Points of Canon: S5x06 - Appleoosa’s Most Wanted

I expect this one to turn up a few tidbits upon closer investigation.

• Why would a pony have a cutie mark of a spur, I have no idea. At least, no idea that wouldn’t end with <insert clopfic>. However, we see her in the establishing pan shot, and she reappears multiple times throughout the episode. And yes, I’m pretty sure that is what it is, it even has that spiky wheel on the end.
• Numerous minor Apples – the ones we remember from Apple Family Reunion – can be observed in various scenes, so I won’t mention them unless they’re particularly notable.
• The only way Trouble Shoes can leave a hoofprint like that is if he actually wears nail-on horseshoes, and indeed, frame-by-frame inspection of the shot shows an actual horseshoe nailed onto his hoof, with 9 nail holes which for some reason do not get reflected in the hoofprint. This is actually bloody rare, and I think this is the only completely unambiguous case on screen, but yes, some ponies wear horseshoes. Also, this horseshoe is a bit small for him…
• The hay bale stack is 40 bales tall. Seeing as how a bale is ~1m thick, that’s bloody high, not to mention inherently unstable.
• “It’s been a dog’s age since I got to compete.” I wonder how long is a dog’s age, because the last time we saw Applejack participate in a rodeo was The Last Roundup, and that was on the scale of a year ago.
• “All the rodeos ‘round Ponyville are closed down for some reason." Notice that Trouble Shoes’ antics have resulted in the closure of multiple rodeos – including, presumably, the Canterlot rodeo. Story fodder for someone.
• “My foreleg! Hurts so much…!” The bandaged part of Braeburn is the left front leg, below the joint – so yes, front limbs on ponies are called legs.
• Sweetie Belle’s candied apple has a transparent plastic wrap on it. See chemical industry.
• “Sugar and salt licks! Well, I’ll be…” With the way Silverstar pronounces “shhhugar,” we can be sure that ponies do use euphemisms to replace “shit,” and that word itself is a valid expletive. See also Top Bolt for another example of misuse of sugar.
• “Ain’t no doubt. It’s Trouble Shoes.” So, how exactly does Silverstar identify this hoofprint with just one glance? He’s very certain, he goes on to publicly state it to the widest possible audience later. My best guess is the unusual size: Trouble Shoes has the largest hooves so far observed.
• This clown has excellent dramatic timing!
• “All right now, I called for a meetin’, not a mob scene.” They came with pitchforks and torches anyway, so a mob scene and community justice of this sort is a thing, at least occasionally. That said, I’m pretty sure Appleloosans are reenactors in the first place, and as such, ponies settling the place are there because they have a flair for the dramatic, not the other way round…
• “Now, as many of you know, the Equestria rodeo circuit has been plagued by the dirty dealin’s of a notorious outlaw.” How exactly is his name known, for that matter? Did he already get caught? When? How was he released? How did he avoid capture subsequently?
• “He knocked barrels every which way at the Hoof City rodeo!” Hoof City is a place, which held a rodeo at one point and might resume to do so in the future. Not mapped.
• “Nearly crushed my Aunt Bae Mare!” Notice that “mare” is a normal part of pony names. “Pony Mare” is, in fact, a valid, if unusual, pony name. One that could be Mayor Mare’s actual name. See Hypothesis #2 and accompanying discussion.

• “He sabotaged the steer pen at Pinto Creek rodeo, settin’ off such a stampede they cancelled the whole dadgum thing!”

  • Pinto Creek is another rodeo place.

  • 1. See One Bad Apple and Just For Sidekicks, respectively.

    Remember that cows talk and ride trains unattended while animals don’t?¹ Well, “steer” is the word for castrated male bovines. I hope that for ponies, the word means something else. Wouldn’t be the first time by far, anyway.

  • “dadgum”? Is the mysterious “Gosh” his dad?
• “But dag-hoof it, this has gone far enough!” Once again, “dag.” I wonder if Diamond Dogs are related to this phrase or what.
• “So, uh, Applejack, about me and my pals competin’ in the rodeo…” Seeing as how Applejack doesn’t just tell Apple Bloom there are no youth competitions in the rodeo, either rodeos are not age-segregated, or they have a youth section.
• “Don’t send us home! It’s not fair!” I think what we’re seeing in this scene is Braeburn’s house in Appleloosa, which escaped turning up previously. For the record, Braeburn has a normal, wood-fueled fireplace, instead of those crystals…
• Apple Bloom’s saddlebags are customized with an apple. Notice that Sweetie Belle’s and Scootaloo’s aren’t cutie-marked. Yep, it has to be Applejack’s old set of saddlebags.
• “Come on, now, you head on back to practice and don’t worry none about these three. I won’t let ’em outta my sight.” Notice that Braeburn’s stable door has separate – and different – latches on the top and bottom halves.
• “This ain’t wanderin’. We know exactly where we’re headed … to find Trouble Shoes!” Actually, Braeburn just sent out Applejack to practice, right? It’s night already, why isn’t she back yet?
• “I know they need lots of mud for the rodeo tomorrow, but I wish they would’ve warned us about this rainstorm.” I wonder why didn’t Applejack anticipate the rainstorm in the first place.

• “Fished my wish!”

  • Ponies play Go Fish, or a closely related game. That’s not exactly the original Go Fish, though, because Silverstar wins the game dropping a pair of twos and a pair of fours…
  • Notice that we still haven’t seen what they have for kings, queens and jacks, despite all the times playing cards turned up on screen.
• “Now, now, hold on there. Trouble Shoes done a lot of bad things in his day, but nothin’ like that!” Notice that there are certain expectations regarding levels of criminality.
• “It looks abandoned. Let’s go see if we can find some blankets or somethin’.” Notice that Trouble Shoes actually lives in a trailer. Or at least a wagon, one that he can pull. Probably has quite an easy time of it too, seeing how big he is.
• Sweetie Belle is strong enough to close the door with magic by this point.

• Various things in Trouble Shoes’ wagon:

  • A snowglobe. There isn’t enough detail to identify if it represents any known location.
  • A pump water tap, like in Sugarcube Corner.
  • A sombrero. I wonder where exactly did he pick that one up.
  • A tuba. Next to a lava lamp. Huh?
  • A saddle. Now, we haven’t seen male ponies wear saddles by themselves, yet…
  • Three bowling balls, stored on a shelf with no support. The only reason for Trouble Shoes to own those at all is to have them fall on his head – there isn’t a bowling alley for miles and miles.
• “Had some hot cider a-cookin’ in the kitchen. Doubt it survived.” Well, the stove wasn’t lit anyway.
• “Tell that to the flank! Upside-down horseshoe… bad luck.” Compare to Flight to the Finish, where the Apples are, apparently, experimenting with different orientations of horseshoes over their doors.
• “Am-scray!” Ponies have an equivalent of Pig Latin. I sure hope they don’t call it “Pony Latin,” mumble mumble…
• “The sheriff sort of has it in his mind that you’re a no-good outlaw lookin’ to shut down the rodeo.” “My kind of luck he’d think that.” Notice that Trouble Shoes is not surprised – but neither he acknowledges that he already knew that he is considered an outlaw. Did he? He tells his cutie mark story in lieu of an answer, and never acknowledges getting arrested for his antics. So how did Silverstar, not to mention anyone else, know his name?

• “When I was a colt, I wanted to be a rodeo star somethin’ fierce, but I just didn’t seem to have the knack for it.”

  • Notice that the flashback contains currently observed Appleloosan ponies in quantity, including the judges, in a setting which is a dead ringer for Appleloosa. Which is just not possible, since, according to Over The Barrel, Appleloosa is at most three years old at this point. I.e. we are seeing Apple Bloom imagining the flashback as she is being told about the events, substituting ponies she knows for potential roles. Again.
  • So now that we see buffalo attending the rodeo Trouble Shoes describes, we don’t know if buffalo actually are welcome at those or not. For that matter, Trouble Shoes might be misrepresenting the events in the first place, since now, he sees that mark as nothing but trouble.
• “Trouble Shoes, you’re under arrest for vandalizin’ the property and peace of mind of the good rodeo-lovin’ ponies of Equestria! Not to mention fillynappin’! And… generalized mayhem!” I don’t think Silverstar actually has much of a legal education.
• This is actually the only time we see a prison cell in the primary canon, isn’t it? It comes with a bed, some hay – whether intended for eating or not, I don’t know – and a bucket, but hardly anything else, and yet, there are three groups of five lines, the kind typically used for counting. Somepony spent 15 days in there at some point, despite this clearly being a temporary holding cell.
• There’s a wanted poster for Trouble Shoes above Silverstar’s desk.
• “Aw, come on now, Trouble Shoes! I’m runnin’ out of mattresses!” It’s a wonder he even had six!
• Sweetie Belle uses telekinesis through the glass, to get the cell keys. She is apparently limited to a distance of about seven meters at this point.
• …Wait, so what was the point of stealing the keys before getting Silverstar out of the station, if they could get him out first and then acquire the keys much easier? That’s a really strange derp.
• Two rodeo clowns are wearing boots on all four hooves. And the boots have toes. See Sandwich Problem.
• Applejack got a trophy for bale stacking. Notice that in The Last Roundup, rodeo awards are exclusively ribbons.
• “Let’s get him!” Remember those guys with a pitchfork and a torch? They had them ready just in case.
• “That may be so, Trouble Shoes, but you still gotta face charges for the problems you’ve caused!” I.e. Trouble Shoes has not been brought to court so far. I wonder, did he actually escape from custody at any point? Because that would involve heavier charges.
• Sweetie Belle attempts to lift a barrel and barely succeeds. This one is probably empty, and eyeballing it, can’t weigh more than about 15kg.

Some analysis

Now, I am pretty sure the flashback did not happen exactly as shown – the illustrations are clearly supplied by Apple Bloom, as evidences by the change in Trouble Shoes’ age despite identical side characters, and Trouble Shoes’ narration is… strange. Oversimplified, so to speak.

Here’s what I think actually happened:

Trouble Shoes did, in fact, get a cutie mark in being a rodeo clown, and at the time of getting it, he knew this is exactly what he wanted out of life. But that wasn’t the end of his story, that’s just as far as he is ready to tell it.

Someone he knew very well, someone he liked or admired, a parent or a friend, was laughing at him, rather than at his performance. That someone despised the profession of a rodeo clown altogether. And that someone held enough influence over Trouble Shoes that to keep their relationship, whatever it was, Trouble Shoes was ready to abandon everything, including his cutie mark.

So he did, for a while. Unfortunately, simply rejecting something that makes you happy doesn’t work, you have to pretend you hate it. Then you start believing it. That was what Trouble Shoes did, and kept on like that for a long time – until a few years ago, whoever that someone was, left his life entirely by whatever means.

That’s when his cutie mark, the meaning of which he forgot entirely over the years, the desire to entertain ponies started manifesting, and he kept suppressing it, he didn’t even remember he had it.

His only option was to reinterpret his mark as a sign of bad luck.

Comments

[Mitch H]

Ponies have an equivalent of Pig Latin. I sure hope they don’t call it “Pony Latin,” mumble mumble…

Swine Latin? And I'm sure that uneducated people have been calling cattle 'steer' without reference to gelding for almost as long as there's been steer.

[hawthornbunny]

I wonder how long is a dog’s age

I think it's about six moons

[howard035]

I rewatched the episode, it's a fun one. One key thing to note: Trouble Shoe's house is full of rather delicate stuff stacked up, some of it covered in cob webs. His special talent of being clumsy clearly only activates when others are nearby to observe him.

I don't think Trouble Shoes has been arrested before. But he's been well-known on the rodeo circuit his whole life, so plenty of other rodeo ponies would recognize his hoof prints and identify him like that. Heck, they'd probably even be able to describe his likeness to a sketch artist.

Trouble Shoes did, in fact, get a cutie mark in being a rodeo clown, and at the time of getting it, he knew this is exactly what he wanted out of life. But that wasn’t the end of his story, that’s just as far as he is ready to tell it.

Yeah, I'm going to have to disagree. Different background characters are one thing, but Trouble Shoes explicitly and repeatedly says his cutie mark causes him bad luck. The whole idea that Trouble Shoes is meant to be a rodeo clown in the first place is just something Apple Bloom came up with and other ponies went along with, but as far as I can tell an upside down horseshoe has nothing to do with clowns. And there just doesn't seem to be enough evidence that Trouble Shoes is suffering from some kind of repressed memory and psychotic break, rather than just depression.

I think we learn two valuable lessons here: One, this is another piece of confirmation that cutie marks give their bearers actual magical abilities. The second, is that ponies aren't entirely able to choose what their cutie mark is, or control its magic. Trouble Shoes special talent seems to be being clumsy in front of other ponies, whether or not a rodeo is involved. He's clumsy in his trailer, he's clumsy in jail, as long as someone is watching him he's clumsy. Apple Bloom's idea is a brilliant way to turn a negative into a positive, and it works out for Trouble Shoes (though I wonder how the rest of the rodeo team will appreciate those accidents between shows), but this is pretty clearly not what Trouble Shoes originally intended. There doesn't seem to be a hidden, sub-conscious urge in young Trouble Shoes that made his special talent what it is, that came from an outside force.

Also, my guess for "steer" is that since we know cattle will panic and stampede despite being sapient, perhaps ponies build them a pen into which they can be "steered" at exciting events to avoid stampedes. Is it kind of creepy and oppressive? Yeah, but no castration involved.

[Meta Four]

…Wait, so what was the point of stealing the keys before getting Silverstar out of the station, if they could get him out first and then acquire the keys much easier? 

Best explanation I’ve heard is that she did it just to make sure Silverstar wouldn’t take the keys with him when he left.

[Impossible Numbers]

Hi, I'm a first time commenter pointed in your account's direction recently. I'd just like to take the opportunity to say that I find this series of blog posts, "Points of Canon", a fascinating read. I recently stumbled across the "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" entry, and it was illuminating to see not only plot inconsistencies described, but also some good possible explanations (such as the "mortgage and debt" explanation in that particular post). More broadly, it's highly useful to have someone analyzing these episodes and gathering the canonical details in one place. So thank you for that, and I'll look forward to more with considerable interest.

[Oliver]

4741482

Don’t miss the chronology project, as well.

[Impossible Numbers]

4741486

All right! Double thanks for the link. I've just passed the hard-lock and soft-lock distinction description, and I'm browsing through the chronological listing as of this comment's posting.