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Apple Family Reunion (December 22nd 2012, 22 minutes)

Summary: Applejack tries to organize the best Family Reunion ever.

100 moons since the last family reunion. Okay, the first episode was specifically called out as an Apple Family Reunion. So if 1 moon = 1 month (which is what 'month' literally means), then it's been about 8 1/3 years since the first episode. If however 1 moon = 1 week (the time from one Moon Day/Monday to another) then it's been not quite two years since the first episode. Given that it has in fact been two years in broadcast time, I'm going to have to give this one to 1 moon = 1 week.

Here's the list of places Apple Bloom mentions 'Yonder Hill', 'Hollow Shades', 'Galloping Gorge', 'Old Mountain', 'Phillidephia','Tall Tail Town', 'Appeloosa', 'Manehattan'. Some of those are on the official map, but several aren't.

Indication that pony names change occasionally as Apple Sauce was originally called something else. It is implied that the pony themselves don't get to pick their name, it's what everyone else decides to call you. This is very similar to the Celtic naming conventions, where your name is basically what modern people would consider a nickname. Your real name is a secret known only to you and the priest who performed the divination to discover it.

The way Applejack is ... surprised ... by the list of events at the family reunion, it seems to indicate that last time she was too young to remember everything that goes on in one. Which means that first family reunion in the first episode was somehow different, and didn't 'count'. Which resets the 1 moon = 1 month again.

The way this is framed, that other building in the background with the carrot on top is presented as part of Sweet Apple Acres. It's a strange little building, with the roof done as a half-barrel. Barrel roofs were never common, but they did exist and go back as far as Ancient Egypt. So is that a separate farm for the Carrot family, are the Apples subletting some of their land? The house is lit from within, so it's a going concern not an abandoned house.

Again, another indication that lightning is not considered that dangerous, but more a prank. The lightning generated by these little clouds the pegasi push around must have minimal power compared to natural lightning.

Covered wagons, stagecoaches, and a basic airship. We've seen airships before, but they seem much more common in this world than in our own. Also the amount of lift provided by the gasbag seems much higher in Equestria. One of the reasons why airships never really 'took off' was that the sheer size of the vessel's gasbag compared to the cargo capacity of the gondola is pretty abysmal. Add in the difficulty of controlling direction of travel, and as cool as they look, they're simply not efficient.

A lot of these Apples aren't. We've got Carrots, Turnips, etc. So far, they all look like Earth Ponies, but I know that changes later.

Granny refers to Apple Sauce as 'Aunty Apple Sauce'. This might mean that Apple Sauce is even older than Granny, which given the way they interact isn't that surprising. Granny and Apple Rose are behaving as if they are younger of the set.

Gas powered sewing machines. Yes, these existed. I'm aware of the National Sewing Machine company building industrial sewing machines driven by 'Duro' Stover engines. These things were huge, and exceptionally dangerous.

Definitely Minnesotan accents there.

Nope, Applejack is now on the balcony of that odd little house. I'm really not sure what's going on there. Is that storage for carrots? If so, why was it lit the other night? Oh! Maybe it's Big Mac's stallion-cave equivalent. Somewhere he can go to get away from all the mares.

The West Orchard has been let fallow when it was infested with fruit bats. Which are colorful bats with the basic appearance of actual fruit. Raspberries, of various colors, to be precise. An odd camouflage adaption, but I've seen worse.

Okay, here we spot some pegasi and I think I see one unicorn there. They're not in the final 'Family Photo', so they're likely ponies who have married into the family, or are currently 'stepping out' with a family member. Like Flitter.