Applejack is an Earth pony and one of the main characters of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. She lives and works at Sweet Apple Acres with her grandmother Granny Smith; her big brotherBig McIntosh; her little sister Apple Bloom; and her dog Winona. She represents the element of honesty. Applejack is dependable and loyal, always willing to help anybody in need. She is shown to be supportive and protective of Apple Bloom and her friends. She works at Sweet Apple Acres mainly as an apple bucker, though the Apples occasionally farm carrots and corn as well.
Depiction in the series[]
Diligence[1][]
- "This is your sister Applejack - remember? The loyalest of friends and the most dependable of ponies?!"
- — Applejack, talking to her brother
Applejack is a brave, reliable, strong, mature, and hard-working pony, although headstrong about doing things on her own. In the episode Applebuck Season, she insists on tackling the annual apple harvest all by herself while her brotherBig McIntosh recovers from an injury. Big McIntosh doubts her ability to complete the seemingly insurmountable task, but Applejack is determined. After she diverts a cattle stampede that was headed toward Ponyville, the townsfolk hold a ceremony in her honor, where her close friends champion her helpfulness. She receives her trophy without much fanfare and goes back to her applebucking. She becomes exhausted, but continues to buck trees and repeatedly refuses Twilight Sparkle's many offers of assistance. She eventually faints at the sight of the scores of apple trees she still has to harvest, and finally looks past her pride and accepts help from her friends. It is shown in Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 that she truly learned this lesson, as she was touched by her friend's offers to help as 'honourary family members' and immediately accepts.
In Apple Family Reunion, when Granny Smith gives the job of hosting the reunion to Applejack, she is determined to host as many activities as she can so they can create many good memories. However, despite her good intentions, Applejack becomes too caught up in her planning to realize that the most important thing about the reunion is to bond with your family. Eventually, she learns her lesson, and brings the family back together to raise the demolished barn.
Mannerisms[]
Applejack speaks with a Southern American accent, a thick southern drawl, similar to the accent of the southwestern Missouri and Oklahoma Ozarks, where there is a great number of apple orchards. In numerous episodes, she refers to her friends and family as "sugarcube" as a sign of affection.
She has no reservations about getting dirty or messy or having any proper eating etiquette, much to Rarity's dismay during a sleepover in Look Before You Sleep, walking in Twilight's library with muddy hooves, chewing with her mouth open and burping, and unwilling to bother with making the bed. Applejack says in A Dog and Pony Show, "Now I'm used to pickin' myself up and dustin' myself off, but Rarity won't even touch mud unless it's imported."
In Sisterhooves Social, Applejack does not take offense when Rarity calls the competition held at the Apple farm "uncouth". Applejack simply tells Sweetie Belle that her big sister Rarity thinks everything is uncouth, but that she will come around in time. She gently offers Rarity advice on how to compromise and better get along with Sweetie Belle, which Rarity gratefully accepts.
Applejack dislikes things that are "girly", like the froufrou dresses in Suited for Success. Applejack describes in a flashback in The Cutie Mark Chronicles how she tried being a pony of elegance for a short time as a young filly by moving to Manehattan to live with her Aunt and Uncle Orange, but ultimately decided to return to the farm after she realized that she was homesick. When Apple Bloom starts speaking French in The Cutie Pox, Applejack says her sister is "speakin' in fancy".
She is almost always seen wearing a light brown stetson hat, which she usually removes before sleeping, and is the only one of the six main characters to keep her mane and tail tied back in a "ponytail". Applejack takes great pride in her hat and usually won't go anywhere without it. In the episode A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2 she hastily puts on her hat over her headband while Rarity is busy crying for Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. During the episode The Mysterious Mare Do Well, Applejack is the only pony to keep the hat on whenRainbow Dash realizes that it was her friends that were the hero stealing her thunder. Also, in the many times that she has been made to wear a dress, she usually has a revised version of her stetson. Even her handpicked dress in Suited For Success had a hat, although it wasn't her normal one. Applejack also has more than one hat as shown in Magic Duel because Big McIntosh, Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, and Applejack herself are each wearing copies of the hat at the same time.
Impatience and giving in[]
In Look Before You Sleep, she lets her feud with Rarity ruin Twilight Sparkle's sleepover; and in Fall Weather Friends, she allows herself to become just as underhanded as Rainbow Dash in her attempt to win. In both of these situations, she eventually lets go of her pride and is the first to apologize. She is quick to argue with Rainbow Dash in Over a Barrel, worsening the tension between the residents of Appleloosa and the buffalo.
In Applebuck Season, she shows great resilience when being offered help, working herself past exhaustion in the midst of trying to harvest the entire apple orchard on her own. Her fatigue has shown through considerably by the time she finally accepts assistance from her friends.
Empathy and care[]
In Dragonshy, despite the other ponies' impatience (with the exception of Pinkie Pie) with Fluttershy, Applejack is willing to take the long way around the mountain with her in order to help her up. Applejack is also the first to notice Twilight Sparkle's glumness in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1.
In Sleepless in Ponyville she is the only pony who notices that Scootaloo is abnormally nervous and jumpy.
Applejack pulls back Rainbow Dash by her tail when the latter is about to do something rash, for example, in the episodes Friendship is Magic, part 1 and part 2, The Ticket Master, Dragonshy, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, and The Crystal Empire - Part 2.
In Magic Duel, after Trixie magics Rarity's outfit into one that is a brown that is "only supposed to be used as an accent", Applejack comforts her by wrapping her in a "soothing shade of pink" and patting her back. She also tries to soothe Rarity's nerves at the end of The Crystal Empire - Part 2 while Twilight meets with Princess Celestia.
Honesty[]
- "Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of... honesty!"
- — Twilight Sparkle, Friendship is Magic, part 2
Applejack represents the element of honesty. Twilight Sparkle deduces this in Friendship is Magic, part 2, explaining that Applejack demonstrated her honesty when they faced their challenges against Nightmare Moon. Applejack finds it difficult to go against her natural honesty in Party of One when she has to lie about why she cannot attend Gummy's after-birthday party. She sweats and grins nervously under Pinkie Pie's scrutiny despite having the most credible excuse: needing to buck apples.
In The Return of Harmony Part 1, Applejack is the first pony to be hypnotized and brainwashed by Discord, causing her and her hat to turn into a greyer shade. Applejack becomes a compulsive liar, throwing hurtful and sarcastic jabs at her friends. Initially, her lies are not particularly convincing or malicious, but they grow more ridiculous and harmful as the corruption intensifies. She paid for one of her lies when she tells Rarity that Twilight told her to split the rock and Rarity starts doing martial arts on her. Also when she states that she doesn't know where Rarity was and in turn got beat up by Twilight. She was also bowled over when Twilight was performing the memory spell right after she asked "Where you went when I was battlin' Discord?". This may also lead to believe that Applejack herself might have believed her lies to an extent as she mention that she was fighting Discord before to Granny Smith. She is also the first pony to have her corruption cured by Twilight, and one of the first things she does is apologize.
She also demonstrates her honesty in the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 when she admits that she and her friends and family had lost against the Flim Flam brothers.
Appetite[]
Applejack is seen to possess a huge appetite, as seen in A Bird in the Hoof and Apple Family Reunion. Granny Smith recalls the time when an Apple family relative found Applejack as a foal eating all the apple fritters, showing that she had the appetite of a "full-grown stallion".
Skills[]
Strength[]
Applejack possesses incredible physical strength due to, as she explains in Fall Weather Friends, years of applebucking, the practice of harvesting apple trees by kicking them to knock the apples down, which is first named in Applebuck Season. The examples of this include, but not limited to:
- Applebuck Season: Even when she is sleep-deprived, Applejack clears all of the apples out of a tree in a single kick.
- Fall Weather Friends: In the bucking contest, Applejack uses one hind hoof and bucks the hammer so hard that it breaks and sends the bell flying.
- Mysterious Mare Do Well: While dressed up, she stops a bus from falling with a single kick.
- My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Her human counterpart lifts a table up with one arm while it took two fairly large guys to lift up another.
It should be noted that in the episode Over a Barrel, the citizens of Appleloosa need to work in groups and kick multiple times to harvest apples from a single tree.
Athleticism[]
Applejack possesses extraordinary strength and athletic abilities. She and Rainbow Dash compete in the Iron Pony competition in Fall Weather Friends, where their athletic feats draw a sizable crowd. Applejack demonstrates her skills with a lasso in Applebuck Season, Boast Busters, Look Before You Sleep, Bridle Gossip, Fall Weather Friends, and The Return of Harmony Part 2.
In The Mysterious Mare Do Well, Applejack refers to her left and right hind hooves as "Bucky McGillycuddy" and "Kicks McGee" respectively.
Cooking[]
Pinkie Pie describes Applejack as "one of the best bakers ever" in Applebuck Season. Applejack sells apple-based foods at a concession stand in The Best Night Ever. In an earlier episode, Applejack describes to Twilight how she will use the money from the concession stand to upgrade the barn roof, buy a new plow for Big McIntosh, and replace Granny Smith's hip. In A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1, Princess Celestia asks Applejack to prepare refreshments and the wedding cake for Princess Cadance and Shining Armor's royal wedding. She cheers up a grumpy Twilight with an apple fritter during the wedding preparations. In Apple Family Reunion, Applejack shows her skill at making apple fritters to her relatives.
Herding[]
She stops a cow stampede in Applebuck Season with only the help of her dog, Winona. Twilight Sparkle seeks her help first when she is looking for a way to herd the Parasprites out of Ponyville in Swarm of the Century. Applejack and her family also herded the Pinkie Pies together as Twilight had instructed in Too Many Pinkie Pies.
Playing musical instruments[]
In Swarm of the Century, Pinkie Pie borrows a harmonica from Applejack to help control the parasprite infestation. In A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, the picture montage shown during Love is in Bloom shows Applejack playing a fiddle asApple Fritter and Meadow Song dance.
Ice sculpting[]
During the royal wedding preparations, Applejack crafts a heart-shaped ice sculpture.
Experience as a Ponyville citizen[]
Throughout the series, Applejack tells Twilight Sparkle about the way things are in Ponyville. She gets upset with Twilight for using magic during Winter Wrap Up, and tells her "That's not how we do it 'round here, Twilight, and especially not on mah farm", although she quickly regrets her outburst when Twilight runs off in tears.
She explains to Twilight in Feeling Pinkie Keen that "those of us who have been in Ponyville a while, have learned over time that, if Pinkie's-a-twichin', you better listen."
Cutie mark[]
In Call of the Cutie, Applejack tells her sister that she was the last one in her class to get a cutie mark, a trait that seems to run in their family; Granny Smith and Big McIntosh were also the last ponies in their classes to get their cutie marks. In The Cutie Mark Chronicles, Applejack tells the Cutie Mark Crusadersthe story of how she got her cutie mark. It begins with a young Applejack leaving the farm to live with her upper class relatives, the Oranges, in a big city called Manehattan. However, she finds it hard to fit in and becomes terribly homesick. The rainbow left in the wake of Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom convinces her to return home. Applejack realizes that she truly belongs in the family farm, and her cutie mark, three apples, appears.
The Apple family[]
Applejack's immediate and extended family is featured in the show multiple times. This includes her big brother Big McIntosh, her little sister Apple Bloom, her grandmother Granny Smith, and many more distant relatives.
Applejack's parents[]
The whereabouts of Applejack's parents is touched on in the episode Apple Family Reunion. At the end of the episode, the shot fades to a view of Sweet Apple Acres as two shooting stars fly through the sky. The shooting stars are meant to represent Applejack's parents, according to storyboard artist Sabrina Alberghetti.[3] Lauren Faust had previously mentioned that the whereabouts of Applejack's parents has not been planned, and that the show is unlikely to mention that they've passed away.[4] Faust stated she wanted that to be the case.[5]
Depiction in Equestria Girls[]
In My Little Pony Equestria Girls, Applejack's human counterpart is first seen delivering fizzy apple cider to the Fall Formal's decorator, Pinkie Pie. She tries to dissuade Twilight from running for Princess, telling her that Sunset Shimmerviciously seeks to humiliate any competition.
It is later revealed that Applejack and the rest of the mane six's counterparts had been driven apart by Sunset Shimmer's machinations. Applejack had received a message supposedly from Rainbow Dash promising to have the school's soccer team attend an event Applejack was hosting, only for Rainbow to not come. Once Twilight reveals the truth, they all reconcile and help Twilight win Princess of the Fall Formal.
Just like her pony counterpart Applejack is dependable, hardworking and honest. She's also quite strong, easily lifting and carrying a folding table while a similar table takes two athletes to move.