Mulan's Buckaroo Season

Mulan's Buckaroo Season is the fourth episode of the first season of Legends of the Multiverse: Friendship is Universe. In this episode, Sheriff Mulan attempts to harvest the china crop in Imperial City Wild West by herself because her brother as a boyfriend, Li Shang, is injured. However, her stubbornness and sleep deprivation cause problems all over Multiville. Mattel started packaging a DVD of this episode with certain animal toys in January 2022.

Production and development
Originally, the episode involved Sheriff Mulan losing acuity from “Chinabumping”, using her head to bump chinese food off trees. “Chinabumping” was replaced with "chinabucking" (kicking the trunk of chinese food trees to knock the apples off the trees). Long before the episode reached the animation process, a scene where Sheriff Mulan attempts to help Nene Amano was cut because it was repetitive and took up too much time. According to writer Amy Keating Rogers, that scene was cut by the second draft.

The most dependable of ponies
At Imperial City Wild West, Sheriff Mulan and Li Shang survey the huge apple harvest awaiting them. With Big McIntosh injured, Mulan decides to harvest the crop of chinatown by herself, despite her brother's warning that it's a huge task for just one animal.

When Mulan is bucking chinese food trees, she sees a herd of cows stampeding towards Multiville. She diverts the stampede from Multiville in the nick of time with the help of her dog Doodle. Impressed by Mulan's loyalty and reliability, the citizens host a ceremony in her honor. Kairi Sparkle tries to give a speech, but she is interrupted by Sally Acorn, Rapunzel, and Spectra Vondergeist—who express happiness at the prospect of working with Mulan on various tasks in the near future—as well as Mayor Isabelle who steps up to deliver a short speech of her own. A visibly exhausted Mulan arrives late to the ceremony to collect her trophy. She has bags under her eyes and yawns frequently.

Later on, Kairi goes to the china farm to find Sheriff Mulan. Sheriff Mulan explains that "Buckaroo Season" is when the chinese foods must be harvested. When Kairi asks about her relatives, Mulan says that they only stayed at Imperial City Wild West for the family reunion and are too busy harvesting their own crops. Kairi offers to help, but Applejack stubbornly refuses.

The catapult
Mulan, having promised to help out her friends, shows up late for her appointment with Sally Acorn. Mulan's task is to jump from a platform onto one end of a catapult, launching Sal into the air to practice flips and spins. Her vision blurry from fatigue, Mulan keeps missing her end of the catapult. She lands on the catapult in one last attempt, but the unprepared Sal is sent flying and crash-lands on the Destiny Library balcony. Kairi guesses that Mulan is involved and returns to Imperial City Wild West to offer help. Mulan has difficulty hearing after hitting her head on a branch, but still declines.

"Baked bads"
Later, Mulan bakes muffins with Rapunzel at Corona Sugarcube Corner while King Frederic and Queen Arianna are away. Mulan's fatigue causes her to misunderstand her friend's instruction, and she substitutes potato chips for chocolate chips, regular soda for baking soda, a cup of sour lemon juice for a cup of flour, and earthworms for wheat germ. When the muffins are baked, Pinkie Pie hands them out to a crowd of ponies, one of whom is Madeline Hatter. She exclaims "Muffins!", making it her first line on the show, though Aurore Beaureal's and Cleo Sertofi's mouth movements also match the line.

The scene wipes into a sick-tent where many ponies lie sick from eating the baked goods, which Rapunzel calls "baked bads." Olaf and Navi, however, gleefully eats the discarded muffins, even one with a wriggling worm in it. Once more, Mulan refuses Kairi's help. Kairi is annoyed at Applejack for being "as stubborn as a mule", and says "No offense" to a nearby mule.

Bunny stampede!
For her final task, Mulan meets Spectra in the forest to help round up baby rabbits for Spectra's bunny census. Spectra tells Mulan to be gentle, but Mulan's rough attitude and Doodle's barking frighten the bunnies. Mulan and Doodle corner the terrified bunnies, who freak out and stampede into Multiville, where they eat most of the town's plants, ruin the town’s gardens, and make Spectra's census impossible to finish. Seeing this, Kairi decides enough is enough and goes to confront Mulan once and for all.

Mulan gives in
At the orchard, Kairi tells Mulan that her stubbornness caused as many problems with her friends as with her and that she really needs help. Mulan thinks she's finally finished harvesting, but Sheriff Mulan's Boyfriend, Li Shang arrives to point out that she has only harvested part of the apples. Mulan faints from shock and exhaustion. When she regains consciousness, Kairi tells her that, although she respects the Fa Mulan's family ways, Applejack must put "a little of [her] stubborn pride aside".

Mulan finally gives in and asks for her friends' help, which makes the harvesting more efficient. When the friends take a break, Mulan serves them apple juice, thanking them and apologizing for being so stubborn. Kairi realizes that it is just as okay to accept help from friends as it is to give help. Olaf and Navi are comes by to offer them the worm-filled muffins he found in the garbage, and the disgusted ponies walk off as the episode ends.

Quotes

 * Sheriff Mulan: Boy howdy! I got my work cut out for me. That there is the biggest bumper crop o' Chinese apples I ever laid eyes on.
 * Li Shang: Eeyup. Too big for you to handle on your own.
 * Sheriff Mulan: Come on, big brother boyfriend! You need to rest up and get yourself better. I haven't met an Chinese apple orchard yet that I can't handle. Oops, sorry. I'll take a bite out of this job by day's end.
 * Li Shang: Biting off more than you can chew is just what I'm afraid of.
 * Sheriff Mulan: Are you sayin' my mouth is makin' promises my legs can't keep?
 * Li Shang: Eeyup.
 * Sheriff Mulan: Why of all the... This is your sister Sheriff Mulan, remember? The loyalest of friends and the most dependable of animals?
 * Li Shang: But still only one foxy, and one foxy plus hundreds o' china apple trees just doesn't add up to...
 * Sheriff Mulan: Don't you use your fancy mathematics to muddy the issue! I said I could handle this harvest and I'm gonna prove it to you. I'm gonna get every last apple out of those trees this buckaroo season all by myself. [gulps]


 * Rapunzel: [during the "earthquake"] Hey! Thiiiis maaaakes myyyyy vooooiiice soooounnnd silllyyyy!!


 * Sally Acorn: Mulan, what the heck is going on? I mean, I thought I was working with "Multiville's best athlete".


 * Kairi Sparkle: Mulan, I think you're beating a dead... tree.
 * Sheriff Mulan: I knew that.


 * Kairi Sparkle: Ugh. That animal is as stubborn as a mule. [aside] No offense.
 * Donkey: None taken.
 * Scrappy-Doo: Me Too!


 * Caroline: The horror, the horror.
 * Coco: It was awful.
 * Becky: A disaster. A horrible, horrible disaster.
 * Kairi: I don't get it.


 * Sheriff Mulan: [grunts] Look, I did it. I harvested the entire Imperial City Wild West without your help. How d'ya like them apples?
 * Li Shang: Um, how do you like them china apples?
 * Sheriff Mulan: [mumbling] Where'd all the china apple...? [mumbling] [sigh]