Trouble Shoes' "Lucky Day"

A MLP:FiM Fanfiction by c001dud3

Screeching wheels on hot metal brought the train to a halt. The train opened up its doors to let all of the passengers out. All of the ponies came out of the train cars wearing drained faces. One after one, the faces went by. A restless face, an exhausted face, a fatigued face, a... wait...

A face that survived the rigors of travel?

The brown and white stallion seemed to be unfazed, disallowing anything to disillusion his happiness. Today was Trouble Shoes' lucky day as he is in Canterlot for the big Equestria Rodeo competition to watch the great rodeo veterans, he gets to see new sights, and he only tripped ten times on the way there!

Well more like fifteen. Or maybe twenty. That's not even counting how many times he tripped on the way to the train station.

But that's not the point. Trouble Shoes was glad to be there, and he felt practically invincible.

Excited to go see the rodeo, he rushed straight to the grand stadium it was being held in. His heart was beating as fast as his clumsy hooves would allow him to gallop. He never had felt so invigorated in his life to go watch the greats perform. His love for rodeos never left him from his foalhood but now he was out to pursue it. Adrenaline coursing through his veins, he bolted straight into the stadium doors ready to dive into whatever event was underway.

"Well ... looks like I got here a bit too early," Trouble Shoes told himself.

He paused and looked around. Upon further inspection, it appeared all performers were backstage.

"Heh, at least the seatin' is good right now," Trouble Shoes joked to himself. The stadium was empty after all. Not a few measly steps later, the clumsy oaf tripped on something.

Something round.

Something destructive.

A rodeo clown's beach ball.

And thus the Rube-Goldberg machine started up. The ball hit a stack of barrels, the barrels hit some hurdles, and the hurdles hit some hay bales. The cycle continued on and on. Trouble Shoes quickly ran to evade the merchants outside the stadium, staff members and performers, and/or some nosy spectators. Nothing good was going to come out of this.

The backstage crew was in an uproarious scramble to see what was going on outside. Hours of precious time have been poured into the correct setup of every event. Everypony knew that a rodeo pony was only as good as the setup they had.

There's a place for everything and everything in it's place, but certainly not here. Going outside revealed the destroyed state of the main stage. Everything was absolutely scattered. Barrels here, hay bales there, and absolutely everything else was everywhere imaginable.

One of the stage crew members was silently weeping in the back. This loss of time and effort was degrading.

However, there was still a show to happen, and they only had an hour to set back up hours of work. As a result, they told the guard that was over watching the whole thing to calm down the performers in the back.

"Did anypony see who or what did this?" the guard asked with his booming raucous voice.

There were a bunch of collective rumblings from the staff. Most were concurring that it was a mistake or a faultily placed barrel until somepony in the crew came up with some evidence.

"I saw a hoofprint over there." The crew member pointed over towards where the barrels were.

A enormous hoof print with a clear horseshoe imprint was emblazoned into the dirt.

The same staff member also mentioned he saw a brown and white stallion stumbling out of the stadium.

"Alright, I'll alert the performers," the guard told the crew.

With the news, the guard walked profoundly to the crowd of confused cowponies.

After he got their attention, the guard announced, "There has been a problem with the stage. Somepony has destroyed the event setups for today's opening events. Could have been an accident but we are going to investigate. If you see a large brown and white stallion, let one of the guards know. The destroyed setup will take some time to get put back together, but we should still be on schedule." The crowd murmured about, wondering if this would affect them.

I'm already off my game; I just hope they set it up perfect so I don't screw up, Applejack thought as she was within the mob of performers. When she was practicing in Ponyville, she was hitting hurdles while practicing for the jumping event. If she was to win any blue ribbons, she had to do flawlessly, but if the setup wasn't right, it was certainly not going to help her situation. Only time will tell.

"Alright folks! We have a good one for you today. First we will start with our jumping event! Everypony welcome our first contestant!" the announcer boomed through the microphone. Contestant number one went out and started his run. He was doing well until the first hurdle, falling face-first because he tripped on it while jumping.

"Ouch, that's a DNF for contestant number one!" The announcer cringed as he told the audience.

The hurdles clearly weren't aligned right, and the first contestant experienced it firsthoof. After all, having to set up many events in no time at all was going to leave a large margin of error. The misplacement had its price, and the contestants were going to pay it. However, these are the greatest rodeo ponies in all of Equestria, so most of them knew how to analyze the situation and work around it.

The way Applejack saw it, she needed to slow down to make up for the tilted jumps. It would add more time to the clock, but at least she wouldn't get any jumping faults. Her instincts were reassured as others went before her. Every cowpony that went before her also made her a bit more nervous.

At last, it was her turn.

"Our last contestant is Applejack from Ponyville!" the announcer said with a gravelly voice. Applejack stepped to the starting gate, ready to start. She took a great breath in preparation of the starting bell.

Ready.

Set.

Go!

Applejack was making sure she was running at a controlled canter to avoid tripping over a hurdle.

First hurdle was definitely crooked, but she had the confidence to do it. She shifted her weight into her haunches, pushed upwards, and...

Success! The first hurdle was conquered by the great Applejack! But victory was short lived for the next obstacle was in her way.

But alas, she was able to overcome the obstacles given her slower pace. Things were looking up for her securing first place. Until the last hurdle, that is.

It was coming up, and she prepared like all of the other hurdles. She started up and jumped.

The jump seemed to happen in slow motion. As she was following through with the jump, her hind leg drooped slightly, touching the hurdle with a sense of defeat.

"And that is four faults!" the announcer said with a slightly disappointed tone.

Applejack finished the race feeling crushed, especially since there was a possibility she got more faults from going over the time limit.

"And second place goes to... Applejack!" The announcer called her up and awarded her the red ribbon.

Almost had it, Applejack thought, caught between being happy she won a ribbon and defeated because she was so close to first. However, other events would save her, right?

At the same moment, Trouble Shoes was spectating the awards ceremony from afar, sort of hidden to prevent detection from his previous accident. The Royal Guard were still looking for him on suspicion he tried to sabotage the rodeo. He was able to sort of make out the details of the winners. However, his distance from the pedestals blurred some of the details. He noticed that Applejack was doing well minus the faults she received at the end. He wondered why such a great competitor would not get first.

Then it hit him like the train he got in on. His actions before the rodeo had indirectly caused her to lose grasp of first. If he didn't slip on that WMD, she would have won first place.

I must make it up to her... somehow, Trouble Shoes thought to himself with a heavy pang of guilt. He didn't know how he was going to make it up to her, but he needed to, for both his and her sake.

From every event on, Applejack seemed to drag on, fluctuating between winning second and fourth place, and Trouble Shoes saw this desperate state and all he could do was wait for the rodeo to be over for him to help her in someway. It was painful to watch her seemingly lose her game as the rodeo dragged onwards.

After all of the day's events, Applejack was stuck. She had gotten so many ribbons, but none of them were what she needed. Lost and unsure of what to do next, she went to the merchant stalls outside to get some fresh air and fresh food.

Applejack was lost in a sea of thoughts. So many enticing choices, like apple pie, apple fritters, apple tarts, apple...

She ran into a rather large brown and white stallion who came out from behind a hay bale stack. She studied him for a second until she realized...

Oh no, Applejack remembered the words of the guard who told her that a brown and white stallion had destroyed the rodeo set up beforehand.

"You monster," Applejack denounced Trouble Shoes.

"Now I'm sorry but this was a mistake!"

"Of course it was. If it weren't for your little mistake, I would have been winning money for Ponyville! I'm turning you into the Royal Guard!"

Trouble Shoes immediately took off as a response to the threat. He didn't want to make his unlucky trip the worst trip ever. In his efforts to escape, the klutz knocked over a sizable stack of barrels, half destroying a cherry stall.

Applejack saw the cream-colored mare who owned the stall, and she was in shock to see the mare knocked onto the floor.

"Are you ok?" Applejack helped up the mare.

"Yea, but looks like my stand ain't doing so well," replied the mare. "The name's Cherry Jubilee, by the way."

"Nice to meet you. Do you... uh need any help with rebuilding the stand?"

"Actually that'd be mighty fine Applejack"

"Wait, how'd you know my name?"

"Who doesn't know your name at this point? You've won so many ribbons in this rodeo."

Applejack looked down, reminded of her lack of any blue ribbons.

"Aw shucks, it's nothing really," she said shakily , still looking at the floor.

"Of course it is! Now if we are going to fix this stand, we better start now."

"Alright ma'am!"

Then they started on fixing up the stand. When Applejack was cleaning up some of the wood splinters, she noticed a "Now Hiring" sign. She remembered that she had no money to bring back to Ponyville.

"So you're hirin' somepony to work on your orchard?" Applejack asked.

"As a matter of fact, I am. Would you like the job?"

Applejack hesitated because this meant she couldn't go back to her friends. However, she couldn't come back with empty hooves.

"Yes, I would like a change in scenery."

"Well that's great! I can get one of my workers that are on break to cover for me, and I can take you right over to our orchard in Dodge Junction."

"Ok, I need to send a letter home, and then we can go."

Applejack was happy and sad again. She was happy she could come back with money, but it was going to be awhile.

She looked into the sun for some sort of reassurance.

The Canterlot train station was booming. The train was open ready to get all the passengers in. All of them were excited and light-hearted to go home or see a new destination. Their faces lit up brighter than any light spell could conjure up. An excitable face, an enthusiastic face, a thrilled face, a... wait...

A face unexcited to explore new lands?

The brown and white stallion was more than fazed, seemingly broken down. He ruined some merchant stalls, the event set ups, and even somepony's life.

"Guess bad luck's my calling", Trouble Shoes had decided.