Applejack was worried. She had a bad feeling about this. "Now Rarity, you be careful." the farmpony warned "If you don't get the buckin' just right, you could sprain a hoof."
Alas, her pleas fell on deaf ears. "I am perfectly familiar with the apple-bucking process, thank you very much." Rarity replied, paying no attention to Applejack's warning "But while you seem to rely on raw power, I believe a certain amount of style is in order. It's really more of a dance if you ask me."
"Rarity, I'm warning you! Don't do it!" Applejack pleaded. But it was too late. Rarity happily hummed a small tune, all the while performing what appeared to be some sort of dance. Then she reared up, and kicked the nearby apple tree as hard as she could. A loud "Crack!" echoed through the orchard. Both Applejack and Trenderhoof gasped with shock.
An apple fell from the tree, into Rarity's basket. But Rarity took no notice. For at that very moment a sharp pain began spreading out from her back hoof. It did not feel good, and Rarity was obviously straining to hold back the urge to scream in pain. To no avail as the pain quickly became too much to bear. Rarity shrieked so loudly that all of Ponyville could hear her. The loud noise made Applejack and Trenderhoof cover their ears. "Horseapples! This hurts!" Rarity shouted.
"Are you okay Rarity?" Applejack asked.
"No! I am NOT okay!" Rarity said "This is the worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life."
"Well, I hate to say I told ya so, but I told ya so." Applejack said. She was worried about Rarity, but she couldn't help laughing.
"What's so funny? Can't you see I'm in pain?" Rarity asked.
"Of course I can, but I warned you what could happen if you messed up." Applejack said "Looks like you learned your lesson the hard way."
"Just shut up already!" Rarity said "You would not believe how much this hurts!"
"I'm sure it's pretty painful." Applejack said "Now, perhaps I could a bit of a 'damage report'. If you'll allow me that this."
"What are you going to do?" Rarity asked.
"I just need to see how badly messed up your hoof is." Applejack said "Hey Trenderhoof."
"Yes Applejack?" Trenderhoof asked. Rarity's condition had snaped him out of his love strucken trance, at least for now.
"Think you can help me out here?" Applejack asked.
"What do you want me to do? I don't know any first aid spells." Trenderhoof said "I'm not the most talented with magic."
"I'm not asking ya to fix Rarity's hoof. I just need your magic to hold Rarity's hoof so I can get a good look at it without making things worse." Applejack explained "Think you can do that for me?"
"I'll try." Trenderhoof said nervously. Taking a deep breath he lit up his horn, and tried to concentrate on Rarity's hoof.
The instant Rarity felt her hoof move she cried, and moaned in pain. It hurt so badly, and she wanted nothing more then for it to be over already. But despite fighting Trenderhoof every step of the way she was unable to stop his magic, and it wasn't long before her hoof was no longer pressed up against the apple tree. It now lay firmly on the ground.
Applejack examined the injured hoof carefully. She was no stranger to hoof injuries, having smashed up both her front and back hooves on several occassions. Most of the time from landing wrong after a rodeo stunt. "Oh my. This isn't good. It's just as I feared." she said with concern.
"Is she gonna be okay?" Trenderhoof asked.
"She should be, but she's sprained that hoof of hers pretty badly." Applejack said gravely "I've gotta get her to the hospital ASAP!"
"Well then, I guess I shouldn't stop you. Take care." Trenderhoof said.
"Not so fast!" Applejack said "I can't carry her on my own, and I doubt Rarity can wait for somepony to pass by. I'm gonna need your help to carry her to the hospital."
"But what do you need me for?" Trenderhoof asked "Aren't you friends with Princess Twilight Sparkle?"
"That may be, but this is an emergency, and you're the closest pony with magic." Applejack explained.
"You can't possibilty expect me to hold her with my magic." Trenderhoof said "Even the most powerful of unicorns couldn't do that."
"Who said anything about holding her?" Applejack asked "Look over there! Do you see that empty cart?"
"Yes." Trenderhoof replied "I don't see where you're going with this though."
"It's simple, I'll go fetch the cart. And then when I come back, I'll need to lift her up onto it." Applejack said "And I'll need you to ride with her, cause she's probably going to need to hold onto your hoof quite sternly. She's gonna be in a lot of pain."
"I understand." Trenderhoof said, already dreading it. But he was not going to let an innocent pony suffer on his watch. Besides, he'd do anything for Applejack.
"I've got the cart! Hurry up and load her onto it!" Applejack instructed, already having hitched herself to the empty cart.
"All right." Trenderhoof said nervously.
Rarity did not like being lifted into the air by Trenderhoof's magic, especially when it made her pain even worse. "Put me down this instant!" she demanded.
"Just take it easy Rarity, he's only trying to help." Applejack said.
"And who says I need his help?" Rarity asked "I can manage just fine, thank you very much."
"I'd love to see you try, but you're in no condition to be moving at all." Applejack said "You so much as try to trot on that thing and you'll be in pain. Do you mean to tell me that you'd rather limp all the way to the hospital with a sprained hoof?"
"Well, when you put it that way, I guess not." Rarity said. She stopped fighting, and allowed Trenderhoof to levitate her onto the cart. Trenderhoof then hopped up beside her.
"Hang on tight Rarity! I'll get you to the hopsital or bust!" Applejack shouted, and took off as fast she could. All the while trying not to make the ride too uncomfortable for Rarity.
Trenderhoof was amazed at how calm Rarity seemed to be. But the calm didn't last long. Rarity suddenly shrieked again, and grabbed Trenderhoof's hoof tightly. Trenderhoof fought the urge to pull it away.
Rarity, for her part, shouted and cursed all the way to the hospital. Her cries of pain could be heard everywhere.
At last, after what seemed like forever, but really wasn't, Applejack arrived at the hopsital. "Stay here while I go get a doctor!" she instructed Trenderhoof. She then unhitched herself from the cart, and ran inside.
"This is so embarassing." Rarity said, not long after Applejack left.
"It's okay Rarity." Trenderhoof said "We've all done stupid things at some point in our lives. I've actually hurt myself a lot worse."
"Really? Ow!" Rarity said, her sprained hoof still making itself known.
"Yes. In fact, I once broke all four of my hooves on a journey to Los Pegasus." Trenderhoof said, and he told Rarity all about it. By the time he had finished a team of nurses came rushing out the front door, moving Rarity onto a stretcher, and carrying her into the hospital.
"Well Miss. Rarity, I must say. I never would've expected to see you of all ponies end up in the hospital." Nurse Redheart scolded as she wheeled Rarity down the hall.
"I know. But I guess today is a day for surprises." Rarity said. The nurses had already given her an IV to numb the pain from her sprained hoof.
Rarity's sprained hoof turned out to be nothing serious, but she was forced to travel around in a wheelchair for a few days. The doctors warned her to take it easy, and not to try applebuck again without proper instruction. Thankfully, her injury wasn't anything serious, and the Ponyville Days festival still went as planned.
But Rarity learned two valueable lessons. The first was that you shouldn't change who you are, just to impress someone else. And the second, apple bucking was dangerous, and best left to the Apples.
She just hoped her friends wouldn't tease her too much about her "accident". She had been humliated enough as it was. Especially in front of Trenderhoof, who quickly apologized for getting so fascinated by Applejack. As he believed that was the reason why Rarity had attempted apple bucking in the first place. And he was right.
Author's Note
I can't be the only one who was expecting this to happen when Rarity attempted to apple buck.
