Awwwwww yeah, this older brother LOVES him some good ol' fashioned sibling rivalry!

Good morning everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews." I'm very happy to say that this morning's episode was surprisingly delightful! Not that I thought, going into "Where the Apple Lies," that it would be bad or anything, just that I didn't really have any expectations for this episode and so wasn't sure what to expect. What we got was something very new, which is quite surprising for a Mane 6 character at this point in the show, ESPECIALLY one as consistent in her characterization as Applejack usually is. Going forward, I would love to see more episodes like this one (more on that later), but for now let's delve into today's episode: this is "Where the Apple Lies."

So as I said before, this was an episode unlike most we've ever gotten for the Mane 6, with only a few parallels to it: a backstory episode. I can easily count on one hand the number of similar episodes we've had to this one, episodes like "The Cutie Mark Chronicles," but that episode was an ensemble episode that only gave us short flashbacks for each of the Mane 6. Likewise, we've had flashbacks in other episodes before back to when certain Mane 6 characters were younger, but again, they've never consisted of virtually the entire episode. So really, this was a first for the show: an episode largely devoted to a chapter from a single Mane 6 character's past. In that respect, it was very experimental for the show, and again, for a Mane 6 character that is very surprising at this point. After almost six full seasons of the show, it's obviously getting increasingly hard to find new things or stories to tell with the main characters just because they've learned so many lessons at this point.

Frankly Granny Smith's lucky she didn't end up in the hospital for other reasons this ep

One obvious solution then to this dilemma? Make more episodes like this one, episodes which delve into the pasts and history of the Mane 6 and also give the writers and animators a chance to show us Ponyville and Equestria in a very different light. In today's episode alone, we got to see a preteen/early teenager Applejack, a teenage and VERY talkative Big Mac (which was both hilarious and bizarre to watch), Granny Smith when she was pretty much raising those two at a much younger age (I assume that either Apple Bloom was an infant OR their parents were out of town at the time and she hadn't been born yet, though the episode did not address that question), a much younger Filthy Rich WITH his fiance of the time, Spoiled Milk (BTW that name is too perfect for her), and many more fun little bits of Ponyville at a different time. A personal favorite cameo of mine was when we caught a glimpse of a presumably teenage Derpy (she had a similar body build it seemed to AJ's) at the hospital speaking with a doctor or nurse with bandages covering her eyes, implying that some type of corrective eye surgery had recently occurred at the time of this incident (a very interesting implication for backstory for a character who obviously hasn't gotten much, being a background pony and all). So obviously, with the rich abundance of new things this episode offered to viewers (and the makers of this episode in getting to put it together), it's clear that we should want (and possibly expect) more episodes like this in the future. They will give us a chance to see old characters who we've become so familiar with at this point in a new light, as well as characters around them, including family members we maybe haven't gotten to see as much from before. Who wouldn't love to see a young Twilight with her parents, Shining Armor, or Princess Celestia in her youth? How about more of a young Pinkie Pie on the rock farm OR better yet, when she first met the Cakes (we saw a young Mrs. Cake (though it was unknown if she was married yet at the time) in this episode after all)? A young Rarity and young Applejack in their youth, Fluttershy when she first moved to Ponyville, young Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash growing up in Cloudsdale, there are simply a TON of opportunities presented by this format, so the fact that this episode was made should be very encouraging to all of us as viewers and imply that more episodes like this one may be coming in Season 7 (which we now know as of this week will for sure be made). I don't know about the rest of you, but after how delightful this episode turned out, I for one cannot wait to see more episodes like it next season and hope that the creators seriously consider making more like it!

Huh, that... could actually explain how Spoiled Rich, dare I say it, actually looked *gulp* better in her youth

I didn't even catch this one, but 80s Cheerilee? That's an AWESOME callback to Season 1!!!

Awwwwwwwww, Derpy looks so cute and upbeat despite probably having just gone through a very scary procedure! That's my girl, that's how best background pony (and best pony in general) rolls!

So how exactly did this episode unfold? Well, besides some of the delightful bits I mentioned already, we got to see both a hilarious and very entertaining episode which also managed to feel rather important since it highlighted a very important and formative part of Applejack's youth. Since the show has started, we've all known Applejack to be the most honest pony around; I mean, it is her Element of Harmony after all. Only on rare occasions have we seen her lie, and usually when she's been induced to in a magical sense by someone like Discord. This time, however, we got to see not only Applejack lying of her own volition, but also how said lying led her to value honesty so importantly. This episode-type is not new; cartoons which highlight the importance of honesty by showing white lies and fibs getting out of control have been done a whole lot before. It's not always easy to execute them well since they can get redundant, but it worked very well here for a couple of reasons; (1) it was Applejack doing the lying, so it felt very out of character for her, but since it was in her youth it made sense since, at the time, she didn't value honesty in the same way as she does now, and (2) it did the escalation aspect of this episode VERY well indeed. She found new ways to lie and fib, the lies and fibs got increasingly far-fetched and resulted in more and more extreme outcomes, which in turn meant that the episode only got more and more entertaining as it went on. This in turn also meant that, besides seeing Applejack lie, we also got to see a side of her we rarely do: panic-mode Applejack, and as a filly no less. With Big Mac and her constantly bickering as things got more and more out of control as well, as well as poor Granny Smith having no idea what was going on but remaining her usual ornery, cantankerous but also lovable self, as well as Filthy Rich and Spoiled Milk only causing more grief for Applejack as they kept forcing her into going to greater extremes to maintain her lies, this all made for a very fun, entertaining, and consequential episode. It really felt by the end like, yeah, this is something that would lead Applejack to truly value honesty as a core of who she is and what she does, after everything that happened here. I mean, her brother almost got amputated for crying out loud because of her lies! And what's more, it made sense in a way that she let it get out of hoof; for one, she was a teenager at the time, and they tend to buck up at life choices in certain respects, and she also thought that telling the truth would jeopardize her family's business and future well-being because she wasn't confident she could tell Filthy Rich the hard truth in the first place in a way that would maintain their business relations. For all we know, she and Big Mac were bickering so much about who was going to eventually run the Apple family business because their parents may have recently, at that time, passed away and now it was up to one of the Apple siblings to get ready to run Sweet Apple Acres.

Behold, Applejack's "cat-coughing-up-a-hairball" impression! It's... well, it's accurate, I'll give it that

So all in all, like I said, the mere fact that this episode was largely set in the past is what allowed it to be so balanced in terms of both having a valuable and consequential lesson taught as well as being so highly entertaining. Apple Bloom got to learn both the value of honesty as well as why it means so much to her older sister from AJ herself, we got to see a side of many characters we hadn't before and a conflict in a uniquely presented fashion, and most excitingly of all we now have a new type of episode for the show which I hope we will see more of in the coming season for other members of the Mane 6. Overall, "Where the Apple Lies" was a delightfully enjoyable surprise, one of the best of Season 6 in terms of how it so exceeded the few expectations I had for it in the first place, and I cannot wait to hopefully see more like it in the coming season (or seasons) of this show. That's all I have for you today everypony, until next time this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*