Time for another tale of the brash teen Applejack.
- Story by Mary Kenney, Art by Casey Coller
Applejack helps Apple Bloom learn about the meaning of courage when she tells her sister a story about facing the biggest fear she had as a young filly: the water! Will AJ's tale help boost her sister's confidence? Or will it just make Apple Bloom more nervous?!
Tropes:
- An Aesop:
- Being brave isn't about not being afraid, but about facing the thing that scares you.
- Some things are more important than fear, like family.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- When Young Applejack's attempt to walk along the lake bed caused her to slip, Big Mac immediately caught her and brought her back to shore.
- Young Applejack returned the favor when a sudden rainstorm caused the lake to swell, and saved Big Mac from being caught in it.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In her youth, Applejack wanted to find out how deep the old well was... and found out the hard way when she fell in.
- Believing Their Own Lies: After the incident at the lake, young Applejack claimed to herself that she had "more important" things to do than swim.
- Blatant Lies: Young Applejack claimed repeatedly that the reason she didn't want to go into the lake wasn't because she was scared. Big Mac didn't buy it for a second.
- Face Your Fears: Applejack tells Apple Bloom the story of how she overcame her fear of water. This gives Apple Bloom the courage to overcome her own fears.
- Flashback: The bulk of the issue revolves around a tale from Applejack's youth.
- Implausible Deniability: When Applejack and Apple Bloom are first trapped in the web, Apple Blook insists that she isn't panicking... despite flailing around in terror.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The wolf fly-der is a form of fly-der — itself already a hybrid of spider and housefly — the size of a wolf and with a wolf's head.
- Never My Fault: After Big Mac saved the young Applejack from slipping into the lake, she turned around and blamed him for it, claiming he "made" her go in.
- Pun-Based Creature: The wolf fly-der is a further iteration of the fly-ders' visual pun that plays off of the real life wolf spider by being a fly-winged spider with a wolf's head.
- Spiders Are Scary: Zig-zagged with the wolf fly-der. Despite its size and vicious temperament (and its natural habitat happening to be Tartarus), it is first easily scared off by Applejack, then later talked into returning to Tartarus by Apple Bloom.
- Ungrateful Bitch: When Big Mac brought young Applejack back to the shore after she slipped in the lake, she showed him no gratitude, instead blaming him for what happened.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: After becoming trapped in an old well, the young Applejack developed an intense fear of deep water.
