Dodge Junction Calamity Mane's Wild West: Auditions (Open)

[SteelEagle]

Applejack mentally kicked herself over calling it just a rodeo. Of course Calamity would get mad. She wasn't just one of the greatest rodeo ponies of all time, she was a show mare without compare in a crowded marketplace full of pretenders to her gilded throne of entertainment success. So Applejack didn't snap back, not one bit, at the biting retort from her idol. She deserved it. She only bowed her head in respect and shook it. "Ah'm sorry. Ah know it's more than just a rodeo. Ah'll admit that sometimes Ah can get a bit ahead of mahself," Applejack responded quickly and lowly, sufficiently cowed due to a possibile hoof in mouth moment. She then went back to wondering what the hay Calamity was doing as she continued on her path, and it wasn't until Applejack saw he outfit that it all clicked into place rapidly and with grand authority.

Applejack had seen this outfit a few times out west and it was never very glamorous. Saloon fillies were always doing five things at once, from dance shows and the grunt work to advertising and customer service. There was a certain element of enforced attraction and insecerity that came with the field of work that Applejack was just uncomfortable with, and looking like a brazen hussy didn't help matters much. Of course, if she were to be completely honest with herself she wouldn't deny that they were also almost universally very attractive and maybe she had been smitten by an overly friendly saloon filly and tipped a little better. That and it wasn't like there wouldn't be any of these types at the show anyway. You needed them for hosting and for the travelling shows and bars. Once Applejack got her blush down a bit, she could see the sense in it.

But she was also more than a little dissapointed, and that showed right after the blush. She hadn't come here to be a bit of skin for somepony's amusement, she had come here to showcase all her rodeo skills. She wasn't the best at any one thing but she was among the very best in a lot of areas. Was Calamity really saying that she had the best of the best lined up in every possible place? That was ahrd to fathom. It was either that or she didn't think Applejack was as good as all her trophies and placing in national competition had shown. Her initial reaction was to shoot down the offer and get out with her dignity still intact. She might kick herself later, but Applejack's stubborn ability to not see past her face on some matters was alive and strong at that very moment.

But then the more logical side kicked in. No, this was not what she had planned for and no, she wouldn't blindly accept it. Calamity didn't want walliflowers out there during the rodeo, she wanted rough and tough and confident ponies of all types. If Applejack curtsied and acted as if this was the greatest gift ever, then she better just accept that from now until the end of time she'd be more of a professional saloon showmare than a rodeo pony. First it'd be here and then local and smaller travelling shows would bill her as that and when the time came for nationals they'd invite her to present the trophy, not compete for it. But for all that this was her chance to do something big. She'd take what she could get and fight for more and prove to Calamity that she was as deserving a spot as a hard-boiled trick-knowin' badflank of a showpony as any other.

Applejack walked past Calamity and felt the fabric for a second before turning back to her idol and returning her earlier steel-laden retort with an equally steely gaze.

"Ah'll do it, but under one condition. Ah didn't come here ta look pretty an' be a showfilly, but if you say Ah fit tha part then darn right Ah'll do it...as long as Ah'm also on tha roster as the backup for everything you know Ah can do. One of your 'best of the best' breaks a hoof, Ah'll do that part and get dressed again, but Ah need ta get out there and show what I'm capable of. You know Ah'm one of tha very best in EVERY single field, so Ah can back'm all up. You win, Ah win, tha show wins. How does that sound, pardner?"

[Bellosh]

My my, the Applejack gal sure was one to be bold. Even knew she knew, and Calamity Mane knew, that Applejack had yet to win a blue ribbon at a national rodeo competition for any event, the apple pony demanded the chance to serve as a backup cowfilly. Here was a young mare who apparently wouldn’t accept the first job Calamity threw at her; not without a price.

Here in this negotiation, a “normal” pony would have simply laughed at Applejack’s demand and declare that they’d find another pony for the showfilly role. Calamity Mare though... it was not in her blood to reject a challenge. She might be willing to grant Applejack her wish... provided the younger mare pass an oldest, time-honored test of character in Equestria’s Wild West.

A sudden coldness showed itself Calamity’s eyes, who menacingly made her way over to Applejack until the elder mare’s face glowered mere inches away from the other. As Calamity Mane learned from her fillyhood days, it sometimes wasn’t enough to judge someone’s true nature just by looking in their eyes. Only though violating the normal rules of courtesy by getting in a stranger’s face can one get a taste of whether that stranger can ultimately be counted on to have your back.

[SteelEagle]

There was no way Applejack could have expected that to work out any better than it had. Truth be told, Applejack had expected a very angry and direct response if she expected anything other than success. Instead of that, Calamity responded...unusually, to say the least. It took Applejack afew seconds to realize what was going on as Calamity's eyes grew colder and she approached without all that warmth and life that found so native a home in her eyes that it had been emblazoned into the breathing memories of anypony who had seen them. To a few other ponies this may have signified anger or triggered a sense of foreboding inside of them. It was the look of a killer, the look of a hated enemy in the depths of professionalism, willing and able to tear aside your defenses as she approached.

But it didn't Applejack too long to realize what was happening. Calamity was trying to stare Applejack down. Wow, what a very poor idea on the part of Calamity Mane. Applejack had fought Discord, Nightmare Moon, Nightmare Rarity, an army of Changelings, the Queen, Sombra, chimeras and all sorts of monsters in the REA. She lived on the edge of the Everfree. If Applejack had anything over anypony and everypony Calamity Mane would ever meet, it was experience under the gun of terror. She was steeled and hardened against all but the most cutting blows delivered by the most terrible experts of the art of fear. Applejack wouldn't ever say so, but calamity couldn't hold a candle to any of them. Of course none of them could hope to face her down in a show contest so she supposed it was even.

So Applejack responded with the cold intrusion of space with an utterly implacable facade of iron and stony sinew, her face gristled and toughened like leather as a stalk of corn escaped from her jouls to rest in her mouth like any mare of an old west picture. Her brother had so many photos of himself with stalk of corn in his teeth and she always thought it looked relatively cool, so she had one lining the inner cheek inside her mouth just in case. It fit the look a hard and steely western mare- the look she had gone for. The look she now had! “Pardner, if yer gonna make yer move...make it,” Applejack whispered cooly, her gravel-lined face moving just enough to let the words slip out. Somewhere, somepony was discovering the ecstasy of gold.

[Bellosh]

Hmmmm..... what did Calamity Mane think about Applejack as her stern gaze bore down upon the younger mare? Well, there didn’t look to be any indecisiveness in Applejack’s eyes. No sign of a nervous twitch either or other such habit, Calamity always knew when a pony was lying just by noticing subtle gestures. Come to think of it, Applejack had a superb reputation for honesty, didn’t see? And the earth pony’s posture showed that this here mare wasn’t somepony who’d cave in under scrutiny. Somepony who honored her word.

Calamity Mane got all she needed to render a final judgement. In an instant, her hardened appearance made way to sincere merriment as she gave Applejack’s hoof a very tight shake. “Heh heh, you’ve got yerself a deal partner!” Smiling wide, Calamity continued her hoofshake while fetching the contract for Applejack to sign; “Ya’ just sign here and yer’ good t’ go. Ah’m sure ya’ll do a bang-up job working for th’ best Wild West stage! We'll let ya' know when we need ya' to start practicing yer' stage routine.....”