@raversonicfan  
I listening to that story and it was good.

Payback for being a traitor in an Apple sleep Experiment

Probably should’ve utilized flight or your alicorn magic, Twi.

All I gotta say is, “Ow.”

And this is why you don’t poke a sleeping bear, Twi.

Pffft, a lowly backgroundworstmudpony would never manage to take a feather off Twilight’s wing. Twi is just superior, deal with it.

Applejack it is not nice hurt twilight

@Dragonmage  
that in depth analysis of Applejack’s strength is admittedly good, but it’s not entirely true.  
In many of these examples Aj is mostly showing that she’s smart, or at least that’s how I see it. I have no reason to believe that Aj is not physically fit, given that she has been indeed known to working the farm, attending physical performance contests and just proving to us how physically apt she really is. The thing though that makes sense here is what you said, so allow me to elaborate why I think your point is only Half correct.
 
in a fight with timberwolves, a dragon, a hydra, no rational mortal being would ever charge on, regardless what strength they think they have. See, any of the creatures mentioned have claws, razor sharp teeth and some despite not being of monumental size, they can be instead very agile and dexterous. This is not a question of What Aj did, but rather Why Aj did this?  
I believe she did it because, it would have been pointless to try anything different. Timberwolves seems to be fast and vicious predators, armed quite literally to the teeth with enough arsenal to stab holes in its prey until they’re dead, Hydras are gigantic and make up for their relatively limited assaults in having multiple heads to attack with and each head’s reach, whose heads also happen to have even bigger and sharper teeth that can mince a living being to pieces and lastly, Dragons are just very overpowered in almost every single regard, etc.
 
I’m not saying that Applejack can be dominant in close combat, that’s where you’re absolutely right. Another reason why she doesn’t seem to prefer close combat is that while she is undoubtedly strong or at the very least more physically fit than most other earth ponies, she’s not a soldier or trained in any specific way how to fight. At least, it’s never been shown or implied that she knows how to fight in an unarmed combat.  
I would also like to mention that This here is a gross misconception that many fans of practically anything tend to assume. Ever since Anime such as DBZ, there is a popular idea being spread almost subconsciously, which is that brute strength seems to be everything. Truth is, being strong and muscle bound does help, but it does not make a fight one sided, especially if someone strong only has about as much training in unarmed combat as your average street fistacuffs. Someone who is trained in any style of unarmed fighting can slowly or quickly beat someone, either by exploiting openings or just being overall more in control of the momentum of that fight. This too also depends on how well trained the person that knows how to fight is, or how quick they are, what they’re doing, because just like how there’s limitations to one’s options given by brute force alone and minimal unarmed combat, so are there limitations to how much advantage is given by being experienced in hand to hand combat.

@Nukechaser  
You keep saying “advancing the plot” but I don’t think you know what that implies. Spike finding the perfect, solo hidden book to help in Too Many Pinkie Pies is convenient; Twilight making friends with exactly five other ponies who just all turn out to be the elements that she needs in a pitch is convenient; Discord sitting still when he’s been blasted the same way before by the elements is convenient; Twilight’s having a Breeze transformation spell for rarely seen creatures is convenient; only the other mane 5 being affected by the MMC spell, but not Twilight or Spike–who are both in room when the spell went off–is convenient. There is no point for all these sole incidents to occur exactly as they do, BUT to move the plot along.
 
Twilight’s ability to jump into a more physically, adventurous, action role has been established across multiple seasons. It’s not a fluke like you’re trying to pass on. Once more Twilight is a hard worker and must have an endurance to keep up with her triple checking, all nighter life style. Not to mention that she grew up with a brother that’s been apart of the guard for a while and has the rank of captain now. It’s not beyond reason for Twilight to have decent physical ability.
 
“Applejack having superior strength, in addition to being extremely quick, is pretty well established”.
 
^ No it’s not establish. Where is super strength even coming from? The popular fan headcanon about earth ponies? That holds no water. AJ’s no bruiser. All anyone has to do is look at the show. Against a dragon she used projectiles (ep.7); against another dragon she had rope-guess who she had help her-(S2. ep10); against a manticore what did she do? Rode it (ep.2); Did she charge the hydra? No (ep.15); when she fought the timber wolves AJ used rocks and the environment (S3 ep.9); when she fought the plunder plant she used rope and turned the plant against itself (S4 ep.2); against a Chimaera she used an assortment of items. Not once did she hit the Chimaera directly. She’s not like RD! Actually, when AJ was forced to break her patten and get into a close, physical fight she loses–getting her butt kicked more than once!
 
You mentioned kicking trees, but even AJ admits that there’s a trick in hitting them “just right” and that mindless kicking will get a hoof sprain (S4 ep.13). Applejack’s strength will always be in her diversity. The jack of all mares. Even her Power Pony ablity reflects this: with her more Batman style.
 
My main point is that Twilight is alot stronger than you think and that AJ’s fruits aren’t all in one basket. A physical fight won’t be one sided.
 
AJ’s my favorite pony, but even I’ll admit that useless Twilight cuts off her magic AND gets sucker kicked, AJ’s not walking out of a fight without being roughed up.

@Dragonmage  
Almost any time Twilight displays superior strength, it has been either in service of advancing the plot or for comedic effect. Twilight leads the group up a mountain, but Applejack practically carries Fluttershy up, going around the long way, and is still able to keep pace with them. Far from just climbing stairs or getting fifth place, Applejack kicks the shit out of trees all day, defeats chimeras and timberwolves, lifts a bed over her head with her forehooves, bucks down a giant tree with a single kick, and falls three stories onto her face and walks it off. Even her human form has above average strength, lifting objects with ease that others require help to handle. Applejack having superior strength, in addition to being extremely quick, is pretty well established, in addition to her knack for thinking quickly. Twilight exclusively relies on magic and flight to do almost everything, and tends to get nervous or hesitate at crucial moments. She’d be much better served by using her wings to stay out of AJ’s range and raining magic on her from above.

@Nukechaser  
Except Twilight’s strength isn’t plot tuned or gag related. She can legitimately keep up with the best of them. Who got fifth place in The Running of the Leafs? Who lead everyone up a mountain to confront a dragon? Who climbed a giant tower of stairs?
 
There’s a certain point where a character is consistent enough in their actions and abilities that it becomes an aspect of them, and not some one time thing.
 
On the other side of this, Applejack rarely powers through anything or is the bruiser of the group. She displays a more Indiana Jones or cowgirl style: a well rounded action type who, in addition to their fighting skill, can use their tools, environment, and wits to turn the situation against their opponent. Twilight also fight like this, except she uses her magic instead of ropes and projectiles.

@Dragonmage  
See “Strong as they need to be” on TV Tropes. There’s really not much Twilight isn’t good at when the plot necessitates it. AJ, on the other hand, is shown wrecking shit even when she doesn’t need to be. In addition, she never actually is shown to use any of her fighting skills against her friends.

“Rule #1, ya’ highness: nopony touches the hat. Ya’ got that?  
Rule #2: When Ah say ‘gimme back mah hat’ ya’ll do as told, if ya’ know what’s good for ya’.”
 
Heh, that’s gotta smart. Especially considering the slide marks on the ground.

Twilight’s actually a lot stronger in a fight than people give her credit for. In the show when she gets really mad, you see her get more physical. Before she fought both AJ and Pinkie–at the same time–to a stand still. In the same episode Twilight pinned AJ to ground by herself.
 
In addition, Twilight also got physical with changelings and tackled, what she thought, was an evil Candace–someone she knew was bigger than her.
 
All this was before she got her alicorn body. I’m saying all this even as a huge AJ fan.

@Dragonmage  
Twilight would get the living shit kicked out of her in pure hoof to hoof combat with AJ, especially on her home turf.
 
But AJ has never attacked any one of her friends, so I doubt she’d ever attack Twi in the first place.

Twi would totally kick AJ’s rear.

And then the Guard came…

hmm… does it still get the character abuse tag if they think it’s worth it?

Owned.