Hm... a solid story for an episode, lacking only the wrap-up lesson at the end - maybe something about being cruel to be kind or whatnot?

Regardless, an entertaining read. If your story does not fit the actual episode, I shall enjoy finding out the differences between them.

...and if they're exactly the same, I am fully willing to abandon all reserve and bow down to you as the new Pony Prophet.

Yeah, I was planning on making a wrap up lesson, but time was growing short, and the key thing was to release this before the episode, so that even people who find this after seeing the episode will know I wrote it before. And when I got to the end I just had so much trouble figuring out how to arrange for Twilight to come and pick up the kids with Applejack.

Oh wells, thanks for reading, and lets see by tomorrow at the latest how wrong it is :P