Changes: The Last Roundup

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The Last Roundup is the fourteenth episode of the second season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic 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 in Canterlot, her friends go on a journey to talk to her to find out why. This episode marks Derpy's first official role in the series.

Production and airing

The episode is included in The Friendship Express DVD, and its title was mentioned a month before it aired on television.^[3] Many Flash assets from Over a Barrel are reused, including the four train pulling ponies, who pull the coach Applejack commandeers.

According to the episode's writer, Amy Keating Rogers, Derpy's scene was originally longer and included a flashback that showed why town hall was in such a state of disrepair: during a bout of removing the lightning from thunderclouds, Derpy "bucked bolts" too close to the town hall and ended up damaging it. Rogers also originally intended this clumsy pony to be Ditzy Doo as a callback to the episode Winter Wrap Up, but was asked to name her Derpy as a "tip of the hat" to the fans.^[4]

The episode was removed from rotation and iTunes due to complaints about Derpy's portrayal, and was later put back up, after Derpy's voice and eyes had been changed, and the mention of her name removed. The original version of the episode is retained in the Friendship Express DVD, but reruns on The Hub are the altered version.

Summary

Practicing for the rodeo

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

The send-off to Canterlot

Rainbow Dash and Derpy are then shown at the town hall. Derpy tries to help Rainbow Dash put up the ribbons, but she ends up destroying most of the town hall. This is the first mention of Derpy's name on the show (except in the updated iTunes re-release and The Hub reruns), and her first prominent speaking role. 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, which she says she will use to repair town hall.

The surprise party

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, who is surprised by the party, thinking that it is for his birthday. Twilight then takes the note from the courier, in which afterwards, Pinkie Pie gives the courier a piece of cake. They proceed to read the note, and read that she won't be returning to Ponyville, but she will send the money. The Apple family is baffled to why she wouldn't return, stating that she loves Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres and her family. Massively saddened by this, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity assures them that they will go to the rodeo to find out why Applejack don't want to return, also telling a crying Big Macintosh that they will search all over Equestria if they didn't find her.

The search

The five friends go to the rodeo and begin to show a picture of Applejack to the ponies there, but nobody seems to know where she is. One pony indicates that she knows where she saw Applejack, 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, upon hurrying 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 that she found her, the group runs to her and begins asking why she didn't want to come back to Ponyville. The group finds out that she is working at a cherry farm, run by a pony called Cherry Jubilee, who shares a name with the G1 pony and co-star of the original My Little Pony television series. 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.

The cherry factory

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, as well as Rainbow Dash asking if Applejack saw "Wild Bull Hickok" and "Calamity Mane", whose names are similar to the Wild West figures Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. This causes her to lose her temper and becoming more and more intimidated. She begins to spin the wheel too fast, overwhelming Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who are sorting the cherries. The scene is a homage to the television series I Love Lucy, replicating a scene from the episode "Job Switching", where Lucy and Ethel wear mushroom-like hats and work on a production line wrapping candies, which moves faster and faster until they can't handle the pace and stuff the untouched chocolates into their hats and mouths. Fluttershy shouts for Applejack to stop. She stopped the wheel, then gets down 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 "call in the big guns", at which point the screen focuses on none other than Pinkie Pie.

Calling in the "big guns"

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, dishes and fun things to say, such as "chimicherry" or "cherrychanga". These two items have their roots in the Chimichanga, a northern Mexico food and Chimichurri, an Argentinean food. There is also an alcoholic cocktail called a cherrychanga. Finally, Applejack can't take it any 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 "spill the beans". Applejack finally says that she will be telling her friends the truth tomorrow morning at breakfast, 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.

The chase

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 angry due to her promise being broken, she jumps on a coach and orders 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. Twilight tells Rainbow to go back, but she tells her that they have no time and continue the chase.

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 pursuers, she believes that 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. Twilight congratulates Applejack for winning a large number of ribbons, 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 she 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.

Epilogue

Applejack learns a lesson 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! Don't want to do any more damage than you've already done.

[crash]

Derpy: I just don't know what went wrong!

Rainbow Dash: Yeah. It's a mystery.

Derpy: Nice work, Rainbow Dash!

[thud]

[wood splintering]

Rainbow Dash: [yelps]

Derpy: 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, floor cracks, Derpy and Dash crash through it]

Derpy: Oops. My bad.

Pinkie Pie: And drink sarsaparilla! What? It gives you extra sass.

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!

Pinkie Pie: Have you ever had a cherry changa? Ooh! Sorry, that was a question.

Applejack: That kind of question is fine, Pinkie. No, I-I never had a cherry changa.

Pinkie Pie: Well no wonder, because I made it up myself! A cherry changa is mashed up cherries in a tortilla that's deep fried. Cherry changa. Great name, huh? Oh, but maybe I should call it a chimmy cherry. Ooh, that's good too. Which do you think sounds better? Cherry changa or chimmy cherry? Or what if I combine them? Chimmy cherry changa! 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, chimmy cherry changa-!

Applejack: No! Make it stop, make it stop!

Pinkie Pie: Nopony breaks a Pinkie promise!

Pinkie Pie: Applejack! [lightly distorted] You Pinkie promised!

Applejack: Dah!

Pinkie Pie: Rarity, catch me.

Rarity: What? Pinkie–[screams]

[crunch]

Applejack: Yee-haw!

Coach ponies: [in unison] Lady, you're trouble.

Pinkie Pie: What do 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!

Gallery

File:Aj sad around ribbons.png

The Last Roundup image gallery

References

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