Applejack's Basement

Applebloom darted off the starting line as the announcer officially began the rodeo. There were only a few other contestants with her, including the prized champion Corkscrew Peach. Corkscrew is the not-so-friendly type of pony. She has light golden fur and an orange mane with white stripes. She has a corkscrew ponytail and the tip of her tail has the same pattern. Her eyes were bright blue and she wore yellow lipstick and eye-shadow. Her cutiemark was a peach with a drill going through it. A worm was coming out the other side.

Applebloom tried her best to ignore the pony. She was a grown up mare, almost, and she didn't have to worry about other ponies during a rodeo. She almost reminded herself of Corkscrew. She had the same light yellow coat, but with a red mane. She had gotten three freckles on either side of her face like her big sister as well. She had on a red neckerchief that had white polka-dots and her mane was put into a ponytail with a pink hair tie. She never wore her bow anymore. She had a pink anklet on her back right hoof as well.

The only other two competitors against Applebloom and Corkscrew were Braeburn and Caramel. She barely knew either of them, but she could only understand Braeburn a little because they were related. Braeburn made a sharp turn and came up running next to Applebloom.

"Hey," He paused after saying that. He soon sighed and spoke again. "No hard feelings if either of us wins, alright? I'd hate to hurt ya if I won, but I know ya don't wanna hurt me neither."

Applebloom was quiet for a moment. He was right; she didn't really want to hurt him for some reason. "We are family, after all."

Braeburn nodded. "Family forever. Nothin'll ever change that, right?"

Applebloom smiled. "When you're family, you can never turn your back on them, no matter what happens." She nudged him a tad with her back hoof. "Go, let's see if you can get past these obstacles." Braeburn darted off in front of Applebloom at that, and she followed in sharp pursuit. Applebloom sighed and kept her smile. If I win this, I'll get to go to one of the hardest rodeos in Equestria, she thought. Maybe that'll change Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's minds. She quickened her pace a little as the first obstacle came into view. This rodeo was to be difficult, as this was Applebloom's fifth rodeo. She had one four others in a row, and if she won this one, she'd get to go to the championships. She never knew much about the championships, but she wanted to focus hard on this rodeo. Not just because this was her fifth before the championships, but because Applejack was at the rodeo as a special guest. Applebloom wanted to impress her big sister as well as possible, and that's what she was trying to do.

The first obstacles started off easy, but got progressively harder as you neared the finish. Applebloom jumped over the long zig-zagging line of hurtles perfectly, she didn't even bat an eye. The others were clearly impressed; the crowd was in a frenzy. Applebloom looked up momentarily and caught Applejack's bright smile looking down upon her. She smiled back and kept pushing forward. She ran the circle she was meant to around the barrels in her way and she leapt over a final hurtle. She ran to the chicken coop in front of her and then slowed. She stepped inside carefully and lifted an egg. She carried it gently out of the coop on the tip of her nose and set it down carefully in the nest before she bolted off again. She ran on a ramp and leapt over a deep, thick mud puddle, and landed on soft sand. She leapt off to the side of the quicksand pit and darted across. She saw the finish line in her sights, which made her grin. She heard hoofsteps behind her, and she easily recognized them; Corkscrew was catching up to her, along with Braeburn. Caramel seemed to have fallen behind somehow, but she didn't know where or how. The ponies ran up to either side of her. She looked at both of them for a moment, and she managed to catch Braeburn's sharp smile, the smile like he'd got an idea, and Corkscrew's devilish glare that showed her eyeshadow clearly above her eye. The two ponies began closing in on her, but she bucked one back-hoof to the left and one to the right to push them away from her.

Corkscrew was kicked against the fence and she fell down from the jolt, and Braeburn tripped on a stone that was in the way. Applebloom leapt onto the lilypads on the pool at the final challenge, and she leapt across all 24 of them to reach the finish line. She crossed it with great pride, and the crowd was shouting and cheering her name. Caramel came in second place, and Braeburn in third. Unluckily for Corkscrew, she came in last place. The ponies met to talk before Applebloom could get taken to the championship.

"You did really well out zere, Applebloom," Corkscrew said with her Prance accent. "Was zis your last rodeo?"

Applebloom nodded. "Yup. Ah'm goin' to the championships in a little bit."

"I 'ope you 'ave fun, Pomme fleurir," Corkscrew chuckled, and groaned a tad as she felt a bit of pain.

"Are you alright, Corkscrew?" Caramel asked.

"I am fine, Caramel," She said. "Just a little pain in my side, zat is all."

"Let me see," Applebloom said.

"No, eet is fine, I am sure," She said nervously, and backed up when Applebloom approached. Braeburn held Corkscrew and turned her so you could see her side. She had gotten poked in the side with a nail on the fence, and it was bleeding a little.

"Ah knew you weren't fine," Applebloom said.

Corkscrew sighed. "Yes, eet is true. When you kicked me, I 'it ze fence, and zere was a nail sticking out of ze side of eet. It poked me in ze side. I 'ave been trying to ignore ze pain, but eet is getting worse. eet is ze delicate injury; it is not much too worry about. But I shall be ze fine, no?"

Applebloom shook her head. "Hey, sis! You around?" Conveniently, Applejack was just walking up to Applebloom.

"What is it, sugarcube?" She asked.

"Corkscrew got a little injury durin' the race. You think one of the doctors could patch er up?"

"Let me see it first," Applejack said. She walked over to Corkscrew. "Show me the wound."

"Eet is not zat much of bad, but eef eet looks bad, you can take me to ze Medical Room to 'eal," Corkscrew turned to show Applejack the spot where she had been stabbed with the nail.

"Looks pretty bad, darlin'. What happened?"

"Eet was a nail in ze fence zat was sticking out. Applebloom kicked me away from her, and I made ze mistake of tripping on my 'ooves. Zen I fell over and 'it ze fence. I fell down in ze process, but I don't t'ink any dirt got into eet yet."

"It looks like a little bit got in. Ah'll take ya'll to the infirmary, and we'll have to wait for them to finish with Cork before Ah can take AB to the championship rodeo by the Crystal Empire."

"We're goin to the Crystal Empire?!" Applebloom yelped happily.

"Yep, that's where this rodeo will take ya. If ya had won the one by the barn, ya would've went up to Manehattan."

"Wow..." Applebloom said in awe.

"There's five different rodeos in all for the championships, and only five of those ponies win and get the glory they deserve. That's how ah became manager of the rodeos, it's cause Ah won just one of them rodeos."

"If Ah won," Applebloom began uncertainly. "could Ah become a manager too?"

Applejack laughed. "Maybe Co-Manager, sugarcube, but ya have to work to be like me. Come on, let's not waste anymore time, we don't want Corkscrew to get sick."

"Yes, we must go now," Corkscrew said, her voice full of pain. "Ze wound is getting much worse; I don't like eet." Caramel and Braeburn supported Corkscrew Peach and helped her to walk with Applebloom and Applejack to the infirmary.