It was a beautiful day in Ponyville and everyone was excited because today was the day of the Applewood Derby where fillies and colts from the Ponyville Schoolhouse build their own carts and race them in hopes of winning one of three medals: fastest cart, most creative cart, or most traditional cart.
Nopony was more excited than Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity. When the Cutie Mark Crusaders asked them to help build their carts, they immediately agreed but soon problems began to arise:
Each of the CMC wanted to win a certain category: Apple Bloom wanted to win fastest, Sweetie Belle wanted most traditional, and Scootaloo wanted to be most creative.
The older mares had other ideas: Rainbow Dash wanted to be fast because she just wants to be cool, Applejack wanted to continue the Apple family tradition of winning most traditional, and Rarity wanted to win most creative to avenge her youth when she lost the title to Derpy Hooves.
As the building continued, the CMC quickly grew frustrated with their sister's actions.
On the day of the race, they were not happy to be racing.
Applebloom looked over at the spots where their carts would be, "You know, I thought having our sisters help us build the carts was a good idea, but I realized I was wrong. They're taking over everything, this was our race!"
Sweetie Belle whined, "Rarity cares too much about being creative all because she didn’t win her first time around! She won't even listen to me!"
"I agree. But let's just get this over with." said Scootaloo.
Pretty soon, the three fillies were called to their specific carts by their sisters:
Applejack had made a traditional horse carriage, Rarity made a lavish swan cart, and Rainbow Dash a supercool cart with the Wonderbolts colors on it.
Applejack called out from her cart, "Alright girls, hop in your passengers seats!"
Scootaloo complained in frustration, "They're the only grown-ups driving!"
Sweetie Belle whined, "It's not fair!"
Cheerilee announced from the sidelines, "Alright everypony, to the starting line!"
The CMC trudged to their respective carts and hopped into the passenger's seats.
Cheerilee eyed the older mare's driving and asked, "Aren't the fillies supposed to be-"
Rainbow cut her off, "Just start the race, I'm ready to win!"
Cheerliee sighed and told the racers, "Okay there are 3 loops in this race. Whoever crosses the finish line first wins.”
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The song ended with all of the carts crashing into each other resulting in a massive pileup.
The three older mares climbed out of the wreckage one by one.
Rarity cried, "My cart is ruined! Now I'll never win!"
"All this hard work for nothing!" groaned Applejack, "The Apple Family tradition is ruined!"
Rainbow Dash climbed out, "Speaking of family, where are the Crusaders?"
A look of horror began to spread on everypony's faces as a familiar squeaky moan was heard.
It was Diamond Tiara who looked over and her eyes widened, "Um, guys? I don't think they're moving." All of the racers turned over and saw Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo crushed under the rubble!
Cheerilee said to the others, "Everypony work to remove the debris! We have to get them out."
The foals and adults all pitched in to remove the rubble. When the mess was cleared, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were picked up by their siblings.
Rarity gasped, "No! Sweetie Belle!"
"Somepony call an ambulance now!" yelled Rainbow Dash.
As Cheerilee ran for a doctor, Rarity levitated the girls over to nearby hay bales for inspection.
The CMC were bruised, dirty, and slightly mangled.
Scootaloo asked, "Where am I?" and passed out.
Within minutes, Cheerilee returned with an ambulance from the Ponyville hospital along with a few police officers to investigate the crash.
One of the police officers asked, "Can somepony explained what happened?!"
"We were racing in the Applewood Derby when there was a big pileup and now our sisters have been crushed under our carts!" cried Rainbow Dash.
As a paramedic was treating them, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo yelled, "They're not yours!"
Applebloom complained, "This was supposed to be our race! Not yours!"
"You ruined everything!" cried Sweetie Belle.
"Yeah!” Scootaloo agreed, “You took over when it was a supposed to be a race for the foals! Now nobody can race!"
The police officer stopped taking notes in his notebook, "Thank you girls, I've heard just about enough from you three. Open Heart, get these fillies into an ambulance!"
As the girls were loaded in, the officer turned to Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, "You three oughta be ashamed of yourselves!"
He walked away leaving the mess behind.
Diamond Tiara grumbled, "Thanks a lot. Come on guys, let's go."
The other racers gave dirty looks to the older mares and walked away leaving them alone with Cherliee.
Cherliee turned to the three mares and began to scold them, "That police officer was right. You three should be ashamed of yourselves. I let the class have the Applewood Derby so they could race, have fun, and maybe win a ribbon. This was not a project for the older mares. The Cutie Mark Crusaders trusted you to help them build their carts."
"But we did-"
Cherilee interrupted, "Did you even listen to what they wanted in the first place? Applebloom wanted to have the fastest cart, Sweetie Belle wanted most traditional, and Scootaloo wanted most creative! But you three had to take over and build the carts to satisfy your own selfish desires! You wouldn't even let them drive!"
"Technically," Rainbow Dash tried to change the subject, "most of this is the track builder's fault for making the track in a bad way so we wouldn't have all-"
"IT'S NOT ABOUT THE TRACK!" yelled Cherilee, startling the three mares.
She walked up to the participant board.
"I hate to do this. But Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, you three are disqualified from the derby from taking over your sister's carts and causing a massive pileup."
She put a big black X through the three mare’s pictures as Rarity fainted.
Rainbow Dash yelled, "That isn't fair! You can't do that!"
"Sorry but you adults are not allowed to race anymore. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to buy some consolation flowers to the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the hospital. Goodbye."
She stormed away.
Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash walked away from the pileup filled with shame.
Applejack held her head down in frustration, "We blew it. We wanted to help our sisters out but we blew it."
"We need to talk to Twilight about it. Maybe she'll help us."
The three of them headed to Twilight's castle and explained everything.
Twilight said, "So let me get this straight, you guys took over your sister's carts and caused them to get injured in a major pileup?"
All three nodded.
Rainbow Dash said, "They asked us to help build them, but we ruined everything."
Applejack frowned, "Cheerilee had us older mares disqualified because of our action."
Twilight was shocked at their confession, “You know, Cheerilee’s right, the Applewood Derby was for fillies only. You guys were supposed to help the Crusaders, but you didn't! They had their own ideas but you didn't listen!"
Rarity began crying, "But I wanted to beat Derpy for most creative cart!"
"We'll apologize to them and make things right."
Twilght slammed her hooves on the table, "It won't even matter because they'll still be mad at you. This was their race. I hate to be a bad friend, but you guys were pretty selfish."
Twilight led her friends to the door.
"We're sorry!"
"GET OUT! I'm very disappointed in you."
The three of them left sadly and looked back at the castle to see Twilight give one last disappointed look before slamming the door.
"Twilight's right. We have a lot to think about."
Rainbow Dash sighed, "How will we ever make it up to them?"
"I have no idea."
At the Ponyville hospital, the CMC were loaded into their hospital room.
Applebloom turned to her friends, "Ah never wanted this derby to get out of control. Ah just wanted to spend time with Applejack."
Sweetie Belle frowned, "I wanted to do this derby with Rarity but she took over for her desires. Just like all our sisters did."
Scootaloo turned to her two friends, "I know we called them out at the track," she explained, "but do you think we were too hard on them? They looked pretty upset when we last saw them."
"Maybe we were."
Meanwhile, the older mares went to visit Cheerliee and the other racers back at the Ponyville schoolhouse to apologize for ruining everything.
Cheerliee looked at them with discontent, "I thought I had you three disqualified."
Applejack tried to reason with her, "Cheerliee please listen to us. We didn't mean for any of this to happen."
Rarity pleaded, "We're so sorry. We were brainwashed by the spirit of the competition. I just wanted to win first prize."
"And that's why you had to ruin the derby?"
Rainbow Dash began speaking, "We just wanted to race. We're sorry to you, we're sorry to the racers, and we're sorry to our sisters."
"Listen, I know how hard it is to get caught up in the spirit of competition, it can easily corrupt you. It can even happen in a team sport, someone will get too competitive and end up making things horrible.” explained Cherilee, “The important thing is to have fun. When I assigned the foals to choose an older helper, I wanted to guys to have a great time. It's okay to be competitive once in a while, but you don't need to get carried away."
"We're sorry Cheerilee."
Cheerilee turned to the girls as she walked away, "I'm just glad you three learned your lesson. Now you have three fillies to visit in the hospital and apologize too."
Applejack smiled, "Thanks Cheerilee,"
"You think we we should visit them and apologize now?" asked Rarity.
"It's worth a try."
Later, the older mares went to the hospital to check on the girls.
"How're they doing?"
Nurse Redheart looked at her notes on the CMC, "The girls are going to be okay. Sweetie Belle sprained one of her hooves, Applebloom has a mild concussion, and Scootaloo broke one of her wings, but other than that, there are no serious injuries."
Applejack asked, "Can we see them?"
Nurse Redheart replied, "Of course you can. They've been asking for you since they got here."
She led the older mares to the hospital room where the CMC were staying in.
Applejack said, "Hi girls. Are you okay?"
“We're okay Applejack." Applebloom said from her hospital bed.
"We're so sorry we ruined the derby for y'all. We just got a little competitive."
Sweetiebelle looked up to Applejack, “We just wanted you to help us,” she said with a frown, “we figured you guys would be good helpers, but you just took over.”
"We just wanted you to listen to our ideas." said Scootaloo.
"Girls, sometimes grownups aren't always right. We don't know everything."
Rainbow Dash put her hoof on Scootaloo, "We should have listened to you. Now it looks like you'll never race again because Cheerilee has us disqualified."
Applebloom said, "That's okay Rainbow Dash. I don't need a ribbon for you to be proud of me. We love you."
"We love you too Sugarcube."
The three mares hugged their sisters tightly, finally knowing that they didn't need a ribbon to be winners.
Later that evening, the six wrote a letter to Twilight from the hospital.
Dear Princess Twilight,
Today we learned some very important lessons. For us Crusaders, we learned that sometimes adults don't always know what's best and you have to stand up for what you want. As for us older mares, it's very easy to get caught up in the spirit of competition, especially in a team sport. It's important that you listen to your partner and not do the entire work yourself, it should be split equally. The most important lesson we learned is that winning isn't everything.
Your friends,
Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash
At the castle, Twilight read the letter to herself.
Starlight Glimmer walked up to Twilight and asked, "I just talked to Spike about what happened at the Derby earlier today? Why didn't you help your friends after what happened?"
Twilight put her hoof on her student, "Starlight, I've helped ponies with friendship lessons for years." she said, "this time, I wanted them to learn it all on their own."
She looked at the letter one more time.
"And I think they succeeded."
The End
