Lucky Horseshoes

by Foal Star

Chapter Two: Is Luck a Superpower?

As Trouble Shoes left the Everfree Forest and realized it was too late for trains and his carriage was gone, he had no choice but to stay in Ponyville for the night. Unfortunately, he didn't know anyone in the town. However, he saw a vast orchard of apple trees and recognized it as the renowned Sweet Apple Acres. He had heard stories about the Apples, particularly since their cousin Braeburn managed Appleloosa, and knew they were the one family who would offer him a place to stay. He also remembered how they had resolved a feud with the Buffalo. Hoping they would be accommodating, he made his way to the Apples' family home by running across the fields.

The little red house emanated a wholesome feeling, making it appear inviting. Hesitant but determined to find shelter for the night, the former stallion ran up the stairs and slowly approached the door. He felt awkward about coming as a mare, given that he had never met the occupants before and didn't even have a backstory or a name. However, he had no other choice. He knocked on the door and waited nervously for a response. Soon, Applejack opened the door and asked suspiciously, "May I help you?"

The stallion, Trouble Shoes, was a bit nervous as he struggled to introduce himself, "Uh...um...my name is, well, Horseshoes...Lucky Horseshoes. I'm a pony from Appleloosa." He cleared his throat before finishing his introduction.

"Appleloosa, you say? Well it's nice ta meet ya I'm Applejack," the farm mare chirped as she shook hooves with the newcomer. "So, what brings you to Ponyville?"

Trouble Shoes lifted his head and explained, "I came to Ponyville to see it for myself. I've heard great things about this place and wanted to practice for the rodeo here."

"I understand. Did you forget to find a place to stay?"

"I realized I made a mistake. Initially, I considered staying at Twilight's Castle, but I found her place to be too fancy for my liking."

Applejack gestured for her new friend to enter and urged her to come in for dinner. "Don't just stand there. Join us!" she said.

Trouble Shoes was led into the house and walked through the living room to reach the kitchen. Inside, they saw an older mare serving food while a young yellow-coated filly talked about her efforts to find her cutie mark. A large, weary red-coated stallion listened to the filly's conversation and then turned towards the two mares.

"Let me introduce you to the members of my family. That old mare over yonder is Granny Smith, the young filly is my sister Apple Bloom, and the stallion over there is my older brother, Big Mac."

Granny Smith looked suspiciously at the two mares and asked, "Who is this?" in a puzzled tone.

"Granny, I want ya to meet Lucky Horseshoes, a mare from Appleloosa. She needs a place to stay for the night."

The elderly mare then placed a large casserole dish on the table and said, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? Let's eat! I made a delicious three-bean casserole that we shouldn't let go to waste."

Trouble Shoes laughed as he took a seat opposite the older mare. He then noticed he was sitting next to a large red stallion who blushed and looked away.

Trouble Shoes was taken aback by the stallion's reaction towards him, and it didn't take long for him to realize the stallion found him attractive, making him feel rather uncomfortable.

The little filly from earlier glanced at me and said, "Hey, what was your name again?"

The former stallion gulped and said, "My name is Lucky Horseshoes, but my friends call me Lucky."

"Wow, Lucky! That's a cool name!"

"It is. So, Lucky, what brings you to Ponyville?"

"I'm training for the Appleloosa rodeo, but I would like to stick around in Ponyville for a bit longer."

Granny Smith expressed her approval by saying, "That's great! Applejack has also been practicing for the rodeo."

"I'm just doing my best to represent Ponyville, Granny."

"Eeyup!"

Trouble Shoes shifted her focus to Big Mac and asked, "Hey, Big Mac?"

"Eeyup!"

"Have you been to Appleloosa before?"

"Nope."

"I hope you can make it to the Appleloosa Rodeo."

"Definitely! We're all going together next week!" Apple Bloom chirped with excitement.

Applejack looked toward her sister and said, "You and your friends can come along if you behave."

"I promise we will," said the filly before she skipped away. Trouble Shoes asked Applejack, "Since this is my first rodeo, would you be willing to practice with me?"

"Absolutely! Having a partner would be great!"

As he watched the cute family, Trouble Shoes couldn't help but giggle. It reminded him of his family, but things fell apart after his dad passed away. While eating his meal, he mulled over his next steps and thought about getting some tips from Applejack for his first rodeo. Later, they provided him with a cot in the living room where he could relax with a comfortable blanket and spare pillow. Trouble Shoes was grateful for the Apple family's generosity and decided to work for them as long as he stayed with them.

---

Applejack took Lucky to her apple orchard the next day for some last-minute apple-bucking before their rodeo practice. The orange-coated farm mare sighed and said, "You don't have to help me buck apples, Lucky. I'm happy to have you stay until the rodeo."

"I feel it's only fair to help in some way since I'm staying at your place and not doing anything to help out."

"Have you ever bucked apples before?"

Lucky Horseshoes shook her head and confessed with a hint of embarrassment, "No."

"Alright, well, let me teach you."

She showed herself planting her hooves and said, "First, get a firm stance." The farm mare then looked back and said, "Now ya quickly snap your back hooves and buck!"

Applejack then quickly thrust her back hooves into an apple tree and watched the fruit as it fell into a bucket below.

Lucky did as Applejack showed her, turning her body back to an apple tree. She seemed to start to look nervous, with beads of sweat on her forehead.

A lot of self-doubt was going through his head. But he saw Applejack smiling at him and encouraged him, "Hey, don't sweat if ya can't get it the first ti-"

Just as Applejack was about to finish what she was going to say something, Trouble Shoes slammed his hooves into an apple tree almost perfectly, and every apple fell right into the buckets below.

Applejack's jaw dropped; never had she seen such a perfect apple buck that would take anypony years of practice to perform as she whispered, "Wow, you're a natural."

Trouble Shoes then rubbed the back of his mane as he laughed nervously, "Thanks. Normally I end up screwing everything up."

"You're not anymore; come on! We'll knock out these chores and have more than enough time to practice!"

---

They continued to buck apples for a few hours. Still, Applejack was astonished at how Lucky bucked apples even better than her. She felt jealous but ignored it as this mare probably had practice in Appleloosa and was just being modest. After they finished apple-bucking, Applejack escorted Lucky to her makeshift training course, where there was a track in the middle of an empty field with hurdles set up and a bunch of barrels used for barrel weaving and lassoing.

From Applejack's perspective, this was relatively simple, and nothing spectacular about the setup. However, Lucky looked amazed as she squealed, "Did you seriously build this all on your own!?"

Feeling bashful, Applejack replied, "Yeah, I did; maybe my talent is in Apple buckin', but I am a decent Rodeo Pony."

"You're so multi-talented; I wish I was more like you."

Applejack was confused, seeing how well she bucked apples, and asked, "Why do you say that? Heck, you bucked all of the apples like it was nothin'."

Lucky looked downward with a worried look, then said, "Sorry, but I wasn't always so good at things before I got my cutie mark; I might've ended up smashing all your apples."

Applejack couldn't help but want to reassure the mare, then gave her a pat on the back, "Hey, it's okay; we all were clumsy when we were foals; heck, Apple Bloom can be such a headache with her cutie mark searchin' wrecking up the place."

Lucky paused as if she was going to say something, then stammered, "Yea…yeah, you're right. I was rather clumsy as a foal. That's what I meant."

The brown-coated mare turned to her side, pointed a hoof at her flank, and said, "Before I got this, I was the clumsiest pony in Equestria. I screwed up almost everything I did and made life miserable for everypony."

Lucky looked into the air with a dreamy smile and said, "But then it showed up, and now everything seems to work out. I'm still unsure what it means or what to do. But I want to be a rodeo star, and I think with your help, I can make that dream come true."

Applejack chuckled and commented, "You sound like my friend Rainbow Dash; she goes on and on about how badly she wants to be a Wonderbolt, and I bet she'll be one soon."

"Sounds cool; maybe I should meet her."

"That would be great, but why don't we do a few laps around the track now?"

"Oh! That sounds like a great idea!"

So, they started to do their laps, with Applejack knocking a few hurdles with her back legs and cursing under her breath. Still, she saw Lucky gracefully going over them almost effortlessly. Another pang of jealousy hit her as she pondered whether Lucky was lying and was secretly a rodeo star all along. But once again, she had to shake her head, trying to get rid of those thoughts; they then took a minute to rest as they drank water, and Applejack asked rather suspiciously, "Gotta say, you're good at the rodeo; you didn't mess up once."

Lucky cheeks flushed pink, and she bent her head and said, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to outshine you."

Applejack saw that Lucky was humble, felt terrible letting her jealousy take over, and apologized. "It's alright; we're just trainin'. Let's go try barrel weaving."

So, they then went to the Barrel weaving next set up, and there the two weaved through the barrels with Applejack doing her best to dodge and weave through the barrels. But she winced a little, bumping one or two but ending up at the other side of her obstacle course. She then turned to see Lucky gracefully maneuvering through them and running right at her. Applejack winced, thinking they were about to collide, but Lucky soared over her when she opened her eyes. The farm mare watched in awe as the brown-coated mare landed right smack onto the finish line. The mare then threw her hooves in the air and cried, "That was amazing!"

"Yeah, it was somethin'," Applejack mumbled. She saw that, without a doubt, this mare had to be the luckiest, most talented rodeo pony. But despite the face and that no matter how hard she trained, she would never be as good as Lucky. Applejack could feel jealousy growing, but she ignored it and decided she should try getting her mind off it said, "Why don't we try lassoin'?"

"Oh, that sounds like fun!" Lucky squealed; she skipped over to the lasso set, and Applejack went first, lassoing a barrel and hurling it through a hoop. She watched with a smile but groaned a little seeing it hit the side of the hoop and clumsily into her stack of barrels on the other side, knocking a few over. Applejack let out an annoyed groan. But when Lucky tried, her barrel sailed effortlessly through the center with a loud, CRACK her projectile smashed into a stack of barrels and knocked the entire stack over.

Lucky turned to face her new friend and asked, "How was that!?"

Applejack's jealousy was now too much to keep inside as she slammed a hoof on the ground and snapped, "Are you playing with me!? How the hay are ya so good at this!? You said ya never did any rodeoing in your life!"

Lucky blinked, surprised by how angry Applejack got, then said, "Oh…um…like I said, this is all from my ne-I mean cutie mark. I don't mean to be so good. It just happened, ya know?"

Applejack scratched the back of her mane, feeling guilty, letting her jealousy get the best of her, and sighed, "Yeah? Guess I can't fight a cutie mark. Why don't we wash up and then grab something to eat? I'm starving."

The brown-coated mare nodded and skipped after her with a smile still on her face. Despite Applejack still feeling jealous, she couldn't help but admire Lucky's humility. Maybe she was always just really good at rodeo sports but never competed. For now, she'll try being her friend and learn a thing or two from her.

---

After the two had taken a bath, the two were now trotting through the streets of Ponyville. Applejack watched the mare being self-conscious as she lowered her gaze when a stallion checked her out. She then mumbled something under her breath. Then, all of a sudden, some light hit the stallion's eyes, and he had to cover them. Then, she saw a part of the road under construction. The farm mare was going to say something. Still, Lucky Horseshoes just walked through diving and weaving under cranes and construction equipment, ducking under a wrecking ball, and jumping over an open manhole with ease. Applejack cautiously walked around the edges and continued to watch with complete awe. As they approached Sugarcube Corner. Applejack groaned as she checked under her hat, "Dang, forgot to bring bits gotta go-"

Before she could finish, a pegasus slammed into the ground with a bag of bits falling from the sky and landed in Lucky's hoof. "Oh!? Guess we don't need to return to the farm after all."

Applejack's eyes went wide with confusion and surprise as she shouted, "Wait a sec, we can't be spendin' those bits! This pegasus stole them!"

"Why not? You're telling me you see a bag of bits on the ground. You wouldn't keep them?"

"Of course not!? It ain't stealin' technically, but they ain't yours."

Lucky looked down sheepishly and sighed, "I guess you have a point." The mare lassoed the thief, hog-tied him effortlessly, and said, "Guess we can hold onto him until the authorities come by."

Before she could finish, a few royal guards flew down from the sky and landed beside her. They pointed their spears at the thief, and one flew over to the two surprised mares and asked, "Excuse me, ma’am, but it seems a bag of bits was stolen from a bank in Cloudsdale. Did it land around here?"

Lucky hoisted the massive bag of bits, and the guard, with some strain, hoisted the bag and threw it to two other pegasi, who then carried it away as the captain turned back to the brown-coated mare and said, "Thank you so much," He then pulled a smaller bag of bits and said, "As a reward, the bank gave a thousand bits to anypony who caught him, and technically you did, so here you go."

Lucky was given the bag as they flew the thief to jail. The brown-coated mare just stood there as Applejack adjusted her hat with her eyes still wide open in disbelief at everything that happened and whispered to herself, "Well, guess that settles that."

---

Pinkie Pie was busy serving guests, but then her mane and tail suddenly poofed up as if she was hit with a bolt of electricity. She usually knows what her Pinkie sense would be telling her. Instead, this felt as if she was being hit by a wave of unknown energy that canceled out her own!? What could that mean? Was it another party pony like her and Cheese Sandwich?

Pinkie Pie bounced over to a table, seeing Applejack and a cute brown-coated mare sitting across from each other. She chirped, "Oh, Applejack! Is this a new friend!?"

Applejack turned, "Uh, yeah, guess so; this is Lucky. She's a Rodeo pony stayin' in Ponyville."

"Oh, that's so cool!" She hoisted a hoof at Lucky and said, "My name is Pinkie Pie!"

"Hello, Pinkie Pie," Lucky replied as she stuck her hoof out and shook it.

Pinkie Pie went to pull her Party Cannon and squealed, "Well, it's time to party!" But as she pulled the string instead of confetti, a bunch of four-leaf clovers burst out. "Huh, that's weird?"

Lucky giggled as she sniffed the air, "Mmm, smells like spring!"

Pinkie eyed her, then turned to Applejack and asked, "So, um, what ya hungry for?"

Applejack quickly replied, "Just an apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and a cup of coffee for me."

"Coming right up!" Pinkie chirped. She then went to the kitchen, grabbed an apple pie already baked with a cup of coffee, and slid the dish to Applejack. She then turned to Lucky and asked, "And for you?"

"I would like a double scoop of chocolate ice cream with hot fudge and a banana."

"Alright, on-" Before Pinkie could finish, she blinked as a glass cup filled with ice cream flew through the air and landed before Lucky. It was what Lucky ordered two massive scoops of chocolate ice cream drizzled with hot fudge and a banana plopped right on top.

"Well, that was quick!" Lucky chirped. She then ate the ice cream so fast but delicately without getting a single ounce of ice cream on her perfect brown coat. Pinkie Pie eyed her as if something was off. She would generally be able to do things most ponies can't and asked suspiciously, "Where did you say you were from?"

"Oh, Appleloosa," Lucky replied as she stuffed her face with ice cream.

"So, were you always this lucky? Or were you born this way?"

The brown-coated mare's cheeks flushed pink as she said, "I became rather lucky when I got my cutie mark."

"So…your saying is you became super lucky when you received your cutie mark, but your parents named you Lucky before that?"

The mare took another bite of ice cream as she casually shrugged and said, "Yeah, I believe so?"

Applejack eyed Pinkie and asked, "Hey, why are ya interrogating my friend Pinkie Pie?"

Pinkie Pie turned her attention to her friend and exclaimed, "I'm not interrogating her, Applejack; I'm just surprised someone is as lucky as her!? It's like she has a superpower!"

Lucky seemed rather bashful and said, "You might be right; I might have more luck than most ponies. But honestly, I want to use it to be a rodeo star, not a superhero."

"Ugh, you and Applejack think so small! But alright, well regardless, I'm gonna throw you a party tonight at Twilight's castle!"

Lucky looked somewhat confused and asked, "What for? I'm no pony special?"

Applejack just chuckled and explained, "Pinkie Pie throws parties for everypony. Just roll with it."

"Yeah, just roll with it; if you're a friend of Applejack's, you're my friend too!" Pinkie cheered.

Lucky gave her a faint smile that seemed to put Pinkie Pie at ease, then said, "Well then, I guess I can't turn you down, huh?"

"Alright! I'll go to plan your party. Just relax and finish your ice cream!" Pinkie Pie chirped; the pink party pony then bounced off from Sugarcube Corner, headed straight to Twilight's castle, and thought about how she planned to tell Twilight about Lucky and her strange powers. Hopefully, they could learn more about her at the party.

Comments

[Chrome Masquerade]

Applejack waved a hoof inside, then said, ", Well, stop just standin' there. Come on! We're just about to have dinner."

How about That? Must have... Lucked in.

[ScrewBall9k]

nice chap

[Chrome Masquerade]

Lucky nodded and skipped after her with a smile still on her face. Despite Applejack's jealousy, she couldn't help but admire Lucky and how humble she was. Maybe she always was just really good at rodeo sports but never competed. For now, she'll try being her friend and maybe learn a thing or two from her.

You keep telling yourself that.

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

Hmmm... reminds me of a certain duck.

[Foal Star]

11582862
Oh! 20 dollars

[Vaguely Demented]

Going to be tragic if at the end Shoes has to give it all up.

[Phetiamwantip]

This new chapter is great, I LIKE IT! I can't wait to see what Lucky will do next and remember: Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, and dig deep within yourself to conquer fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You got to keep going.

Here's a song that will make you unstoppable. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/h3h035Eyz5A

[Phetiamwantip]

I think I'm going to like Lucky Horseshoes I think it's perfect for me. Being Trouble Shoes is the worst always getting into a lot of trouble and having bad luck but when he turned into Lucky Horseshoes things started to get better and always have a lot of luck. Good luck is just you noticing an opportunity to shine.

[Phetiamwantip]

What I want for Lucky Horseshoes is to have good luck in her life. I never want her to go back to Trouble Shoes and cause trouble again, she needs to have good luck by her side. Good luck is the willing handmaid of an upright and energetic character and conscientious observance of duty.

[tamales]

i like lucky shoes a lot so far :) i hope she doesn't have to give this new change up... completely at least and go back to being super clumsy. maybe something in-between.

[Poparakelis]

I like lucky