My Little Pony Tier List and Discussion

[Adamant soul]

Thought it was high time I stop being lazy and got back to this. Rather than just copy-paste my old thread, I'm going to go back through the series again, with the same format (although I'll try and post the scenes where I can find them), because it's been a while since I've watched it and there's every chance I missed things.

Obviously I will be focusing exclusively on Gen 4 (Friendship is Magic) as that's the one I'm a fan of, but anyone who had the stomach to watch through Gen 1 or Gen 5 can put feats up for those as well.

 

[Adamant soul]

Gen 4: Friendship is Magic Canon Tier List

S+ Tier

Elements of Harmony

S Tier

Nightmare Moon
Princess Celestia

S- Tier

Princess Luna

A+ Tier

Fluttershy
Twilight Sparkle
Manticore
Wonderbolts

A Tier

Rainbow Dash
Applejack
Big Macintosh
Pinkie Pie

A- Tier

Royal Guards
Cows
Rarity
Steven Magnet

B Tier

Spike​

 

[Adamant soul]

Season One​

Episode 1: Friendship is Magic Part 1



0:00 - 1:38

"Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria. There were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. The younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies.

But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. Ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness, Nightmare Moon! She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night.

Reluctantly the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom, The Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon, and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since.​

Summary

• Alicorn (though these early episodes call them unicorns) Princesses and sisters Celestia and Luna rule Equestria.
• Elder Celestia uses telekinesis to move the sun, Younger Luna raises the moon to keep the day/night cycle going.
• Luna gets salty because ponies sleep at night, transforms into Nightmare Moon and vows to make night eternal.
• Celestia is forced to use the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon and seal her within the moon.
• Celestia moves both sun and moon from that day onwards.

1:50

• Twilight turns into a blur as she starts running, while three other unicorns track her movements.

2:10 - 2:28

• Twilight runs up a large tower's spiral starcase in 7 seconds.
• Uses her telekinesis to open the door with enough force to knock Spike to the ground, who gets up but he's dazed and rubbing his head for a few seconds.
• Twilight asks Spike to find her "that old copy of predictions and prophecies". Who exactly made these prophecies isn't stated.

2:39 - 2:59

• Twilight uses her telekinesis to start pulling several books at random (ten at once by the end of the scene).
• In the 12 seconds she's doing that, Spike positions and climbs a large ladder to get to the book.
• Twilight's telekinesis easily overpowers Spike, pulling him along with the book and slamming him to the ground. Spike is more annoyed at having to clean up the books than anything else.

3:10 - 3:47

• Twilight reads a prophecy about Nightmare Moon stating that "Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape and she will bring about night time eternal".
• Spike falls off a ladder on the lower floor of the library, Twilight runs (no teleporting sound effect and Twilight would be more drained if she'd done that) from the higher floor of the library down to catch Spike in about 2 seconds flat.
• Twilight is revealed to be the student of Princess Celestia, studying pony magic

4:26 - 5:00

• Twilight reasons that the upcoming 1000th Summer Sun Celebration, is in fact the "longest day of the thousandth year" mentioned in the prophecy. This turns out to be right later, confirming both sisters are over a thousand ears old at this point.
• Twilight tells Spike to "send" a letter to the Princess. He does so by burning it, his flames flying out the window and to Princess Celestia.

0:00 - 0:12

• A mere 10 seconds after sending the letter, Princess Celestia sends a response. Either she's a really fast writer or she planned this all out and had it prepared already, given how things play out that latter is almost certainly the case.
• Spike can recieve letters, burping them up before the reform.

0:31 - 1:23

• Twilight and Spike are flown via carriage, pulled by two Pegasus Royal Guards, from Canterlot - Ponyville in what we can assume to be a reasonably short time frame (given Twilight has enough time to move all over town before the sun starts going down), with neither guard having broken a sweat.

1:30 - 1:38

• Twilight and Spike react to Pinkie by ducking before she could plow into them. Though it should be noted that if you frame by frame, Twilight start ducking before Pinkie starts moving.

1:52 - 2:22

• Applejack kicks an apple tree, shaking all the apples out of the tree.
• Applejack shakes Twilight's hoof with so much force that it keeps shaking for a few seconds after she lets go.

2:33 - 2:45

• Applejack becomes a blur as she moves while Twilight and Spike easily track her movements.
• Twilight is tackled by a member of Applejack's family and pushed to the picnic table, just leaving her dazed momentarily.

2:50 - 3:00

• All of Applejack's family become blurs as they run.

3:46 - 4:13

• Spike says their next stop is to check the weather, stating that "There's supposed to be a pegasus pony named Rainbow Dash clearing the clouds".
• Rainbow crashes into Twilight knocking her into a mud puddle, Twilight is really just annoyed at this.

4:15 - 4:40

• Rainbow flies off, physically grabs a rain cloud slightly larger than her and pulls it over to Twilight, where she hops on the cloud repeatedly to release the rain. She has Twilight drenched in seconds, even Rainbow saying "I guess I overdid it".
• Rainbow performs a "Rainblow dry". She flies around Twilight so fast she creates afterimages, all while generating enough wind to dry Twilight off, which succeeds but it wrecks her mane in the process.

5:01 - 5:33

• Rainbow rests on a cloud, treating it like it were solid matter.
• The Wonderbolts are "The most talented flyers in ALL of Equestria". Rainbow aspires to become one and was practicing her flying when she crashed into Twilight. Twilight scoffs and suggest "They'd never accept a Pegasus who can't even keep the sky clear for one measly day". It's to provoke Rainbow into doing her job but still worth noting.
• Rainbow claims "I could clear this sky in 10 seconds flat".

0:00 - 0:10

• Rainbow actually clears the Ponyville sky in 9 seconds, not 10, dispersing the clouds with punches, kicks and tackles.
• Twilight and Spike are amazed at Rainbow's speed but are still able to follow her movements (albeit with difficulty).

0:40 - 1:16

• Rarity used her telekinesis to decorate the Town Hall. Not much of a power feat but, given we see her going through options for just one decoration, it's safe to assume she did each individual decoration one at a time. Which is a decent stamina feat in terms of continuous magic use, though we don't know how long it took her to do this.

1:30 - 2:00

• Rarity pushes Twilight around, physically overpowering her while Twilight yells for help and pushing her to Rarity's boutique so she can fix her hair. After doing that, she then tightens the dress she was going to give her hard enough to cause Twilight obvious discomfort (enough that Twilight has tears in her eyes).

3:50 - 4:17

• Despite Fluttershy yelling out, and despite Twilight turning her head enough to see Fluttershy coming, Fluttershy completely blitzes Twilight and casually tackles her out of the way without even noticing. Twilight is left in pain on the ground for several seconds.
• Twilight picks Spike up with her telekinesis and puts him on her back.

4:28 - 5:11

• We see Applejack's farm in the background of this scene, before the trio begin to walk to Twilight's soon to be home Golden Oak's Library. This walk takes so long that the sky goes from clear bright to a setting sun and Spike gets through his entire life story. Just helps to establish Ponyville is a really big town.
• Fluttershy blitzes Spike when she thinks he's tired.
• Twilight goes in the building and pushes Fluttershy out with one leg in just over a second.

0:48 - 1:23

• Pinkie moves from one side of Twilight to the other between frames.
• Twilight burns her throat when she accidentally drinks hot sauce, while Pinkie is utterly unaffected by it. Obviously a low end for Twilight but it still shows that Pinkie's durability is higher than hers.

1:30 - 2:18

• The clock on Twilight's wall reads somewhere in the 4-5 am range. This is relevant because we see a quartet of stars visibly moving at high speed towards the moon.

Now I'd always assumed Nightmare Moon did the above feat while still imprisoned. Though I did always think it was weird that she could do that, but it turns out that show creator Lauren Faust had this to say when asked about it.


Meaning Celestia herself moved those stars to release Nightmare Moon, reinforcing the idea she is masterminding everything in these opening episodes so she can get her sister back. Nightmare Moon still obviously scales to this feat though since Celestia needed the Elements to beat her.

3:04 - 3:52

• Mayor Mare describes Princess Celestia as "The very pony who gives us the sun and the moon, each and every day".
• Nightmare Moon is released from the Moon, but then appears in Ponyvile less than 40 seconds later. Given she's shown teleporting in the next episode, it's safe to assume that's how she got there so fast
• Nightmare Moon appears as a cloud of purple smoke before assuming her true form.

4:02 - 5:09

• Applejack grabs Rainbow by the tail before the dipshit could rush Nightmare Moon and holds her in place.
• Nightmare Moon controls her mane, using it to touch Rarity and warping it into a large vortex she summons several lightning bolts from to end the episode.

 

[Adamant soul]

Episode 2: Friendship is Magic Part 2



0:00 - 0:23

• Three Pegasus Royal Guards attempt to "seize" Nightmare Moon, she stops them in their tracks with lightning bolts in front of them (they only react after the lightning appears so Nightmare Moon missed on purpose), then blasts them out of the air with the next lightning bolts (which completely blitz them). Two of them couldn't even get back to their feet after this.
• Nightmare Moon turns into smoke and flies away, using her telekinesis while in smoke form, to open the door.
• Rainbow finally breaks free of Applejacks grip.
• Rainbow is left in the dust, as the Alicorn flies clear out of Ponyville and over a mountain range in less than 10 seconds.

0:45 - 1:00

• Twilight appears to shake the building as she starts looking through the books. That part is almost certainly just a gag as she's not doing anything that would actually shake the building.
• However her flipping through multiple books in a few seconds at high speed and still being able to tell they don't have the information she needs is worth noting for her reaction speed.
• Applejack pulls Rainbow back by her tail again when she gets in Twilight's face.

1:21 - 1:49

• Twilight tackles Pinkie to the ground, but Pinkie is completely unharmed by it.
• "There are six Elements of Harmony but only five are known. Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery".
• Nightmare Moon eavesdrops on the Mane 6 in smoke form, showing she has all her senses as well as magic when she shapeshifts.

2:38 - 2:58

• Applejack claims the Everfree Forest "A'int natural. Folk say it don't work the same as Equestria." Though this is as much as the series gives us right now.
• Nightmare Moon in smoke form shows intangibility by passing through solid matter THEN proves she can still physically affect things while intangible by breaking apart the earth under the ponies' hooves.

2:59 - 3:50

• Rainbow outflies the sliding Pinkie in around the same time it takes Fluttershy (who started a half second after Rainbow) to catch Rarity. It should be noted Fluttershy's physical ability varies depending on how motivated she is, still this shows her speed is on par with Rainbow even at her base.
• Applejack and Twilight are able to grab and hold on to each other with their hooves.
• Rainbow and Fluttershy secure Pinkie and Rarity, then come back around in time to catch a falling Twilight. Fluttershy almost losing her grip and claiming she's "not used to holding anything more than a bunny or two" which highlights what I said about her strength varying depending on the situation and her motivation.

3:51 - 3:56

• Nightmare Moon completely blitzes the Manticore that's about to give the Mane 6 some serious trouble.

4:10 - 5:13

• The Manticore leaps and swipes at Rarity, who dodges and responds with a kick of her own, making the Manticore flinch. Though it responds by roaring and messing up her mane, at which point Rarity flees turning into a blur as she runs.
• Applejack jumps on its back as it's chasing Rarity and is able to hold on for a few seconds before being tossed off.
• Rainbow flies around the Manticore using the wind to attack it, this merely seems to annoy it before it swats Rainbow out of the air with its stinger tail. Rainbow actually cries out in pain here but is able to get up and join the charge with everyone else.
• Nightmare Moon had shifted into a thorn and stabbed the Manticore in the paw to enrage it.

0:14 - 0:39

• Nightmare Moon possesses the trees surrounding the Mane 6, shifting them into scary faces. Come on Luna! Was that really the best you could think of to do with this ability? Kinda lame in comparison to the Manticore I can't lie.

0:54 - 2:07

• Pinkie starts laughing and inspires the rest of the Mane 6 to laugh at the trees as well, which seems to break the spell (that or Nightmare Moon gave up on it).

THIS scene and the Rainbow one coming up, really give off the impression that Nightmare Moon is either deliberately sabotaging herself, or Luna is influencing her from within to help the Mane 6. I mean she is deliberately giving them challenges that end up confirming which Element of Harmony they are.

Couple this with separating Twilight from the group to make her realize how much she cares about them and really, all I would need is SOME direct confirmation this was the case and it would fix the biggest issue with these opening episodes (ie Nightmare Moon being incompetent). Oh well.

2:10 - 2:28

• An upset sea serpent named Steven Magnet turns a calm river into a raging rapid by thrashing around.

Because Nightmare Moon cut off part of his mustache.
Seriously Luna! That's just petty.

3:28 - 3:49

• Rarity easily pulls out one of Steven's scales, then uses it as a blade to cut her tail off.
• She uses her telekinesis to attache the tail in place of the ruined half of the mustache, presumably using another spell to keep it in place.

4:34 - 4:52

• Twilight almost runs off a cliff in her excitement, but Rainbow pulls her back before she can even start falling.
• Rainbow flies down to grab the bridge and hauls it to the other end of the cliff.

4:53 - 5:32

• Nightmare Moon shifts into not one but three different forms at once here, a mare and two stallions. She poses as a flight team to tempt Rainbow into abandoning her friends. A clear test of her Loyalty, one of the only two elements not accounted for at this point.
• Nightmare Moon's smoke form passes through Rainbow right as her voice starts calling Rainbow's name. She plays on Rainbow's aspiration to become a Wonderbolt in this scene, so either:

1. She looked through her mind when she passed through her.
2. She could still see the dreams of ponies while in the moon and already knew about Rainbow's dream
3. It was an educated guess as the other ponies have said her name and she would have seemed the type to Luna.

I think the middle option is probably the most likely as we do see her use her dream-walking abilities to look through memories later and it makes more sense to give credit to an ability we KNOW she has rather than giving her new ones when the scene is as unclear as this one.



0:00 - 0:30

• Nightmare Moon uses a spell to make the fog thicker, not blocking Twilight and the others from Rainbow's view but also muffling the sound of their voices.
• Rainbow pushes away the fog barrier with simple flaps of her wings.

0:50 - 1:08

• Rainbow and Fluttershy easily lift carry the stone Elements of Harmony to the ground.
• "The book said, when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth element to be revealed".

1:20 - 2:00

• While Twilight attempts to create a spark, Nightmare Moon arrives, transforming into whirlwind to pick up the elements.
• Twilight sees this and leaps forward as Nightmare Moon teleports from the element chamber to a hall elsewhere in the castle.

I note the suspicious nature of the fact Nightmare Moon lingers long enough for Twilight to jump in and be teleported with her. She's not even surprised to see her on the other hand, so at least her separating her from the other ponies was deliberate if nothing else.

2:03 - 2:54

• Twilight rushes Nightmare Moon while charging her horn. Just before they would have met in the middle, Twilight teleports to the other end of the hall where the elements are. Twilight needed several seconds to charge this and she puts a hoof to her head afterwards, showing that it took a significant amount of energy/stamina from her. Which also serves to show magic is powered pretty much entirely by the user.
• Twilight generates some electricity and sends it into the elements, but the elements simply bounce the electricity back at her. This causes Twilight to cry out in pain, something even Fluttershy didn't pull off (though Fluttershy knocked her down for longer), showing the two are at least on similar levels for destructive capacity.
• Nightmare Moon stomps the ground and shatters the stone elements as if they were made of glass.

3:15 - 3:27

• Finally having "the spark" Twilight scoffs at the idea "that you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that. Well you're wrong, because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right HERE!"

0:00 - 2:25

• By showing the qualities that the Elements of Harmony respresent, each of the Mane 6 has become spiritually linked to their respective element. Applejack = Honesty, Fluttershy = Kindness, Pinkie Pie = Laughter, Rarity = Generosity and rainbow Dash = Loyalty. The shattered pieces of the Elements take flight and circle around their respective pony.
• "You see Nightmare Moon. When those Elements are ignited by, the spark that resides in the heart of us all, it creats the sixth Element. The Element of MAGIC!" Being that she was the pony who brought the five Elements together, of course Twilight becomes the Element of Magic. The Element of Magic manifests as a crown, while the other Elements take the form of necklaces, all bearing the Cutie Mark (the little tattoo on their little flanks) of their respective Pony.
• Together the Elements unleash a Rainbow blast of magic that completely overwhelms Nightmare Moon (and repairs Rarity's tail in the process. The strain of this causes the Mane 6 to pass out momentarily.

2:32 - 3:23

• Princess Celestia finally appears, raising the sun in seconds and appearing in the form of white light. This form can be assumed to have similar properties to Luna's smoke form.
• Nightmare Moon had her dark magic stripped by the Elements, leaving Princess Luna restored to a weakened version of her original form.

Not a feat but Luna's IMMEDIATE apology and acceptance of her sister's friendship really does lend weight to the idea she had long since accepted what she did was wrong (she did have a thousand years to think about it after all) and had influenced Nightmare Moon's actions to help the ponies. She simply needed to be freed of the dark magic.

I would like to accept that but the show never really comes out and says it, so Nightmare Moon just looks completely incompetent.

Review

Man the animation in these early episodes was a little rough around the edges wasn't it? Even comparing it to Season 2 is like a night and day difference, the studio comes a hell of a LONG way with the animation as the series goes on. Still I've definitely seen worse and for being the first time the crew were using this animation system, it's pretty good.

Honestly I do quite enjoy this opening two-parter. They had to introduce not one but SEVEN (including Spike) main characters, two Princesses, establish the motivations for AND deal with the series' 1st villain. It was always going to come across as kind of rushed but the characters are still likeable if very basic in these episodes and I have to praise the SHOW, DON'T TELL approach the episodes had to establishing the capabilities of each type of pony.

As I've said the one major flaw, is the complete incompetence of Nightmare Moon as a villain. There simply isn't anything definitive to support my headcanon that Luna was influencing her from within to help the ponies, other than the simple fact that many of her actions DON'T MAKE ANY SENSE in any other context.

It's a solid two-parter. There are definitely better ones in the show and even better season premiers, but it was a good introduction to the show and it succeeded in getting me to continue watching, which is what it was meant to do. Can't knock it for that.

 

[Adamant soul]

Episode 3: The Ticket Master



0:53 - 1:16

• Twilight dodges Spike's flames point-blank.
• We get a panning shot starting from Ponyville and going up to show Canterlot in the distance high on a mountain.

2:30 - 3:35

• Rainbow falls from a tree, on top of Applejack and Twilight who shrug it off.
• Rainbow can fly upside down, even hovering in place in that position.
• Rainbow performs several tricks in her fantasy. Given that, despite her ego or even because of her ego, she's not one to claim she can do things she can't, it should be safe to assume she can actually do these things. A "Super Speed Strut" where she struts while flying at high speed, a "Fantastic Filly Flash" where she dives at the crowd only to pull up at the last second, and most impressively "Bucaneer Blaze" which we don't see but Rainbow generates a large burst of electricity.
• The Wonderbolts all generate electricity as they fly, leaving a smoke trail while Rainbow leaves a rainbow trail.

4:00 - 5:01

• Applejack drags Rainbow back by her tail, then the two get into a hoof wrestling match, in which they are evenly matched.
• Twilight easily pushes both Applejack and Rainbow to the ground at the same time with one leg each.
• Applejack and Rainbow return to their hoof wrestling with neither making any head way.

0:08 - 0:31

• Pinkie crashes into Twilight, leaving her with a clearly pained expression but with Pinkie herself dazed by the impact. Twilight gets up significantly faster than when she was hit by Fluttershy.
• During her fantasy Pinkie leaps a good distance into the air.

0:00 - 2:20

• This scene starts with the weather perfectly sunny, then it transitions into a large rain storm. Unfortunately because the scene focuses on Twilight, it's impossible to say how long this took but by the time Twilight goes to Rarity's boutique, the storm is covering all of Ponyville. We know pegasi make all the weather in Equestria and while Rainbow is in the scene, we also know there are more weather ponies in Ponyville. So while she certainly contributed to it (probably more so than most), the feat isn;t solely hers.
• What IS Rainbow's feat only however, is the significant hole she kicked in the clouds to keep Twilight dry.
• Rainbow fixes the hole she kicked.
• Twilight has time to say "That's better" and almost take a bite of her sandwich before the rain comes down.

2:40 - 3:20

• Rarity puts a dress on Twilight is just shy of ten seconds, and an outfit on Spike in about five.
• Rarity overpowers Spike with her telekinesis, pulling him by the tail before he could run away.
• Spike runs away, turning into a blur as he runs.

4:07 - 4:17

• In the time Twilight was in Rarity's boutique the rain storm either faded away or was removed by the pegasi.
• Applejack hauled a whole cart full of food from Sweet Apple Acres on the outskirts of town to Carousel Boutique closer to the center, presumably after the rain ended and in the time Twilight was in the Boutique.

0:00 - 0:27

• A few Ponyville ponies toss Twilight into the air repeatedly and Twilight takes the fall and shrugs it off.

0:48 - 1:52

• Twilight is chased all across Ponyville by the citizens of the town, evading them through some rather creative and clever ploys. The chase starts when the sky is clear and bright and ends after the sun has set, so this went on for hours. Good physical stamina for ponies in general if nothing else.
• When she's eventually cornered, Twilight panics and teleports all the way back to Golden Oaks Library from a random alley in the town. Her charge time for teleporting has significantly reduced and she "didn't even know it was going to happen" so this was an instinctive reaction. The teleportation leaves Twilight momentarily dazed and Spike singed by the energy of it.
• Twilight and Spike turn off all the lights in the library in a few seconds.

3:24 - 4:50

• Spike has to open the window before burning the letter, showing it has to PHYSICALLY TRAVEL between locations. It's not a teleportation. Why is this important? There is only 12 - 13 seconds between Spike sending the letter and him recieving a response from Celestia. That means his flames traveled from Ponyville to Canterlot in just over 10 seconds.
• Applejack dodges Spike's flames point blank after they were fired.
• Celestia directly responds to Spike verbally asking why he didn't get a ticket, by sending him one. Meaning Celestia can see and hear what's going on in Ponyville. This is just something hinted at here, but it's directly confirmed in the Season 3 finale that Celestia was keeping a really close watch on Twilight basically the entire series up to that point.

Review

God Ponyville feels so empty here, even compared to later in this season. I mean you look at the scene where the Mane 6 are all arguing about the ticket and, despite the fact they are well within Ponyville proper, there's nopony else to be seen, not even a background pony. It's a minor thing but you really notice the growing pains this show had in its animation when you're used to later seasons.

This is a pretty good episode with a solid message. It helps to develop all our main characters, giving us more insight into their priorities and/or ambitions (or introduces a pet in Fluttershy's case) and Twilight's exasperation at being hounded by favor seeking ponies is genuinely amusing.

If I had to nitpick, I'd say that Fluttershy's reason for wanting to go to the Gala feels very contrived, like the writers couldn't come up with a decent reason for her to want to go there. Like yeah, there's a garden there, full of plants and animals and you can ONLY see all of them on that one night. It's more iffy when you factor in that Fluttershy doesn't contribute much to this episode and the only thing we learn about her is that she has a pet rabbit named Angel.

BUT since Fluttershy is probably the best part of the actual Gala episode, i'm willing to overlook her somewhat forced inclusion in this episode and say it was worth it overall.

 

[Adamant soul]

Episode 4: Applebuck Season



0:00 - 1:06

• We get a couple panning shots of Sweet Apple Acres, illustrating the size of the place.
• Applejack's older brother Big Macintosh is injured (though it's never clearly specified how) and insists that she is "Still only ONE pony and one pony plus HUNDREDS of apple trees just doesn't add up" As he is the only other family member present who is capable of shaking the apples from the trees, we can assume they would be able to do it together, putting the siblings on a similar level at least.

1:08 - 1:32

• A herd of cows stampede's towards Ponyville, shaking the earth beneath the town and the farmland, causing apples to fall from the trees.

1:57 - 2:53

• Applejack and her dog Winona arrive to herd the cows away from Ponyville. Applejack uses a rope to lasso the lead cow, pulling and overpowering the cow to force her to turn. She then digs her hooves in and forces the cow to stop.

3:40 - 4:25

• Mayor Mare claims Applejack single-hoffidly saved the town. Though obviously Twilight or Rainbow, or hell the citizens working together could have pulled this off given the later feats of even average ponies. This is just one of many instances where characters forget how capable they are so that a specific character can save the day.
• Rarity uses her telekinesis to raise a large banner and put it on Town Hall.
• When Twilight asks "Is Applejack all set?" Rainbow responds "Actually I haven't seen her all week" and Pinkie adds "Not since the stampede". Meaning Applejack has been working the farm on her own nonstop for at least several days at this point.
• Twilight uses a spell to amplify her voice while simultaneously using telekinesis on a stack of papers.

0:31 - 1:35

• Applejack is visibly exhausted when she shows up, clumsily stepping on a pony's tail, laughing at her own reflection and literally falling asleep standing up.

1:49 - 3:48

• Despite her exhaustion, Applejack is still able to shake all the apples from the trees with a single kick each. At this point we can only assume the trees are not being kicked clear out of the ground because, either Applejack is controlling the strength of her kicks, or since Applejack's magic helped grow the trees in the first place they are unnaturally durable.
• Twilight teleports around Applejack SIX times over the course of this scene without looking even remotely drained. She still has to close her eyes to focus on teleportation but it's clear it's no where near as draining on her stamina at this point.
• Applejack states she's doing this alone "Because Big Macintosh hurt himself" which is the most we get on the subject. Him being able to hurt himself is not something I'd doubt, I just wish we knew exactly how that came about?

4:28 - 5:37

• Applejack climbs Rainbow's scaffold to try and catapult her into the air, but her exhaustion causes her to miss several times and drop straight to the floor. She even falls head first a couple times and doesn't really seem any worse for wear at the end of it.
• Applejack pulls the seesaw down, then lets go surprising Rainbow and leaving her dazed.
• Applejack successfully hits the catapult and sends Rainbow flying into the horizon.

0:00 - 0:15

• Rainbow crashes onto Twilight's balcony with no visible injuries aside from ruffled wings, though she is obviously winded and doesn't immediately get up.

0:19 - 1:30

• Supporting what I said earlier about the apple trees, Applejack bumps her head into a thick branch which has no give in it and in fact it hurts Applejack, this happens twice at the start and end of this scene. Either the trees are unnaturally durable due to Earth Pony magic or it's a low end for Applejack.

3:10 - 3:50

• The muffins Applejack "helps" Pinkie make end up poisoning a good chunk of Ponyville's citizens. Though Spike is able to eat them without issue.
• Applejack is only NOW starting to lose her ability to clear the trees out in just one kick.

1:00 - 1:20

• Applejack and Winona scare the bunny rabbits into stampeding into town. The screen (and therefore Ponyville) shakes like with the cows but this time it's obviously just a gag, whereas the cows were treated like a genuine threat to the town and we saw things like apples dropping to confirm the ground really was shaking.

2:08 - 2:56

• At her absolute limit (so much so she kicks a tree multiple times and doesn't even get one apple to fall), Applejack still manages one last burst of strength to clear what she thought was the last tree.
• Though Applejack obviously cleared a lot of the orchard, we're shown that it isn't even close to being down and she finally drops, passing out completely.

3:26 - 3:52

• Rainbow kicks a tree but only gets most of the apples, not all of them. This is consistent with later episodes showing that while her physical strength is on par with Applejack's, the latter's striking strength is notably better.
• Twilight uses her telekinesis to clear an entire block of trees (at least a few dozen).

Review

The first true classic episode IMO. Certainly one of the best of this season at the very least. Applejack's sleep deprived antics are some of the best comedy we get in this season, the message is solid and well executed and it gives Applejack some nice development about accepting help when she needs it.

Though it's rough to note that this may well be Applejack's best episode. She doesn't really get a lot of them because she's not really that complex a character, usually being paired up with another character to play her with or against. There's a reason people joke about her being a Mane Background Pony.

If I had to nitpick, I take issue with how the ponies have to run around like headless chickens when the cows are stampeding, just so that Applejack can save the day when multiple other ponies could (and would) have done it themselves in any other circumstance. It's not so bad here because the event is ultimately not that relevant to the episode, but it started a really bad habit for the show writers and there are much worse instances down the line.