See * for disclaimer

One Bad Apple (November 24th 2012, 22 minutes)

Summary: Apple Bloom gets a visit from a cousin she's never met before, and discovers that sometimes blood isn't enough.

Apple Bloom hasn't met this cousin before. Which means this cousin hasn't been to any of the Apple Family Reunions, at least while Apple Bloom has been going. There's a question, are the Reunions always at Sweet Apple Acres, or do they take place elsewhere as well? Is Sweet Apple Acres the original Apple homestead, as per the Celestia land grant, or is it a satellite of the original homestead? Why are all the other Apple families so far away now that they only see them during reunions or special trips?

Apple Bloom hasn't met Babs Seed, but Applejack has? Babs is not named an Apple, at least not obviously. Give me a second. No apple cultivars with 'babs' in the name.... Babs is usually short for Barbara. No cultivars with Barbara... Hrmmm. A lot of these names are so pretentious that ponies would be forced to shorten them or be mocked forever... Hey, how about this one: "Beauty of Bath", a cultivar from Bath, England, 1964. I could see that getting shortened to Babs for self-preservation. Ehhhh, it's easier that she's named after the married-into family, like the Oranges, but whatever.

Babs' accent is supposed to be Manhattan, but it's odd. In my experience, Manhattanites talk a *lot* faster than that, and use a slightly different emphasis. That slower speech pattern sounds more Bronx to me, but it's still not quite right.

Summer Harvest Parade... fascinating. It's not a coincidence that harvest usually happens in autumn, the word 'harvest' itself is in fact Old English (hærfest) for autumn. Having a summer harvest festival means either there's a primary crop in the region that comes ripe in the summer, or the ponies have deliberately put a harvest festival there in order the fill in a ... gap ... Ah! There's the festival on the cusp of Summer and Fall I've been looking for. I did an essay on it previously, and there was no festival in that spot. I'll have to do an update.

Ponyville has a movie theatre. Complete with the old 'go to the snack bar' animation that I remember from when I was younger.

So this is Sweetie Bell's room, for a second I thought they were in the windmill, but I guess her house is right next to the windmill.

Edible gold is actually just gold. It's basically waste, as it passes straight through you without providing any nutritional value.

Edible boots... No.

They're calling it a 'Moving Mechanism', not an engine. Curious. So the float is supposed to be self-propelled?

That's pretty heavy-duty construction for a float that's only supposed to last for one parade. That's the way *I* would build it, and I'm known for over-constructing stuff.

Sounds like a heavily muffled two-stroke engine with that vrrr vrrr vrrr pulse. Either that or the timing needs adjusting. What's the fuel, though? This will be the only petroleum-based thing we've seen in this world.

Doctor Whooves dressed as a pear. Cute in-joke. Only Doctor Who fans are going to catch that one.

I don't really get the 'Veggie Salad' bit. Pinkie's making a pun, but I think I'm missing the cultural context to figure out what it's a pun of.

Sweetie Bell, actually using ironic correctly. How strange.

A pair of timps (kettle drums).

Babs has a big sister too, wonder what her name is?