To start off, i have to say this was so far my highlight of the season! it was really hard to come up with things that didnt work without nit-picking. i dont have alot of opening things to say about this episode Sooooooooo lets move on!

Things that worked

The song:

I was born listening to country, so that might be why this song and raise this barn (even though it was very repetitive) are my favorite songs. Ashleigh ball and Michelle Creber both have some beautiful voices, and that doesnt change when they add a southern drawl in it. i mean, honestly, i thought Applejack's voice was a mix between Faith Hill and Shania Twain! and then you moved on to pinkie, and she can sing too!!!!! i mean she sounded like she was trying a little bit too hard with the country sound at some points, but it still worked good!

The characters:

Now some people ive heard talk about this episode really didnt like the fact it was two earth ponies that were possibly related, but putting two earth ponies in the apple family actually makes a lot of sense. Think back to every time we have seen apple family members, almost all, if not all, earth ponies. it just makes a lot of sense to put these two together. Also, it was really nice to see a pinkie and AJ episode. i honestly dont think they have been in an episode where it is just them together. Its really nice to see the writers trying new character interactions.

Pinkie wasnt over the top crazy:

One of my pet peeves with pinkie is that she is annoying some of the time, and in this episode she had a brain! she actually was a really good character in this episode. sure the plot revolved mainly around AJ and the apples, but pinkie didnt do anything too crazy to ruin the episode for me.

THE REFERENCES!!!!!

OH MY DEAR SWEET CELESTIA! there were some great references, Pinkie doing the soulja boy, duck face, Dusty cat (which is a stretch) were all great there was another, but thats going on my other list.

Things that didnt work (mainly nit-picks)

Slendermane reference:

Now im going to take a lot of empty vodka bottles for this, but hear me out! Why this didnt work for me is simple, Slendermans storyline. if you have any clue on the slenderman story (whether it be from slender, Tribestwelve, Marblehornets, Or everymanhybrid) you know that when slenderman stalks you, it means almost certain death in the future. now im looking SUPER (and i mean SUUUUPPPPEEEERR) deep into this, but does that mean one of the apples or pinkie are being stalked by slendy? does that mean that we will never see golden delicious ever again?

Animations:

There were just a few awkward animation moments in the episode, like pinkie bouncing in the cart. some of them just really felt lazy. Then again, there is a reason im not an animator.

So overall it was a very good episode, it will rank number three on my favorites list, right behind lesson zero and best night ever.