Applejack at the Edge of the World

by MagicS

The Long Walk

“If you want to get to the Citadel of Al-Karamaretel as quickly as possible… it’s unfortunate but travel there isn’t as consistent as it used to be,” Sheriff Crater said to Applejack as they spoke inside his office. “For obvious reasons.”

“A lot of ponies have gotten the news, or gotten a clue, that there’s no reason to travel there,” Tephra added.

All of them were in the jailhouse, Tephra and Hot Magma wanting to come along to make sure Applejack got the help she deserved. It was a simple thing but it warmed Applejack’s heart that they would at least come together for this. Most of the rest of the deputies had essentially gone home or gone back to doing what they were doing before deputization. And most of the brigands had traveled back up to the mountain hideout to clean up and bring the others back to town.

Crater nodded. “There used to be regular caravans going through Fire Vent on the way not just to and from Al-Karamaretel but a number of other places west of here. Now we’re lucky to see one a month.”

“So I’m going to have to make it there on my own, that’s what you’re saying?” Applejack raised an eyebrow.

“The good news is there are still roads going directly where you need to. You wont have to forge through a jungle, or walk through a desert, or ford a river. Nothing like that. The path is laid out for you—it’s just a long one and you’ll probably spend a good deal of it on your hooves unless you get lucky with a caravan later,” Crater said.

“Which isn’t out of the question,” Tephra added. “There are still caravans and ponies traveling to the Citadel. Just not as much. A lot of ponies are going there to try and make money off the ones stuck outside it or on this side of the canyon. There’s opportunity for that. And I believe the Citadel is still paying for food and supplies to be delivered to them from elsewhere. So if you want to try for that I think I’ve got a good idea of where you want to head to.”

“I think I know what you’re getting at—Station Ponywares,” Crater said.

“That’s right,” Tephra nodded.

“Station Ponywares?” Applejack glanced between the two of them.

“It’s an outpost past the mountains to the west. Not a real town or anything, but a junction that sits right at the crossroads of two major roads that go all throughout the lands here. Caravans stop there to resupply or rest up before continuing on wherever it is they need to go. It’s one of the few places west of the river that’s still doing its normal business. What happened with Al-Karamaretel has hurt it no doubt, but not enough to make the whole place shut down,” Crater explained.

“You get there and it shouldn’t take long to join up with a caravan making its way directly to Al-Karamaretel,” Tephra said.

“Okay then, that helps. So you got a map showing me where this outpost is? What roads do I need to travel down to reach it?” Applejack asked.

“I’ve got maps here, I can draw your path out for you,” Crater said and reached into a drawer on his desk.

Applejack’s eyebrows suddenly shot up. “Wait! Hold on a second!”

The other ponies in the room looked at her, startled.

Applejack ignored that and reached into her saddlebag, fiddling around until she grabbed the journal Twilight had given her. She walked up and plopped it down on the desk, opening it up to one of its blank pages. “If it’s not too much trouble—could you draw the route out here instead?”

“Uh, I guess?” Crater shrugged.

“Thank you,” Applejack smiled.

“You’re going to have to go up and through those mountains by the way,” Tephra said while Crater got to work. “There’s a road the whole way through and all but it’s still going to be a tougher trip than just walking here from the river.”

“Aint no problem, I’m used to tough trips,” Applejack shook her head.

“If you say so. There is a mountain village up there on the way that you’ll probably want to stop and rest at. Roc’s Nest I think is the name,” Tephra said.

“I’m putting that on the map too,” Crater said.

“Alright, if it’s a far enough walk I’ll probably want to stop there for the night,” Applejack agreed.

“Speaking of that—considering how much of your day has already been taken up, do you want to stay here another night and leave in the morning?” Hot Magma asked.

Applejack smiled at her. “Thank you, but no. I’d like to get back out on the road as quickly as possible. I have my own tent and everything, as long as there’s some soft ground out there I’ll be fine. Roc’s Nest’ll be different—might be a bit worn out after walking through the mountains.”

“Well okay, I was hoping I’d get to cook for you though...” Hot Magma looked down at the floor.

“Let her go, Maggie, sounds like she’s got a lot of ground to cover still,” Tephra said, putting a hoof over his wife’s back.

“Sure do. Would like to stay and relax some more now that things are, well, a little nicer here, but I’ve got a long way to travel. Even after getting to Al-Karamaretel I’ve got a really long ways to go. Not even sure how long, but long,” Applejack sighed.

“Best of luck to you,” Hot Magma smiled.

“And to you,” Applejack tipped her hat.

“I’m finished,” Sheriff Crater said, hoofing the journal back to Applejack.

She took a look at it, seeing the right side of the page marked with an “X” labeled “Fire Vent” and a line going left (west) from it up into some hastily drawn mountains. Another X was there and labeled “Roc’s Nest” while the line continued on down through the mountains and stopped at a final X helpfully and expectantly labeled “Station Ponywares”. It wasn’t the most detailed of maps but Twilight would probably appreciate having some new knowledge like this.

“I know it looks simple but you really only have to follow the one road,” Crater said. “There will be signs and ponies who can help you in Roc’s Nest too if anything comes up.”

“This’ll do just fine, thank you,” Applejack told him.

“Guess you’ll be on your way right now?” Tephra asked.

“That’s right. And I hope you all can get along even when I’m gone,” Applejack raised an eyebrow at them.

“We will. You’ve got enough on your plate to worry about without thinking of us,” Tephra said.

“He’s right. Have a quick and safe trip. And best of luck to you when you get to Al-Karamaretel,” Crater said.

Applejack took a deep breath and put her journal away, standing tall. “I promise that well before you hear back from me—you’re going to hear good news from the west.”

---

When Applejack walked out of Fire Vent on the western road leading to the mountains, she got a friendly goodbye from Tephra, Crater, Hot Magma, and quite a few others waving her away. From then on she decided to make as speedy progress as possible so she could get to those mountains and Roc’s Nest by tomorrow. The day was still pretty hot with the sun beating down on her and there was a decent amount of humidity in the jungle she was now traveling through as well. Not the ideal conditions for a long walk but she’d been through worse. The road at least was wide open and flat and nothing obstructed her path. Ahead she could see the mountains to the west of Fire Vent. Taller, bigger, and more numerous than the ones north of the small town.

Hopefully once she passed them she was more than halfway to the Citadel of Al-Karamaretel. She hadn’t actually gotten the word on how long it would take by caravan to reach it after she got to that outpost or whatever. Oh well, ponies there would certainly know.

And hopefully the climate would get a little more temperate once she was in those mountains. Going uphill like that, the least she could ask for is that things were a bit cooler. A little company might be nice too but Applejack somehow doubted that was going to change. Not out here. She doubted she’d see anypony on the road until she got closer to that station place. If Fire Vent’s decline was anything to go by, travel really was dead out here.

It just boggled her mind. She didn’t understand why the Citadel would do something like this if in the past they had no problem letting ponies to either side of the canyon. What was in it for them? She was clueless, there was just too much she didn’t know and couldn’t know until she actually reached it. Whatever was going on there she promised to stop it too. Or at least fix it.

“Really hoping things aint too bad. Like I don’t have enough on my plate right now,” Applejack shook her head.

Applejack patted her saddlebag, no new food inside it or anything. She wouldn’t have felt right accepting any sort of gift from the ponies of Fire Vent and she wanted to save her bits for when they were absolutely necessary. Especially after learning how valuable they really were here.

Well at least she had left two at the hotel. Maybe that was all the start they needed.

If it was Pinkie Pie… she’d be throwing a party with all sorts of balloons, confetti, and cupcakes pulled from nowhere. Applejack didn’t have that luxury so it’s not like she could throw a party for a town that was economically hurting as much as theirs. Though she liked to think that she had left it with a more festive air in town. And speaking of Pinkie, Applejack knew for sure that she did make some new friends. Spreading the real Equestrian magic around was something that always came pretty easy to her.

She walked on the road for a few more hours even when the sun began to set. Not tired yet despite the busy day she had had. Perhaps everything that had happened simply invigorated her instead, but Applejack was wanting to get the most out of the rest of this big day. Since the road was just a straight path for the most part without any other roads branching off, she didn’t have to worry about getting lost even when it became darker. Sometime at night she could set up her tent under the stars—doubtful that any problem would come up before then.

Though she was a bit hungry. Had she actually eaten anything today? In all the busyness she had kind of forgotten.

The road was nothing but dirt, no grass to munch on, and she didn’t want to go exploring into the jungle to look for fruit or anything edible. She had her emergency oats and that was it. Maybe it would’ve been better to accept or buy some food from Fire Vent now that she thought about it…

Eating the oats was out of the question. Roc’s Nest wasn’t far away enough for her to need them. She’d rather go hungry for a day than lose her emergency provisions—Applejack knew the importance of keeping them. Right now she had a map to follow, she knew where she was going, and she knew how long it would take to get to the next town. That was not the kind of situation where she needed to be chowing down on her oats. She’d save them for when she was lost in the middle of nowhere.

Which was probably going to happen sooner or later knowing her.

Applejack said. “Can’t tell if it’s pessimism or if I’m just being realistic sometimes.”

A couple more hours and the sun was gone completely while the stars twinkled in the sky, the moon already haven risen to take the sun’s place. It was a clear night sky, cool, pretty, and not so dark as Applejack was worried it could get. A nice night and a nice place for camping if she was being honest.

The jungle had also thinned out and the foothills of the mountain rose up before her. Tropical plants and trees gave way to evergreens and moss covered rocks. It wasn’t easy to see in the moonlight but Applejack was pretty sure she could see the road beginning to wind up into the mountains, going up a ridge and right between the two directly in front of her.

It should be an easy trip once she woke up in the morning. Which she planned to do bright and early.

Applejack stopped in the middle of the road after a little while and took a look around before nodding to herself. “Guess this is as good a spot as any.”

She set her saddlebag down and got out the tent, with practiced ease she got her little domicile set up in record time and threw the saddlebag inside. No pillow or blanket, just like before, and the ground wasn’t exactly soft either. But for now it was as good as home. Applejack yawned, and lied down, resting her head on the saddlebag. Might as well use it for a pillow if she didn’t have a real one. She stared up at the ceiling for a minute or two instead of just trying to go to bed first—imagining the night sky through the top of the tent.

The first real problem she had faced out here in the Undiscovered West had been solved. And yet the true mission the Cutie Map had sent her on was still far from complete. And it seemed there were going to be quite a few other issues she’d have to face before her Cutie Mark would start blink, blink, blinking again and send her home.

“Least I haven’t run into any ponies trying to destroy the world yet,” Applejack shook her head at Discord’s words and finally turned over, closing her eyes and shortly later drifting off to sleep.

---

When it came down to it, Applejack was finding her walk through the mountains far better than the walk through the jungle both to and away from Fire Vent. The lack of humidity and the cool breeze in the air were pretty much completely to thank for that. It was still hot out with the sun there above her but not agonizingly so, Applejack was used to working in summer and working up a sweat, so she probably handled the heat better than the cold, but like this it was the perfect balance. The road itself was easy to walk on, being a wide gravel path that could’ve easily handled the largest of carriages. It actually made it easier for her to walk on than the simple dirt road that it had been before.

As expected she hadn’t seen a single pony the entire time either. And it didn’t look like that was going to change. Things were quiet. Real quiet. These were some lonely mountains right now, Applejack walked alongside, by, and through a dozen of them, chugging along on the one road all the way to Roc’s Nest. A few critters and some old trees growing out the sides of the mountains were her only companions.

“Roc’s Nest… Roc’s Nest… why does that word sound familiar?” Applejack muttered to herself as she walked.

She had been thinking about it for a little while now. There was something tickling her in the back of her head, something about how she should recognize what that word was. But she couldn’t for the life of her remember. That eureka moment just never came.

Applejack shrugged. If she couldn’t remember it now it couldn’t be very important at all.

The one thing that she was disappointed by so far while going through the mountains though was she still hadn’t come across any food and she was really starting to feel that hunger now. It was hard to tell exactly where Roc’s Nest was here—all she knew was that she’d arrive there “today” at this pace. If it cost her a bit or more to eat then so be it. She doubted she’d get any free food from a place that was surely suffering as much as Fire Vent. She wouldn’t want to impose on them like that anyways.

As if to punctuate her worries, her stomach groaned. Applejack frowned down at herself. “Come on now, a little hunger aint no problem. Gonna be eating by the end of the day.”

Up ahead she saw the road continued to travel on the side of the current mountain she was on for a while longer—until it came to a natural stone bridge that led onto a plateau. Then the road went from that to in-between two smaller rock formations and disappeared from Applejack’s sight. If there was a village built up here there had to be plenty of flat space somewhere. Either that or everything was braced on the side of the mountain. That’d be a weird way to live in her mind though.

“Can’t be that far now though,” Applejack said as she looked up at the sky briefly. It was still relatively early in the morning thanks to her being such an early riser. Definitely not even noon just yet. But she had made so much progress since the moment she woke up.

Once she reached the bridge she took a look off the side of it, seeing it go down probably at least a hundred feet. Travelers would’ve had to be very careful if they were making their way up to Roc’s Nest. The plateau, now that she took a closer look at it, was very level even for something that was already flat. It looked like somepony had gone through a long time ago and cleared out any rocks or other obstructions, ponies might have used it as something of a rest stop before going further.

Applejack’s nose twitched. She had the suspicion that that might mean she was actually only halfway to Roc’s Nest. If there was a place to rest in-between the bottom of the mountain and the village, it only made sense for it to be at the halfway point, right?

Applejack reached up to take her hat off, wiping away the meager amount of sweat that had gathered on her brow. “Can’t be that far now.”

Comments

[RoboRed]

Roc's Nest sort of sounds familiar but it's not reading any bells right for for me. I'm probably have to gloss through a couple of the other stories to be sure.

[redmar]

It will take a while for Applejack to reach Roc's nest. I can't say that it sounds familiar though so I've got no clue as why Applejack thinks it is.