Applebuck Season

Applebuck Season is the fourth episode of the first season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and fourth episode overall. It does not take place in any arc and thus is the first truly standalone episode in the series. It is also the first episode to focus on a character other than Twilight Sparkle.

Applejack has been working very hard lately, a commendable task, but what happens when it gets out of control?

Plot
At some point before the episode starts, Big McIntosh suffered some sort of injury. While he's not to injured to walk around and go about his day, he isn't in any shape to buck apples, leaving all the work for Applejack. As the siblings stare down their orchard, Applejack remarks that it's gonna be a lot of work just for her. Big Mac tries to argue with her that it's simply unrealistic for her to do all the work herself, but his worries fall on deaf ears as Applejack - rather violently - assures him she can do it...though she does grow increasingly more apprehensive about the task the more she stares at the fields.

As Applejack is wandering through her orchard, she notices the ground starts to shake. The shaking is felt all the way in Ponyville. Dash flies to see what's causing the earthquake and spots a hoard of cows stampeding their way into Ponyville. She warns her fellow townsfolk of the threat, causing a panic, though some ponies, such as Pinkie Pie and Mayor Mare remain calm. Over the horizon, the mares spot Applejack and sigh in relief. With the help of Winona, Applejack managed to divert the stampede in another direction, saving Ponyville. Applejack strikes up a friendly conversation with the cows, who where just scared of a snake and they went peacefully back to their farm after seeing of Applejack and Winona. A hero to Ponyville, Applejack is welcomed to a warm response from the town who opt to throw her a party for saving them. A week or so later and the town threw a rather massive celebration for Applejack, not just for saving them, but for being such a dependable, kind and friendly mare. Twilight is up to the podium to make a speech, but she's interrupted by Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and eventually Mayor Mare who all talk about how wonderful Applejack. However, Applejack doesn't show up, at least not for awhile. Eventually, a tired Applejack manages to stagger her way into the ceremony, accepts her award and staggers away, obviously not in the best of shape. Her friends discuss what happened.

Back at the farm, Applejack is still bucking apples and is doing a surprisingly good job at it despite her condition, sans some staggered movements, but it's clear her performance is getting worse as she continues. Twilight observes this with a worried expression and tries to confront the orange mare, which proves harder then expected. Teleporting over to Applejack, who briefly fell asleep, Twilight shouts at her, waking her up. The two get into a brief argument about what Applejack is doing but it proves ineffective as Applejack gets Twilight to leave, all three of them but Applejack is in worse shape then ever. Twilight offers help, which offends Applejack and the purple unicorn leaves her to be. However, Applejack's continued behavior ends up causing problems around Ponyville and gets herself injured on a fair amount of occasions. Eventually, Applejack comes around and lets her friends help her out.