The Rodeo
Taking a Gander By GreatMewtwo
The spring in Ponyville started to wane and the sun of Celestia burned more brightly in the slightly cloudy summer sky. The clubhouse of the Cutie Mark Crusaders also became the firmest evidence of a weather change, as the wood started to dry and splinter in a pattern underestimated. As Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle knocked about the clubhouse thinking of their next amazing escapade, an idea struck Apple Bloom’s head as she crashed through the door.
“Girls, girls,” she cried, “The rodeo’s coming. The rodeo’s in town!”
“What rodeo?” Sweetie Belle asked, “Ponyville doesn’t have a rodeo show.”
“Well, it does now,” replied Apple Bloom, producing a flyer from her mouth.
“By the looks of it, it’s supposed to be awesome,” she continued. She then proceeded to read from the flyer, adorned in sensationalistic images of extravagant ponies riding into combat with their gold and green banners flying into the wind, triumphing over a sleuth of bears and a herd of donkeys about a river crossing.
“See, girls, it says ‘Golden Gander and his Congress of Pony Pioneers Present the Rough Wranglin’ Star-Spanglin’ Rodeo Tour,’ presented by Haydeo Kojima and Friends. In Ponyville for two days only.”
“Rodeo, like the one in Appleoosa?” asked Scootaloo
“Uh-huh. See? They also got barrel-racing, rodeo clowns, roping, animal calling, and steeplechases, where you can win your share of 12,000 bits. Then we can also see a re-enactment of the Battle of Appleoosa Rock, complete with a treaty-signing; a magic demonstration, and even the Iron Horse Robbery Show.”
“Wait. What’s this about the competitions?” Sweetie Belle asked noticing the fine print.
“It says,” replied Scootaloo as she read, “Competitors must be citizens of the same municipality as the performance to be considered for competition and must have no less than a secondary school education. Entry fee for each competitor is…Aw, man.”
“But how could they do that,” exclaimed Apple Bloom stomping her foreleg into the splintered floor, “Doesn’t anypony think that fillies have talent? Applejack and I have been practicing duck-calling ever since the last Appleoosa rodeo.”
“Apple Bloom, that was just last week,” Scootaloo reminded her.
“Oh. Wait, was that last week?”
“Now what do we do?” inquired Sweetie Belle, “No one would want us entering despite what we’ve been working on.”
“That may be so, but you know what?” resolved Apple Bloom, “Instead of their hoity-toity rodeo show, what if we put on our own? You know, to give them a run for their bits.”
“Yeah,” concurred Scootaloo, “we can do our own rodeo show, with animal calling, and roping, and all that good jazz.”
Sweetie Belle giggled at the thought of holding their own homegrown rodeo devoid of such frivolous restrictions and joined in on the ponies as they bumped hooves.
“Yeah, this is going to be so much fun doing our own rodeo,” chimed Sweetie Belle.
With time going by, the Crusaders went quickly to work, storming out of the clubhouse. Even Applejack, in her attempt to check up on them, was taken aback by their enthusiastic running.
“Hmm...those fillies. Can’t expect them to go a day without trying to find the meaning of life, can you?” she thought.
The construction of the rodeo grounds was rather crude. In the calm air and rather waning heat, the Crusaders found a soil-banked patch on the farm and went to work. Sweetie Belle fetched some old barrels to use for the barrel races, Scootaloo made a simple circle in the ground to mark off their site, and Apple Bloom lugged some old ropes for the roping from the barn. With that, the Cutie Mark Rodeo was born.
“Fillies and…Fillies,” cried Apple Bloom, “welcome to the first ever and first annual Sweet Apple Rodeo presented by Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo!”
“Yay!” cheered Sweetie Belle as the event began.
In traditional rodeo fashion, the first event was the race. Sweetie Belle watched on as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom took their places on the bronzed dirt. With their positions taken, Sweetie Belle gave the signal.
“Fillies, you will run from this barrel here, to that barrel there, and back. Fillies, on your marks…get set…”
As soon as Sweetie Belle blew into a party blowout left over from Pinkie Pie’s birthday party, the race was on. Scootaloo’s wings provided very little lift as Apple Bloom gave it all she got to overcome the drag of her oversize bow. In just a couple seconds, Apple Bloom made a quick turn on the barrel and darted back to the barrel by Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo, however, got into her groove and slipstreamed off of Apple Bloom herself to take the lead by a nose and win.
“I won! I won the first race of the Sweet Apple Rodeo!” Scootaloo cried victoriously.
Scootaloo stared a bit at her hindquarters thinking about her cutie mark while Apple Bloom staggered a bit trying to figure out what happened to her lead.
The next events went by with each of them laughing off every little incident. The animal calling went on with a little hitch when Sweetie Belle’s proficiency in singing further made her the envy of Scootaloo and Apple Bloom; an entire flock of ducks hatched to just adore her. During the roping competition, the extravaganza found itself observed by the rest of the Apples as they played around with a pillow mock-up of calves to see who can rope it the best. Feathers scattered everywhere as Apple Bloom was able to lasso the pillow calf successfully and the others tangled themselves for lack of control of the rope. Their steeplechases were improvised with apples, stones, felled wood, and barrels and ended with more laughs and a couple of bumps, as would eventually be observed by a concerned Rarity and an intrigued Rainbow Dash who dropped in during one of her patrol flights. As the day went on, Applejack and Big Macintosh stopped in to watch their hilarity unfold, and Rainbow Dash went out to spread the word about their antics. A following soon spawned in the suspiciously inactive Ponyville area as Button Mash, Namby Pamby, and many of the other colts and fillies from their school class participated in the runs and festivities.
“And now, for your further entertainment,” Sweetie Belle announced to the crowd, “we bring you a re-enactment of the Battle of Appleoosa Rock, a triumph of pony against all odds, and a story of a herd of buffalo who always got even.”
Some of the younger ponies joined in on the re-enactment, where the ponies would be pretending to the last detail that they were in a heated battle against Chief Mosseola and the Strutinole Tribe of Buffalo. Of course, acting out the naughtier bits would be insisted upon by Button Mash, who thought that it was a bloody battle like the one depicted in his game, Era of Civilizations.
In time, however, a flash shower rolled in. Though the weather and wet grounds added to the realism of the re-enactment, it proved to be problematic for a team of two pegasi transporting cargo for the Golden Gander rodeo and they all inadvertently crashed the re-enactment. The container they were carrying careened into the rodeo grounds and nearly hit two ponies. Everypony, soaked, shocked, and awed, were relieved that only a broken wing was the extent of their injuries.
“Wait a second, aren’t you guys part of the rodeo?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Why, yes we are,” replied the saffron-colored Pegasus through the pain, “I am the Masterful Golden Gander of the Golden Gander Rodeo Troupe. We were rehearsing a scene from our re-enactment, but as you can see, we got a bit hit.”
“You’re the Golden Gander from the rodeo?” Apple Bloom thought. She hesitated for a moment about the fact that they were part of the very rodeo that they would have been excluded from. The hubbub still at a standstill, she cried out.
“Somepony, get help! The show must go on!”
“What?!” Golden Gander pondered.
“Of course the show must go on,” Apple Bloom cried. “We did this whole thing because we couldn’t compete in the rodeo, but if Golden Gander can’t be the Golden Gander of the Golden Gander Rodeo Troupe, than what Golden Gander will I see when I can finally be part of Golden Gander’s rodeo show?”
“My stars, kid,” he smiled, as Big Macintosh and Applejack got him to safety, “You’re chock full of virtue. Something show business is losing these days.”
“Does this mean that our rodeo’s over?” Scootaloo asked.
“Maybe for now,” proposed a dejected Apple Bloom. “Let’s call it a night.”
Apple Bloom, in her disappointment over the incident, addressed the crowd and announced what she thought was the worst part.
“Stallions and mares, fillies and gentlecolts, the Sweet Apple Rodeo is complete. Thank you and good night.”
The crowd around their little patch of farm dissipated, the pegasi flew back in the overcast and rainy skies, and the Crusaders were a little eroded, but still, their sadness was not lost, as nor was there an absence of laughs or good times that came out of their knock-off act. Of course, there was no magic demonstration, the crowning of Miss Rodeo, or even the scene where the treaty was signed.
The next morning, Golden Gander woke up in the farmhouse to the tender loving care of Applejack and Nurse Redheart as they addressed his wounds.
“How are you feeling, Mr. Gander?” Applejack queried, “Nurse said you should stay off the wing for a few weeks.”
“Why, I’m feeling quite entertained,” Golden Gander retorted as he stood upright, “I’ve never been entertained by such darling fillies in my whole life.”
“Well, that’s my sister, that Apple Bloom. She’s the sweetest apple to the core.”
“Wait. That was your sister?”
Applejack just nodded to his question in an affirmative manner, but Golden Gander couldn’t help but laugh.
“It is a little funny, ain’t it?”
“Yup! To be honest, we weren’t going to perform in Ponyville anyway! Area's too much of a hotbed of disaster. Also turns out that one of my star performers didn't get the message that we wouldn't be performing there and got caught up in that storm.”
With that confession, Applejack just stood stunned by his announcement before her.
“Yeah, it was the funniest thing. We started touring in an effort to get away from Trouble Hooves, but then we had to cancel the Ponyville show and I had to find a new venue. Who would have thought that you guys had your own little rodeo show right in Ponyville?”
Golden Gander eventually cracked up after realizing the irony in all this.
“You know what?,” Golden Gander proposed, pulling out some slips of paper, “Here. These are for Apple Bloom and her friends. Starting next week, the Golden Gander Rodeo will present the Juggernaut Junior Rodeo in addition to the touring show we have now. Tell her to bring her friends to compete for some fabulous prizes.
“Why, thanks,” replied Applejack.
“Thank you, you guys. It’s been a real pleasure to be humbled and entertained by some of my fans and some rodeo aficionados alike.”
“You’re welcome to come by at any time. Have a nice trip, now.” Applejack responded as she accepted the tickets with a melting heart.
Later, Golden Gander proceeded to let himself out of the farmhouse, some bandages still holding his wing stable and his partner waiting for him.
“Imagine that,” she thought back inside, “my sweet little sister, growing up to be a rodeo star.”