend.

After a brief stop at the rodeo grounds, the ponies arrive in Dodge Junction, where they find Applejack has accepted a job at Cherry Jubilee's cherry orchard. AJ insists she just wanted a change of scenery, but her friends don't buy it and decide to stick around to try and get some answers.

The ponies fail to get anything out of Applejack at first, but when they weaponize Pinkie Pie's chatterbox nature, Applejack finally caves. She swears a Pinkie Promise to tell them everything the next morning at breakfast... but she never shows.

That's when the others discover that it is never a good idea to break a Pinkie Promise.

The ponies look for Applejack and find her trying to get out of Dodge (literally) via stagecoach! They give chase, accidentally losing Pinkie Pie and Rarity in the process. Applejack thinks she's safe when a Friendship Express Train passes and blocks her friends' pursuit, but Rainbow and Fluttershy fly over it and knock her over, revealing the real reason Applejack didn't return: She won ribbons in every event, but not one blue ribbon — and no prize money for the town hall repairs. Applejack was too ashamed to return empty-hoofed after everypony's build-up, so she took the job at Cherry Jubilee's so she could earn money to send home.

The friends all assure Applejack that it doesn't matter what color ribbons she won; having her home with them in Ponyville means more than any prize.

AJ, back on the Friendship Express Train home, narrates her letter to Princess Celestia:

"It's a tad easier to be proud when you come in first than it is when you finish further back, but there's no reason to hide when you don't do as well as you'd hoped. You can't run away from your problems. Better to run to your friends and family!

As they return to Ponyville, Applejack is greeted warmly by her friends and dogpiled by her family.

Meanwhile, Pinkie and Rarity are making their way back on a hoofcar after being knocked off the cart during the chase to catch Applejack. Pinkie is chattering incessantly, and Rarity is muttering dire implications for Rainbow Dash, who refused to go back for them.

---

Tropes:

• Actor Allusion:
  • Tabitha St. Germain voices Derpy Hooves, a pony who can't even move without causing a major disaster? It's Generation 3 all over again. Good thing the Twinkling Balloon wasn't in this episode.
  • Outside of ponies the allusion goes further back then that. Tabitha, in one of her few live-action roles, played Cousin Catastrophia in The New Addams Family, who is also a blonde, ditzy Walking Disaster Area.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Why the already punny 'Pinkie Swear' got retconned to 'Pinkie Promise' here.
• An Aesop: Don't run away from your problems. There's no shame at losing.
• Anger Born of Worry: Rainbow Dash is one of the most confrontational ponies in this episode, snapping at Applejack several times and tackling her towards the end to prevent her from leaving. She's also the most concerned out of the Mane 5 and the most dedicated to getting her friend to come back.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption:
  Applejack: No, no, no! I'm not telling you why, so just-
  Fluttershy: [unable to keep up with all the cherries] STOP!
• Benevolent Boss: Cherry Jubilee, who gladly offers Applejack a job with room and board when she hears she's looking for a "change of scenery", and tells her workers to have fun before they get started.
• Berserk Button: Don't ever break a Pinkie Promise, or else Pinkie will...um.... get seriously upset with you! By that we mean, she will be Burning with Anger and speaking with Voice of the Legion. And she'll make you apologize, too.
• Beware the Silly Ones: You do NOT want to break a Pinkie Promise. The silly party girl led the chase and jumped onto the coach to chew Applejack out for it.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Fluttershy is as kind and caring as ever in this episode. She also rams a wagon with enough force to knock Applejack off-balance.
• Big "NO!": Applejack's driven to this by Pinkie's rambling.
• Blush Sticker: Applejack gets these in the intro, when being complimented by Apple Bloom regarding her rodeo achievements.
• Bowdlerise: The new version of the episode has Derpy's scene completely re-recorded to remove her Simpleton Voice and partially re-animated to make her eyes less googly, along with removing her name. Also, some parts of Pinkie's Berserk Button tirade had the Exorcist-style vocal effects removed. While the "Friendship Express" DVD retained the original version of the scene, as it was pressed before the controversy, the season 2 DVD has the new edited version present.
• Break the Cutie: We don't find out until the end, but her failure at the rodeo did this to Applejack. Just listen to her voice when she reveals this to the rest of the Mane Cast.
• Brick Joke:
  • We learn that the town that Applejack went to after the rodeo is named Dodge Junction. At the very start of the chase scene, Applejack says, "I gotta get the heck outta Dodge!"
  • During the chase scene, Pinkie jumps to get on the carriage with Applejack. After AJ's apology, Pinkie jumps back onto the chase cart with the quick line "Rarity catch me!", knocking them both off the cart. At the very end of the episode, we see Pinkie and Rarity traveling together on a hoof cart... and Pinkie still can't decide what she wants to name her new recipe (or is simply enjoying saying the silly words).
  • Pinkie briefly forgets about her Potty Emergency after spotting Applejack, but soon has to excuse herself again.
• Broken Ace: Similar to her previous limelight episode, the opening sets up Applejack as highly cherished for her talents and reliability and completely unable to accept an instance of failure and letting someone down as a result.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center:
  • Big Mac is as tearful and heartbroken as Granny Smith and Apple Bloom at the idea that Applejack isn't coming home.
  • Rainbow Dash also tears up near the end of the episode.
  Rainbow Dash: DARN IT! Now you've got me acting all sappy!
• Call-Back:
  • Pinkie Promises have returned, and this time we see what happens when you break one.
  • In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", Applejack got her cutie mark at the same time she realized that Sweet Apple Acres was where she truly belonged, which justifies how Granny and Apple Bloom consider it very much out of character for her to abandon her home and family. Big Mac's despondency upon finding out she's not coming back also hearkens back to his sadness when she first left as a filly.
• Character Development: It seems like Rainbow Dash took Discord forcing her to realize that you can't be loyal to conflicting parties to heart, because she is much more focused on chasing Applejack and showing how much her family cares for her than Pinkie and Rarity who she inexplicably left behind and forgot about.
• Chase Scene: The ponies chase Applejack's stage coach in a cart.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Applejack rattling off all those cherry dishes is reminiscent of how she first introduces herself to Twilight. This time, however, she's more matter-of-fact than enthusiastic.
  • Applejack lost the first event of the Iron Pony Contest in "Fall Weather Friends" on a technicality—she bumped into one of the barrels in a slalom. In the first few moments of The Last Roundup, she nudges the steeplechase hurdle, and eventually fails to take first place in anything.
  • Pinkie falling from the cart and taking Rarity with her mirrors a scene from "The Return of Harmony, Part 2", in which the same thing happens in the Twinkling Balloon. Applejack being unable to face an unpleasant truth and trying to duck the consequences also calls back to "Return of Harmony, Part 1". Furthermore, Applejack seems to have learned from experience how terrible she is at lying and instead resorts to refusing to talk at all to avoid it.
  • Not only is Applejack's planned surprise party thrown in what appears to be the same barn as a certain other one, at the beginning of the scene, we hear what seems to be a slight variation of the very same music which is played during Pinkie's psychotic breakdown in the same episode.
  • The four ponies pulling the carriage look an awful lot like the ones that pulled the train in "Over A Barrel". Their annoyance at AJ's whipping their reins is reminiscent of the annoyance Rarity's friends expressed when Spike did the same in "The Best Night Ever".
  • The background ponies at Applejack's surprise party were all present at the Apple family reunion... except for Bon-Bon, who apparently decided to crash the party. She's also present during the sendoff and a few other group scenes. Maybe she's a member of the Apple family too? Or a friend?
  • The "Friendship" Leitmotif from the Return of Harmony reoccurs.
  • This is not the first time a pony jumps over a piece of wood in slow-motion.
  • Fluttershy once more proves she can keep up with Rainbow Dash if the situation calls for it.
• Cue the Falling Object: Rainbow Dash says to Derpy, "Don't want to do any more damage than you've already done," as the camera pulls out to show Town Hall's wrecked roof. As soon as Dash finishes, the roof collapses entirely.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  Derpy Hooves (stomping on a storm cloud): I just don't know what went wrong! [gets zapped herself]
  Rainbow Dash: Yeah. It's a mystery.
• Department of Redundancy Department
  Fluttershy: Being surprised can be nice, but being startled can be very... startling.
  Rarity: Were you insulted when I insulted your hair?
• Delayed Reaction: Twice by Pinkie. First when she found Applejack, the second when she remembered what she was on her way to do when she found her
• Determinator: All of Applejack's friends become this when it comes to finding out what's wrong and bringing her home.
• Didn't Think This Through: Applejack tries to lose her friends by cutting them off via a train railway. But in her excitement, she forgot that two of her friends are pegasi who are using transportation to get to her and simply fly over the train.
• Exact Words:
  • Applejack demands nobody talk about Ponyville, so the girls talk about anything but.
  • After having her ear talked off by Pinkie, Applejack finally agrees to tell everypony, under a Pinkie Promise, why she can't go home at breakfast tomorrow. She gets out of it by simply not arriving for breakfast.
  • Miss Jubilee says Applejack won so many ribbons. She isn't wrong; they're just not blue.
• Every Man Has His Price: When Applejack hires a carriage to skip town and her friends start chasing her, both Applejack and Twilight try to buy the pulling stallions by offering them double pay if they run faster, then triple pay if they slow down and finally quadruple pay if they run at top speed and leave the girls eating their dust. The stallions happily accept every offer without a single beat. At the end, the stallions decide that not even quadruple pay is worth risking their lives for Applejack and they ditch her.

  Coach ponies, visibly upset: Lady, you're trouble!

• Exasperated Perp: Rainbow Dash's plan to get Applejack to talk is to let Pinkie Pie annoy her into submission.
  Rainbow Dash: The only way to make it stop is to spill the beans!
• Floorboard Failure: Derpy manages to break through the town hall's floor simply by sitting down.
• Follow That Car: Pinkie shouts this phrase when Applejack tries to escape on a stage coach.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In her practice run during the Cold Open, AJ's back leg dings one of the hurdles and two of the hay bales she threw didn't cross the finish line, which are the sort of technicalities that would cost her a blue ribbon. Lampshaded because AJ didn't seem overly concerned about either of these, suggesting either complacency or over-confidence in her prior training.
  • In Apple Bloom's Mr. Exposition moment she appends "in Ponyville" to Applejack's list of accomplishments too many times for viewers not to think "...but not in Canterlot."
• Forgot I Could Fly:
  • Applejack realizes that celebrating her getaway from her friends is premature when the two Pegasi pulling the cart simply fly over the Friendship Express Train in their way.
  • Happened at the beginning of the chase scene as well. Rainbow Dash apparently forgot that she could fly faster than the stallions pulling the coach could run, and Twilight apparently forgot that she could just teleport into Applejack's coach.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: The scene at the end is the first time Pinkie Pie and Rarity have ever been alone together onscreen.
• Furry Confusion:
  • The chase scene has a pony in a stage coach pulled by ponies. A rickshaw maybe?
  • Rodeo clown ponies. Rodeos have clowns to distract bucking bulls after they've tossed competitors, but in this universe cows are a sentient species on par with ponies.
• Furry Reminder: Ponies in this show rarely clap when they applaud — they stomp.
  • When Rainbow Dash asks Applejack if she told Cherry Jubilee why she isn't going back to Ponyville, she flicks her tail. Horses in real life do this when they are agitated. This serves as a nice little reminder of how upset Dash is over the thought of Applejack not returning.
• Gasp!:
  • Everypony, upon hearing that Applejack is not returning to Ponyville.
  • When Pinkie discovers Applejack has welshed on her Pinkie Promise.
• Genki Girl: Exploited in that they weaponize Pinkie's hyperactivity to coerce Applejack into talking.
• Handcar Pursuit: Poor Pinkie and Rarity are left behind and forced to hoofcar all the way back to Ponyville.
• Heroic BSoD: Applejack spends most of the episode in one for failing to bring back the money and rewards that the town expects of her.
• High-Pressure Emotion: Pinkie blows her stack after Applejack seems to break her Pinkie Promise.
• Inherently Funny Words: To Pinkie Pie, "pickle barrel," "kumquat," and all three potential names for her new recipe: "cherrychanga," "chimicherry," or "chimicherrychanga".
• Innocently Insensitive: Twilight Sparkle. The telegram pony was sincerely delighted by the party (it was apparently his birthday). Twilight's actions to point out his mistake included scowling at him and slamming the door in his face, doubling his embarrassment and hurt feelings. Justified from her point of view, of course, because of her worry about Applejack's failure to return home. Pinkie makes up for it by giving him a piece of cake immediately afterward.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Played for Laughs: Pinkie's constant chattering is used as a torture device to make Applejack talk.
  Pinkie Pie: A 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! What 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! Pickle barrel, kumquat, pickle barrel, kumquat, pickle barrel, kumquat, chimicherrychanga!
  Applejack: NOOOOOOOOO! Make it stop! Make it stop!
  Rainbow Dash: (wearing earplugs and covering Pinkie's mouth with her hoof) The only way to make it stop is for you to spill the beans!
• The Klutz: Derpy, on the disaster-causing level of klutziness.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Rainbow Dash has a fangirl moment over Wild Bull Hickock and Calamity Mane.
• The Last Title: The episode title itself.
• Loophole Abuse: Applejack made a Pinkie Promise that she would explain her disappearance at breakfast. She didn't break this so much as duck it completely by skipping out on breakfast because it would mean telling her friends why she didn't return to Ponyville.
• Mad Eye: Applejack has one pupil smaller than the other when she's at the train station and hears Pinkie Pie yell, "APPLEJACK!! YOU PINKIE PROMISED!!"
• Meaningful Name: Cherry Jubilee claims that she'd never seen anypony win so many ribbons at a rodeo competition, suggesting Applejack had entered every competition she could and labeling Applejack a Jack of All Trades.
• Mr. Exposition:
  Apple Bloom: "After all, you're the ten-time rodeo cham-peen of Ponyville! You've got more blue ribbons than any pony in Ponyville...ever!"
• Mood Dissonance: The below-mentioned Shout-Out takes place during what, at first glance, appears to be a fairly serious scene.
• Motor Mouth: The other ponies weaponize Pinkie's constant chattering to get Applejack to talk.
  • Her exposure to it all the way back to Ponyville may add to Rarity's desire to make Rainbow Dash pay.
• Mythology Gag:
  • A clumsy mare who causes havoc and is voiced by Tabitha St. Germain? Harks back to A Very Minty Christmas.
  • Once again, Applejack is a silly pony.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Defied. Rainbow Dash is so determined to find out why Applejack is avoiding them that she refuses to go back when Pinkie Pie and Rarity fall off their cart. So much for the Element of Loyalty.
  Twilight Sparkle: Rainbow! Go back!
  Rainbow Dash: No time! They knew what they were getting into!
  • Becomes a Brick Joke toward the end.
  Rarity: When I get back, you're gonna get it, Rainbow Dash!
• No OSHA Compliance: You'd think they would condemn the town hall if it was in that bad a shape rather than hold a celebration near it...
• Nobody Poops: Averted by Pinkie Pie's discomfort, which has an obvious source, as well as Applejack leaving the outhouse and Pinkie rushing into it. Plus, we can hear the toilet flush.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The rodeo is mentioned and is a major plot point, but we don't get many details on it other than a few names and that Applejack didn't win first in any event.
  • Exactly how the town hall was in the shape it was in is left up in the air, though Rainbow Dash's dialog certainly suggests Derpy had a heavy hoof in it.
    • This was confirmed by the writer of the episode, who said that the original script had a short flashback where we see Ditzy Doo (the pegasus that interacted with Rainbow Dash in the script, who has been confirmed not to be the same as Derpy) accidentally break Town Hall. The scene was cut for time and for shifting the episode's focus away from the main plot.
  • Three of the Mane Five guessing how they might have made Applejack leave town. Twilight and Rarity's guesses are pretty mundane, but Rainbow Dash made a cloud rain on her for some reason.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Big Macintosh crying, natch.
  • Applejack tries to be The Stoic when her friends badger her with questions, but they see right through her facade and get her to reveal what's troubling her.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Everypony going looking for Applejack is spurred by how out of character her actions seem. Her being defensive and evasive also tips them off to the fact they're not getting the full story.
  • "I can't tell y'all the truth!" She's technically not lying to them. She just isn't saying anything on the matter. Also, she is being honest when she says "I can't tell y'all the truth". She expects them to think less of her for failing. Finally, she promised at the beginning of the episode that she would use the prize money from the rodeo to fix the roof. When she didn't win any prize money, she felt she would be breaking that promise should she return home empty-hoofed.
  • Pinkie Pie, again, goes berserk after Applejack breaks her Pinkie Promise.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Applejack's competition (where she scored a ribbon in every single event) and her meeting Wild Bull Hickok and Calamity Mane.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Applejack, once Pinkie found out she broke her promise.
  • And again, after managing to hide herself behind a train, the two pegusi just fly over it.
  • The Mane Six minus Applejack, after seeing they'll have to go to Dodge.
  • Rarity when Pinkie jumps off Applejack's stagecoach, saying, "Rarity, catch me!"
• Orwellian Retcon: The famous Derpy scene has been altered: Derpy is no longer referred to by name (except in The Hub's closed captions, since they weren't updated to match the new version), her googly eyes are much less googly, her voice has been re-dubbed to be more The Ditz, and Rainbow doesn't use as harsh of a tone when speaking to her. This was revealed to be a response to a number of complaints that Derpy seemed insensitive to the mentally challenged, against the show's message of tolerance. While the episode's writer, Amy Keating Rogers, believed changing the episode would only complicate things (since the praise and thanks she had received FAR outweighed the hate mail), the decision was out of her hands.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: Like last season, this episode is suddenly a western, complete with frontier town and epic carriage chase.
• Overly Long Gag: Pinkie's mouth exercises and recipe names.
• Potty Dance: Pinkie frantically bounces on her hindlegs in front of the Dodge Junction outhouse.
• Potty Emergency: Pinkie is bursting to go while on the train ride to Dodge Junction. Thankfully Applejack comes out of the outhouse just in the nick of time.
• Pride: Once again, the source of Applejack's problems comes from her fear of failure (in this case, the consequences of such) and her self-image.
• Quivering Eyes: When Apple Bloom hears her big sister's not coming home, and then the whole family as Granny says, "Our little bushel has lost one apple."
• Reverse Whodunnit: To every viewer except perhaps the Target Audience, it is blindingly transparent what Applejack's problem is, from the moment her letter home uses one of its two sentences to say "Don't worry, will send money".
• Rhyming with Itself: Pinkie Pie claims "bean" is a word that rhymes with "beans"
• Schizo Tech; Steam powered trains yet conveyor belts are pony powered^note though given the size of Jubilee's staff prior to Twilight and Co. showing up, she might not have needed an engine.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The carriage ponies Applejack hires decide in unison that even quadruple their usual price isn't worth risking getting hit by a train.
• Second Place Is for Losers: Applejack believes anything less than 1st place is a disgrace. Justified, as she wanted to win the prize money to pay for damages to Ponyville town hall.
• Serious Business: 5 words: "NOPONY breaks a Pinkie Promise!"
• She's a Man in Japan: The Hungarian language dub of this episode had Derpy speaking with a distinctly masculine voice.
• Shout-Out:
  • The cherry sorting scene is a clear nod to the famous chocolate conveyor belt scene from I Love Lucy, itself a homage to the silent film Modern Times.
  • "I gotta get the heck outta Dodge!"
  • Rainbow Dash trying to stop the roof from falling is reminiscent of a certain blue tight wearing super hero.
  • A "fourth wall"-breaking character who likes the sound of the word Chimi (cherry) changas? I look good as a pink pony!
  • Derpy's accent sounds like a certain skeleton knight.
  • Cherry Jubilee's business is the Cherry-O Ranch, a nod to the Hi Ho! Cherry-O children's board game from Hasbro.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: Rainbow Dash asks Applejack if she met Wild Bull Hickok and Calamity Mane.
• Shown Their Work: Applejack's head is clearly too high when jumping the highest Trakehner on the Sweet Apple Acres training course in the Cold Open; if she had trained better for proper bascule, she wouldn't have dinged the rail.
• Something We Forgot: Poor Rarity and Pinkie are accidentally left behind by the rest of the cast when they return to Ponyville.
  • As they use a hoofcar to return to Ponyville, Rarity strongly implies a hefty chewing out for Rainbow Dash for leaving them behind. Pinkie's incessant rambling does not help at all.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: For an episode ostensibly about Applejack, there's sure a lot of focus on Pinkie.
• Stock Sound Effects: When one pony finally says she knows where Applejack is and points to the distant desert, there's the shriek of a raptor bird. (Last heard in "May the Best Pet Win" when Rainbow announces the race through Ghastly Gorge.)
• Suddenly Voiced: Derpy finally gets her own speaking lines! And is (well, was) officially named, too!
• Taking You with Me: Derpy sits on the town hall's balcony floor but it breaks under the weight of her butt. She tries to save herself by holding onto Rainbow Dash but she pulls her through the hole and they both fall.
• They Knew the Risks: Rainbow Dash's reason for not going back for Pinkie and Rarity when they fall from the coach is that they were aware that could happen. This allows them to focus on Applejack.
• The Triple: Done during this exchange while they are talking about what to do next if they can't find Applejack at Dodge Junction.
  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: (desperately trying to hold it in) I don't know how I'll make it to the next stop!
• This Means War!
  Rarity: When I get back, you're gonna get it, Rainbow Dash!
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After the Telegram delivery pony got glared at and the door slammed in his face at what he thought was his birthday party, Pinkie gives him a slice of cake.
• Toon Physics: Applejack was involved with two instances.
  • During the conveyor belt sorting scene, she's running very fast in the flywheel, causing her tail and mane to fly behind her even though they should fall normally because she's staying in one spot.
  • Although the flywheel is mounted to the side of the conveyor belt, when Applejack stops suddenly after running very fast on it, the cherries fly forward, yet somehow still manage to plaster Applejack. Of course, it was rather humorous.
• Train-Station Goodbye: Happens at the beginning when Applejack heads off for the rodeo.
• Train Escape: Applejack crosses a train track in order to block her friends with an oncoming Friendship Express Train. It doesn't work, as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash just fly over the train.
• Trampled Underfoot: Defied. Fluttershy spots a desert rabbit in their path and screeches to a halt. The glower Rainbow Dash gives her implies Rainbow might've jumped over the bunny... or just kept going.
• 20% More Awesome: Applejack uses the "giving 110%" version when she says "I'll do better than my best!"
• Unaccustomed as I Am to Public Speaking...: When Pinkie demands a speech, Applejack says she's not much for speeches, but...
• Unstoppable Rage: Pinkie is furious after Applejack seems to break her Pinkie Promise.
• Unusual Euphemism: Pinkie Pie rushing to the outhouse at the Dodge Junction train station. "Oh, pickles!"
• Unwanted Assistance: Derpy's efforts in setting up Applejack's sendoff party end up doing more damage than anything else, and are what ultimately set off the events of the episode.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Derpy, the Mayor, and Applejack share this.
  • Derpy literally breaks the town hall.
  • Applejack pledges to donate her winnings to fix town hall, causing her to feel incapable of returning when she doesn't win any.
  • The Mayor praises Applejack in advance for pledging her winnings to fix it.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Rainbow Dash, whose most notable interactions with Applejack are usually rivalistic or argumentative, is the most vehement on bringing her back to Ponyville and is the most aggressive about it.
  Rainbow Dash: Excuse me, AJ, but we didn't travel all over Equestria searching for you to come home without you!
  Applejack: Well I didn't ask you to come looking for me!
• Voice of the Legion: Pinkie's voice reverberates when yelling at Applejack.
  Pinkie Pie: APPLEJACK!! YOU PINKIE PROMISED!!
  Applejack: Aahh!
• Walking Disaster Area: Derpy can't even sit down without something breaking.
• Wham Line: Delivered by Applejack, when she finally reveals what her problem is.
  Applejack: Don't you get it? There's every color of ribbon down there. Every color... but... blue.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Applejack is willing to endanger four of the Dodge Junction ponies with that railroad crossing stunt just to keep her embarrassment and the fact she didn't win any money for Ponyville at all from her friends. This makes them write her off, even though she promised them quadruple to leave her friends in the dust.
  Dodge Junction Stallions: [in unison] Lady, you're trouble.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Multiple times this episode:
  • Pinkie and Fluttershy both get them when the cherry sorter speeds up too fast for them.
  • Pinkie again, upon finding out somepony broke her promise.
  • Applejack, on hearing the voice of an enraged Pinkie as she tries to sneak out of town.
• Work Off the Debt: Self-inflicted: Applejack takes a job at a cherry orchard to replace the prize money she failed to win at the rodeo.
• You All Look Familiar: Several familiar faces from Ponyville, including Carrot Top and Caramel, appear in the Equestria rodeo stadium all the way in Canterlot.

---

Pinkie Pie: Chimmycherry? Cherrychanga? Chimmycherry? Cherrychanga? Chimmycherry? Cherrychanga...
Rarity: When I get back, you're gonna get it, Rainbow Dash!

---