After delivering some apples to a far away customer, Applejack gets lost on the way home.
After delivering some apples to a far away customer, Applejack gets lost on the way home. Stuck dealing with a bunch of troublesome situations and ponies she'd really rather not have to bother with, she just wishes she could find her way home and more than anything to just be able to eat an apple again.
Applejack struggled up the side of the canyon, teeth gritted and sweat dripping from her brow as her hooves found purchase on the small outcroppings or clefts in the rock wall. The orange pony continued to climb the vertical wall towards the large rock she saw jutting out of the side about halfway up. Not thinking about anything but climbing until she was able to make it to that small checkpoint and rest for a bit, Applejack willed her body on. Just a little more effort and she’d be able to relax, and effort was practically her middle name. And as that stray thought made its way into her head she couldn’t help but think-
“Wait, no, honesty is my middle na-”. Applejack stopped in mid-sentence as a rock she was using as a hold suddenly broke free from the canyon wall, leaving her stuck just barely by her back legs and spinning her forelegs around to get her balance back and keep herself from falling backwards. “Woah woah woah!”
Finally she caught herself and pressed her body back to the canyon wall. Taking a deep breath and stopping for a second to gather her wits. “Woo-wee, that was a close one.” But she knew she couldn’t stop for long, already her back legs were trembling from being stuck on the minuscule ledge she was on, she’d have to get back to moving to that big rock. It wasn’t too far away now.
“Just one hoof at a time, Applejack.” She told herself and began climbing again.
With more focus she made quick progress, coming up right below the rock and starting to shimmy around it, making sure her hat didn’t get knocked off on accident. That’d be a real trip. Make it up halfway and then having to go all the way back down just cause she dropped her hat. She bit her lip and tried to banish any thoughts like that, not keeping her mind on the climb almost made her fall off right before this. It was trouble getting on top of this darn rock though, the walls on the sides of it were too smooth and she couldn’t see any good places to hold on to. She might just have to brace her back legs and try to hook herself over it and pull herself up, but she wasn’t sure if she had enough strength left for that.
Nothing to do but to do it, she thought. Bracing herself against the cliff face she reached up with one hoof, stretching as much as she could to get it over the lip of the rock. With that one hoof up there she started to pull the rest of her body up and over. Grunting and clenching her teeth, breath coming out in sharp gusts from her nose, she managed to get her head and shoulders over the top of the rock, now using both forelegs to pull the rest of herself along with her back legs kicking at air to try and give herself the momentum she needed. Just a bit more and she could rest, just a bit more after that and she could be out of this canyon, just a bit more and she could be back on her way to Ponyville.
A final grunt of exertion left her mouth as she pulled the rest of her body onto the rock, rolling over and onto her back immediately and panting with exhaustion, Applejack took a hoof and wiped all the sweat she could from her brow. Looking up she saw the sun hanging high over head, tipping her hat to give her face some shade she closed her eyes for a second.
“I don’t need a map, when have I ever needed a map Big Mac?” Applejack recited to herself, remembering the conversation she had with her brother not long ago. “Who do you take me for? I know my way around Equestria and I can take care of myself juuuuust fine.” Applejack sighed and opened her eyes. “Bic Mac aint ever gonna let me live this one down.”
Applejack stood up and looked over the side of the rock back to the bottom of the canyon, the wagon she had taken with her for the delivery left there for whoever might come across it in the future. Nothing else to see down there so she turned her head to her next destination, the top of the canyon and hopefully something she could recognize once she was up there. It was almost unfair, she thought to herself, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could just fly around, Starlight would teleport, Twilight could do either, she somehow could see Pinkie just impossibly bouncing up the cliff without a care in the world, Rarity was just about the only one of her friends who would be worse off than her in this situation. Thinking about her prissy friend trying to scale the canyon wall got a good chuckle from Applejack. “Oh, this is the worst possible thing!” Applejack could see her saying, dirty and covered in sweat with that mane and tail she usually kept so nice being frayed and haggard.
“Heh, guess I don’t have it too bad. Hard part’s over anyways too.” Reaching a hoof up she pulled out her trusty lasso she kept under her hat and looked at her next target. A tree sitting at the top of the canyon, dead and leafless with half of its old gnarled roots hanging out in the air. Finally on top of this rock she was close enough and had the footing she needed to fire her lasso up there and around the trees trunk. Then she could easily climb up and out of this darn canyon. “I don’t need no map, Big Mac.” Applejack said to herself as she spun the lasso over her head before expertly throwing it up and around the dead tree, pulling the rope tight in her mouth the tree hardly budged at all as the rope stopped midway on the trunk. “Hot dog! I lassoed that finer than a silk sheet!” Grinning, she tugged on the rope to make sure it was secure before pulling herself up, keeping her back legs on the canyon wall so she could just half walk up it.
Slowly, she didn’t want to mess something up just cause she couldn’t be patient, she scaled the second half of the canyon. Her lasso and the tree both held firm, now the only thing bothering her was the hot sun making her sweat all over. It fell in beads from her forehead and made her hooves wet. “Could just ask Princess Celestia to make things easy for me huh?” She mused. In hindsight, it might’ve been a little smarter to wait for the sun to not be directly bearing down on her while she attempted all this grueling activity.
Applejack frowned. “Less thinking, more doing!”
She was close now, almost to the top, she didn’t need any wings or magic or anything like that. Just good ol’ fashioned muscle and determination. “You got this, sugarcube.” Applejack said to herself, the roots of the tree right in her vision. Pulling herself over and around them was easy and she could use em for footholds too.
Hugging the bottom of the tree trunk she foisted herself over the edge of the canyon, finally on top of and out of the thing. Tired and waiting to catch her bearings she looked out behind her at the landscape she had just traveled through.
Nothing.
Well, nothing notable to a lost pony at least. Numerous canyons and crags behind her, endless random rock formations that all looked the same and the low mountains that she had gone through already far off in the distance behind her. It all just made a maze to Applejack that she would have no way of backtracking through, looking at it all she thought she was lucky that she hadn’t actually gotten stuck or trapped somewhere.
“This is still Equestria aint it?” She wondered aloud, shaking her head.
Having enough of the bleakness behind her she finally decided to get a good look of what lay ahead. Hoping she’d see a town in the distance or some Equestrian Landmark she recognized. Hay, for all she knew she was just in the Macintosh Hills and she’d just look out there and see Appleloosa. Course Big Mac would probably give her an even harder time if that were the case. But no matter to that, she’d just run down there, meet up with Braeburn and have a nice hoedown with the townsponies. And all the apples she could eat, it’d been a while since she had had one.
Even more nothing.
Empty rolling hills right before her and beyond was just a featureless plain that stretched into the distance as far as she could see.
With a frowny face she usually reserved for her friends when they were being silly she stood there for a second, eyes impassively looking at the landscape in front of her, sun still high in the sky and baking her. Wiping the sweat off her brow again she just sighed. “I guess at least a little cloud cover would be too much to ask too, huh?”. Applejack just shook her head and went to untie her lasso. “Gonna be a rough walk to… wherever.” She sighed again in consternation, pulling up the rest of the rope and bundling it up, then putting it back under her-
“Huh?” Applejack patted her bare head, realizing her hat wasn’t sitting on it. “Where did ya get off to?” She looked at the ground around her before suddenly freezing. “Naw, couldn’t be.” Walking back to the edge she peered down into the canyon.
Sitting right in the middle of her abandoned wagon after floating all the way down there was her nice old stetson hat.
So much walking. The sun had gone down and come back up again. While Applejack had gotten some nice rest at night, even though it was a bit too cold, now she was overheating again and there was nowhere around to get any shade.
At least she had her hat.
For a second she thought she heard thunder in the distance, but there wasn’t a sign of storm clouds in any direction. Maybe some pegasus was messing around somewhere. A Rainbow Dash kind of pegasus that liked playing pranks on other ponies.
I’m definitely gonna have a story for everyone when I get back at least.
Applejack shook her head and continued to carry on, the dirt expanse all around her not getting any smaller. Shortly after the hills she had walked over after the canyon the grass seemed to just die out like this whole area had been hit by the biggest drought Applejack could think of. It wasn’t quite like the Badlands Applejack decided but it was still pretty desolate. The lightest wind kept kicking up dust everywhere, blowing it into her face, mane and coat. Every now and then she saw a few dust devils in the distance.
“Hope Applebloom hasn’t gotten into any trouble while I’m gone.” Applejack couldn’t help but worry for her little sister even though she’s matured quite a bit. It was just her worrying nature.
I’m being silly, Sweetie Belle and… well Big Mac and Rarity will be sure to keep her out of trouble. And she’s done so much good with all that crusading lately.
There weren’t even any flies buzzing around in this wasteland, she almost wished there were since swatting them away from her face would give her something to do and something to think about instead of just being forced to look ahead at the nothing in the distance. Maybe she should’ve just tried going back through the canyons instead of going forward. Honestly doesn’t seem like things could’ve gone worse if she did that. Well, no sense crying over spilled applesauce.
Shucks, now I just want an apple. Just one single apple.
Applejack sighed at her errant thoughts, it wasn’t doing any good to think about what she couldn’t have. Any sort of food would be unlikely right now and an apple would practically be a miracle. A big, juicy, tasty apple…
No! Keep your mind on walking Applejack! Think, Pinkie Pie would probably sing a song or play a game to pass the time. Twilight would probably be cataloging this new place she found herself in or whatnot.
The farmer chuckled to herself. “Twi would probably have a “wilderness survival” checklist to go through or something silly like that. Saddlebag, check! Canteen, check! Compass, check!” Applejack continued before slowly losing enthusiasm. “Tools… check. Spare horseshoes, uh, check. Map...”
Aw hay, now I just look silly for not having any of this stuff.
“But it was just a routine delivery!” She spoke out loud to herself. “How was I supposed to know I’d get lost. Uhh, not that I’m admitting that I’m lost. Just somewhere that looks momentarily unfamiliar. I aint lost.” Applejack frowned to herself, easily imagining Big Mac staring her down with a single raised eyebrow. “Yeah, yeah, you just laugh it up why don’t you.”
Belatedly Applejack realized she was walking on what was clearly a path. It was almost imperceptibly different from the dirt around it but it was still clearly a path. Old and well-worn but probably one that hadn’t been used in years. Applejack kept her eyes glued to it as she walked forward, this was a start at least, it meant she was definitely going somewhere and hopefully even somewhere she knew. It was certain that she wasn’t walking away from where the path started since the only thing behind here were the canyons and mountains she already traveled through. She figured there must be a town or something where the path started up ahead.
“Just gonna be a matter of time now. I’ll walk into Appleloosa or Dodge Junction looking mighty silly.” It was good to stay positive she figured.
She noticed that the path was curving slightly instead of going straightforward like she initially was. Stopping for a second and shrugging in resignation she continued to follow the path, it had to be better than just randomly going straight after all. That’s something Rainbow Dash would do.
The sun was starting to dip in the sky but there still weren’t any clouds to give her a reprieve from its harsh light just yet. She’d have to wait until it fully fell over the horizon before she could cool off.
Taking her hat off and fanning her face felt good at least.
Applejack looked up at the sky briefly. “Does she have to make it this darn hot all day? I’m frying out here. I didn’t think I was even in a place that would get this hot, it’s not even a desert either!” She kept following the path, wondering if Twilight would be offended at her complaining about Celestia’s control of the sun.
And up ahead she saw something.
It was just the smallest little dot in the distance at first but as she kept getting closer the details became easier to make out.
A signpost.
“Well I’ll be! I knew I’d find something to get me right back on track.” Not being too hasty she kept her hooves marching slowly, no sense exhausting herself when she knew the first sign of civilization was just up ahead. Civilization and some nice crisp apples too she hoped.
As she got closer to the sign she also came to notice that the path she was on split off to her right and left while also still continuing forwards, the simple signpost was stuck into the middle of where the paths intersected, and simple was putting things lightly. It looked like someone had hacked off a tree branch and just jammed it into the ground while nailing two arrow shaped pieces of wood on top. Applejack wondered how the thing hadn’t fallen over yet.
Rubbing the back of her head she kept on walking towards it, at least she could tell there was something written on the arrows, now she could find out where she was and where the closest town was. Although a quick glance to her right and left showed the same desolate nothingness all around her. Wherever she went didn’t seem like it would be too different.
After walking a bit more she had at last come to be standing before the signpost. Looking up at it to decide which direction to go now.
“Is this some sort of joke?” Applejack flatly said to herself, eyebrows knitted together.
On the arrow pointing to her right was the word “RIGHT” painted on. And the arrow pointing to her left read “LEFT”.
Applejack stood there, frowning at the sign, saying nothing, doing nothing. Half-expecting some foal to come out of a hiding spot and laugh at her confusion. She didn’t feel as mad as she should have after walking all this way and having the first pony-made thing she saw be someponies idea of a joke. It was more a feeling of “Really now?” if she could put it into words.
Again she sighed, she had been doing a lot of that lately, and just shook her head. At least she was still on this path and it definitely had to go somewhere. Now that she was standing here at the crossroads she figured she could at least look around to see if she could see anything different from here.
And to her right.
Nothing.
And to her left.
Nothing.
Looking ahead to the direction she was already going in she saw a rock about 50 feet ahead of her. That was about it.
“Well that’s just about fine by me.” Applejack walked past the signpost and bucked it lightly, making it shake in the ground. “Stupid sign.”
Nothing she could do about this. At least the sun had almost reached the edge of the horizon now, she could walk a bit further and then get some nice rest. Applejack thought that now she could even just barely see some hills far away, not a town but still something to look at besides the nothing that was all around her previously. Applejack brought a hoof to her mouth and yawned, it was such an uneventful day, and so hot, that she was already tired even though it was hours before she would normally sleep.
That stupid sign was still bugging her, it would’ve been better if there was nothing there at all.
“Hey wait a second...” A sudden thought came to Applejack and she looked back over her shoulder at the sign she was leaving behind.
On the back of the arrow that she had previously seen “RIGHT” painted on was the word “LEFT” and on the other arrow was the reverse.
With the pulverized sign now well behind her, Applejack continued on her path. She was grateful to see the landscape quickly changing before her. Grass, dried out bushes, and weeds started growing up all around her. The occasional tumbleweed rolled by in the faint breeze and the small rolling hills were a welcome distraction from the boring level walk she had been having all the way here before now.
Coming out of the hills the path ended up following along a dried up riverbed. Looking into it Applejack could tell that at most it was just a small creek even when it would’ve been at its most active, and now it was just full of dirt and rocks. Of course it could just be the dry season around here, for all she knew the river could’ve been going in full force just a few months ago. Unlikely as that seemed.
But still, seeing it gave her some hope, ponies were more likely to build settlements around water, even a dried up old creek was a good sign to her. Hay, maybe it was only dried up cause some ponies upstream damned it up or diverted it off to another point. She was sure she’d come across something now as long as she kept following the river. Whether it was an old abandoned mill, a farm, or a whole town. Applejack was sure to still think positive.
“Can’t be thinking down in the dumps.” She hummed to herself.
Course it’d have been real nice if this river was running right now, could've used a nice dip to cool off.
Applejack glanced down into the dry creek, seeing a few dead weeds and not much else.
Would’ve been a might bit too shallow to really relax though. Never thought I’d miss my trips to the spa with Rarity this much.
Upon thinking that Applejack knew that as soon as she got back home Rarity would drag her to the spa for some emergency maintenance. “Darling, you’re soooo dirty!” Applejack could imagine her saying, eyes bugging out and darting all over at Applejack’s even more unkempt than usual appearance.
“Hehe, hay, this’ll all be worth it just to see her reaction.”
And then Applejack tripped over a rock.
“Consarnit!” She yelped as she fell flat on her face, slowly getting up and rubbing the dirt off herself, cradling the hoof to make sure she didn’t twist it or anything on the rock. “Getting real tired of this place.” Wriggling her slightly reddened nose she readjusted her hat and puffed the hair out of her eyes. Getting back into routine she continued her walk down the path, keeping her eyes on where she was going instead of looking down in the creek. At least ahead of her she could still see the occasional dead tree or bush. Again she thought about Twilight and her checklist, she’d probably take detailed notes on all the various plants she saw or something like that.
Applejack started to look down at the ground morosely.
I wish at least one of em was here with me now. Knowing my luck lately the first ponies I’m gonna find are Flim and Flam.
A sudden rumbling in the distance caught her attention and her head perked up. Ears turning to the sound she recognized quite well.
“Thunder, I’m sure of it this time.” Applejack looked around, nothing above her but the sun still but off in the distance to the east she could see a darkness on the horizon. Storm clouds gathering for sure. With any luck she could get a little cloud cover if she went far enough today and hopefully avoid the worst of the rain too. It would be a nice reprieve, hay it would be the first real reprieve she’d have since the canyon.
Seems strange that there’d be a sudden storm not too far from here, this place looks like it hasn’t seen any water in a long time. Shoot, I ain’t a weather pony, where’s Rainbow Dash when ya need her.
Crackling in the distance brought her back to reality and a sudden gust blowing in her face made her dig in her hooves and hold on tight to her hat. “Well where’d all this come from?” Applejack grit her teeth and pushed herself forward through the wind, it now howling and licking at her body as she could see tumbleweeds and other twigs and bushes being blown far past her. She could even spy flashes of lightning among the dark skies she spotted earlier. Whatever else was up with that storm she knew it was a real sudden one.
Might be best to not go right that way and keep sticking along the riverbed.
The random weather continued to bother Applejack as now she had to deal with a fierce wind blowing against her and a hot sun glaring down on her back. She had just about enough of all this hooey.
“Not letting some dumb wind keep me back.” Applejack moved on, imagining competing against Rainbow Dash or showing her stuff to Rockhoof. It was easy when she thought about Dash being all smug about her having trouble with a little wind. “Don’t you be laughing at me Rainbow Dash, let’s see how you do in a wagon pulling competition or something, varmint.”
Despite having to hold a hoof in front of her eyes to block the dust swept up in her face Applejack continued to make steady progress through the windstorm.
And almost as quickly as it started the wind broke.
Applejack stared out in befuddlement, looking ahead she could see the far off storm already dissipating. The thunder and lightning was gone, the clouds clearing, and with the rays of the sun still beating down on her it was like none of it happened in the first place.
“What in tarnation is going on with the weather here? It really is like I’m not even in Equestria anymore. The weather team back in Ponyville would go into a fit if they saw this stuff going on.” Applejack just shook her head and continued on. “This is starting to drive me nuts.” Looking down at her body she saw how she was scuffed and dirty all over from the wind, her coat matted and her mane and tail frayed. Her nose still hurt a little bit from when she fell too.
Rubbing the dirt out of her hair she noticed her hoof trembling.
Huh?
No, it wasn’t her hoof or any part other part of her body that was shaking. The ground was.
“Oh, you can’t be serious right now.”
The shaking grew more violent as the earthquake went into full swing, Applejack doing all she could to remain standing as the tremors went through her body. She could feel the ground shifting back and forth, unsure if she should try and brace herself against it and fight the whole way or maybe give into it a little bit. Biting her lip in frustration at this newest mess she decided to let her anger be heard.
“Well come on then! A little shaking like this aint nothing! I’ve been through stampedes that made me bounce around more, even Applebloom could handle this! This is easier than riding a baby bull you hear me!”
Stomping hard on the vibrating ground the earthquake seemed to want to prove Applejack wrong. A sudden shift knocked her off balance and sent her careening into the dry creek.
“Ya darn-” Applejack tried yelling out as she fell in, now stuck in all the rocks and dirt that shook along with her as the earthquake went its course, able to do nothing as she was bounced and jostled around by it all.
I don’t think I deserve any of this.
Applejack walked down the path, face set in an annoyed frown ever since she dragged herself out of the creek. The earthquake had stopped a little while ago and despite being covered in a fair deal of bruises and her mane and coat full of even more dirt and dust than before she kept on going. She’d dealt with worse than this, and no, she most certainly was not kidding herself about that.
“Achoo!” Sneezing for the third time since leaving the creek she hoped she had finally gotten the last bit of dirt out of her bruised nose.
The sun had once again begun to set. Its rays now coming in sideways at Applejack, who tilted her hat to one side to keep em out of her eye. But with all she’d been through the heat from it truly wasn’t a bother to her anymore, she really just wanted to get to the end of this path and see if she could find something.
And it seemed she was close.
For the first time since the signpost she saw something else that was clearly pony made coming up. A dilapidated fence built along the edge of the path, separating it from the creek.
“Boy howdy, you’ve certainly seen better days.” Applejack said as she came up alongside the fence. “Celestia’s sake, I better be close to something now though.” She kept walking along it for a while and began to spot more signs of civilization, her farmers eyes could make out what was easily once a crop field. Looking at it and the long dead plants she’d guess it was a corn farm in the past. Definitely not enough trees for it to be an apple orchard. Shoot.
Not like that’d mean much now considering it’s all dried up.
Past the small farm was an old house on a hill that a quick couple of knocks and hello’s made her sure it was abandoned. But Applejack was hardly discouraged by this. Being able to see out far in front of her from up on the hill Applejack could easily see what was most definitely a town in the distance. She couldn’t be sure but it just felt alive to her, it didn’t look abandoned or anything like that. She just had a feeling in her stomach that it wasn’t gonna be like the old farmhouse she was at now. After trudging along all this way things had to be looking up for her. She figured the old owners of this house and farm must’ve up and left when the river dried up but that didn’t mean the whole town down there would’ve gone too.
“Some rest and relaxation coming up for me.” Applejack wiped the sweat from her brow and trotted down the hill, the sun now halfway disappeared and making her walk a good deal easier.
As she got closer to the town she noticed things getting more colorful, actual green grass was growing on the ground. Bushes with blooming flowers started to dot the landscape and she saw more than one critter scurrying around. River was still dried up but at least everything else was looking nicer.
Taking things slowly she was pretty close to the town now, and she was definitely sure ponies were still there. She could see some standing around at where the path entered into the town, maybe they saw her coming?
Best give a good first impression.
Applejack put a kind smile on her face and kept on walking. Didn’t want to seem too grungy even though she felt like it. The smile got a little tough to keep up though as she got closer and noticed how decrepit a lot of the outer buildings in the town looked. Like Ponyville there seemed to be no real layout to the place, just buildings and houses springing up wherever the were needed. But they were all made from a dull brown wood, it’s like no one around here ever heard of paint. A little more concerning was that the two ponies standing on the path at the entrance to the town were clearly guards holding crude rock-tipped spears.
Finally for the first time in days she was close enough to say hello to another pony.
“Well howdy there fellas! Name’s Applejack, I’m from Ponyville. How y’all doing? I’ve been out here for a while and sure could use some good food and a place to rest.” She greeted warmly, hoping to win them over with honest friendliness.
Not so much.
The two guards, both male earth ponies, lowered their spears at her. The one on her left, a dirt brown coat and even darker mane, narrowed his eyes and glared at her.
“And just why should we believe that and let you into our town? How do we know you aren’t with the other raiders?”
Applejack stood there flabbergasted for a second. “Uh… um, please? Eheh…” Nervously rubbing the back of her head.
The other guard, a cream colored pony with a faded orange mane, was staring off into space even though he still had his spear pointed at her. “Clod.” He spoke to the first guard. “Raiders don’t come from down this way do they? Aint they all up on the other side in the desert?”
“They can go around stupid.” The newly named Clod replied. “But...” He raised an eyebrow at Applejack, looking her over and pulling up his spear, the other following suit. “She doesn’t really seem the type really. Were there even any mares with em in the first place?”
“Don’t think so.” His friend replied.
“Don’t know how she would’ve come up from this way in the first place though. Course if she was a raider why would she just walk up to us too, not like we got a real wall keeping anypony out.” Clod strummed his chin. “Mayor would be pretty sore with us if we weren’t being hospitable and all that to a perfectly normal pony too.”
Applejack brightened up at this. “Well hay, if you want you can escort me on in and I can meet your mayor. There wasn’t nopony else around that I saw, definitely no raiders or whatcha call them. Honest I’m just traveling through on my way back home.” She said cheerfully in that honest farm girl way that only Applejack could.
The two looked to each other at this for a second. Clod seemed to be mulling it over a bit more than the other guard before finally replying to her.
“And so, this town’s name is Cross Way. Course most everypony nowadays calls it ‘Out-a-the Way’ after the river dried up.” Clod explained to Applejack as the three of them walked down the street, the other guard not making so much as a peep. “You said you were from Ponyville? Never heard of it.”
“Never heard of it? Really?” Applejack asked in surprise, eyebrow cocked.
“Well have you heard of Cross Way?” Clod asked, just shrugging.
“Well, fair point I guess.” Applejack granted, still flummoxed that somepony didn’t know Ponyville. Especially with things like the new castle and the school and the Princess of Friendship herself living there.
Taking her mind off that Applejack looked around at the town. It looked better being inside it now, ponies going about their day, sparing a glance or two at the new arrival. She couldn’t say it was as busy as Ponyville was though. And no one was selling anything in the streets either. They must’ve all just had places to grab their food like Sugarcube Corner or going out to a farm directly. The three ponies came out into a large circular area in the town, a small grassy park in the center and streets going off in every direction. Applejack spotted a group of foals playing tag as their parents chatted, preparing to round them up and take them back home since it was near dark out.
“Center of town just to let you know, in case you ever get lost. You can find your way back anywhere from here.” Clod told her.
“Thank ya kindly.” Aside from the unwelcome welcome Applejack was starting to like this town.
“We don’t really get many visitors.” The other guard said out of the blue.
Applejack turned to look at him, catching him in the middle of picking his nose and flicking it out onto the street.
Yuck.
“In fact I can’t even remember the last time a normal pony came through, what about you Clod?”
Clod grunted. “Hm, can’t say. Even before the river dried up when ponies would come through on their way to Right or Left there still weren’t a ton. Just been the occasional vagabond since.”
Applejack chose to ignore the mention of supposed towns called Right and Left. “So your river dried up? I noticed an old barren farm on the way here, you all still doing good for food?” She asked, honestly wondering how they were farming okay out here.
“Farms are to the east. The ones still producing at least. We get plenty of ground water and the random storms give us a good shower every now and then, you probably saw the one just earlier. River was more what kept travelers coming here, we do fine without it even though we can’t really expand or anything anymore. Folks are fine with that though. Cross Way is a quiet, peaceful town.” Clod suddenly grimaced, something Applejack noticed and frowned at. “Most of the time at least. But you can talk with the mayor or his son about that. We’re almost there.”
Applejack looked ahead to the end of the street, a large building taking up most of her view. It looked more like a mansion or hotel than Ponyville’s town hall. Three stories tall with large columns holding up each floor and two big oaken doors that went up almost the whole height of the building for the entrance.
Forget mansion, doors that big are like what you’d see on a castle.
The street split off to the right and left before the town hall, looking at how they curved Applejack figured they probably went all the way around and came back to the center of the town.
“So you can find the mayor in there.” Clod started up again as they got close to the building. “He won’t be busy, pretty much a ceremonial position you know? His son and daughter will probably be in there to help too. The mayor’s a bit gruff just to tell you, actually from out of town too, fell in love with a mare here and decided to settle down.”
“The accent gives away that he’s from out of town anyways.” The other guard said.
“Yeah.” Clod nodded. “If you can’t understand him don’t be afraid to ask his kids.”
“Uh, thanks for the heads up.” Applejack just went along with them. “I think I’ll be fine though, I’ve met ponies and other creatures from all over.”
“It’s more like he just randomly chooses to leave out words when talking than a real accent.” The guard whose name still eluded Applejack elaborated.
Puzzled a bit, Applejack just scratched her head.
“Anyways just go on through the doors.” Clod said, stopping right where the street stops in this direction before the grounds of the town hall. “Was nice meeting you but we should probably get back to where we were, as incredibly unlikely as it is that anything else will come through there today. Or even the rest of the year.” He spat onto the ground.
“Pleasure.” His guard buddy said and nodded to Applejack as he went walking back the way they came. Clod following behind him.
“Yeah, was a pleasure meeting you fellows as well. Thanks for helping me out.” Applejack waved goodbye to them for a bit before turning to the big doors in front of her.
Grasping one of the handles with her hoof she pulled the door open, it went surprisingly easy considering its size. Entering the building it was just as she suspected from the outside with a large atrium taking up the space right before her, a hallway to either side of her going to the right and left wings of the building, looking up she spotted what was at one time probably a fancy chandelier but was now missing most of its lights and crystals. A red-carpeted spiral staircase centered in the back wall of the atrium went up to the second and third floors with two hallways on the sides of it that Applejack figured went to the rooms in the back half of the first floor. There was no secretary or desk before her and she didn’t see any signs pointing her to where the mayor might be. Shrugging, she took a gamble and just went down the hallway to her left, hoping she’d come across somepony at least.
Well it wasn’t long before she made it to the first room over, some kind of side lobby, and spotted two new ponies. One was a grey earth pony stallion with a bushy brown mane sleeping in a chair, the other a yellow unicorn mare with a raspberry red mane sitting behind a desk filing her hooves. Applejack had to do a double take at her after noticing how much make-up she had covering her face. Even Rarity would think that was garish.
Neither of them noticed her walk into the room.
“Uh, hello? The mayor around?” She asked, awkwardly.
The mare perked up in shock instantly. Eyes going wide as she saw Applejack. Instead of replying herself she quickly grabbed a pencil holder that was on her desk and threw it at the stallion.
It hit him in the side, causing him to flail around a bit before falling to the floor, making Applejack wince. “Whuzzat? I’m up! I’m up!” He said frantically as he jumped to his hooves, looking around at what could’ve disturbed him before finally noticing the mare pointing with a scared looking face at Applejack.
Applejack, to put it simply, was flabbergasted. What in the hay was going on here?
“O-Oh!” The stallion brightened up as he began to fully grasp the situation. “A visitor, why hello! My name is Sturdy Wheel. Pardon me for asking but I don’t recognize you, are you from out of town miss-?”
“Applejack, and yeah I am.” She replied, reaching a hoof forward for him to shake. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the mare hunkering beneath her desk, eyes the only thing visible as she watched the two of them.
“Wow, that’s unusual for Cross Way.” He said smiling and shaking her hoof. She noticed his cutie mark was a wagon wheel with speed lines around it, giving it the illusion of motion.
Applejack was pleased to get such a warm welcome, even if it was only from half the ponies in the room.
“Are you the mayor?” She asked him.
“Oh no, no. I’m his son, and that.” He said pointing to the mare hiding behind her desk. “Is his daughter, my sister Fruit Basket.”
Applejack waved to Fruit Basket, who nervously waved back.
“Uhh, she talk at all?” Applejack wondered. It was strange to her that they’d have such a shy mare, one who wouldn’t even talk to strangers, at their town hall.
“No, no she does not. But she’s nice when you get to know her.” And then leaning in to whisper into Applejack’s ear. “No one has the heart to tell her about the make-up.”
Applejack also felt it was better to not mention that she had thrown a pencil holder at him to wake him up.
“Here, I’ll tell dad you’re here.” Wheel said as he walked them to a door at the back of the room with another door flanking it, Fruit Basket’s eyes followed Applejack the whole way. “This is my dads office, the other door is a restroom. Can I ask why you came to town hall in the first place?”
“Well I was just kind of brought here by two of your guards. Really for tonight I just want a nice place to rest and some food, maybe some directions later.” Applejack responded.
“Of course.” Wheel nodded along to her. He then raised one of his hooves and began knocking heavily on the door to his fathers office. “Dad! Unlock the door!”
“Quiet! Busy!” A deep voice yelled from within.
“No you’re not!” Wheel scowled. “We have a visitor, you should meet her.”
“Too late, tell to come back tomorrow!”
He talks like a Yak. Applejack thought to herself. Real set of lungs on him too.
Wheel just groaned and hung his head in shame, walking away from his father’s office with her. “Look, I’m really sorry about that. Dad’s not a bad pony or anything but he doesn’t like things off-schedule. And don’t talk about this in front of him or anything either but he’s not really officially the mayor or anything. He just started calling himself that and no one really cared enough to do anything about it. Ponies mostly get by on their own in this town, or come to me.”
Applejack took all this in tiredly. She wanted to comment on all this silliness but not nearly as much as she just wanted some food and rest.
“That’s all fine, you’ve been more than kind tonight, Sturdy Wheel, no need to go apologizing.” Applejack clapped him on the back. “I could really go for some dinner now but uh, I don’t really have any way to pay.”
Wheel simply shook his head, smiling. “Oh please, you don’t need to worry about that at all. A visitor from out of town? Haven’t had one in years, we’d be remiss if we didn’t show you just how hospitable we can be!”
“Well shucks, I really do owe you one for that. I’ve heard you have farms out east? What kind of crops you produce?”
“It’s mostly corn, we have a small orchard of cherry trees too, strawberry bushes, carrots...” He started listing off, trying to remember all the various fruits and vegetables that were grown out there.
Applejack smiled at hearing they had such a variety. “Shoot, you must have some apples too then right?”
Suddenly Sturdy Wheel stopped, turning to her with a raised eyebrow. “Huh? Apples? What are apples?”
It was like the world collapsed out from under her. She couldn’t believe what she just heard. She felt like her very existence was at stake, wondering if this is how Pinkie Pie would feel if she was told she could never throw a party again, or if Fluttershy found herself in some foreign country where there weren’t any animals, or if Rainbow Dash couldn’t fly. It didn’t matter that there was plenty of other food. How could they not have apples? How could they not even know what apples were? She jokingly wondered earlier if she was even in Equestria anymore, but now she wondered if she was even on the same planet? Was this all a cruel joke? No apples… what was going on? Applejack didn’t even realize her jaw falling open and staying there in slack shock. Her pupils constricting to pinpricks. Her knees turning to jelly.
“Uh? Hey?” Wheel said as he waved his hoof in front of her face, looking over to Fruit Basket who just shrugged her shoulders in confusion. “You alright?”
That finally snapped her out of her funk. Applejack came back to the real world, vigorously shaking her head back and forth.
“Y-Yeah… I’m doing alright. Just dealing with something I never expected.” Applejack said, with a cold sweat breaking out over her body. “I mean, you really don’t know what apples are? It’s in my name, Applejack! And look-” She said pointing to her cutie mark. “These are apples! I farm them! My whole family grows and farms them!” She spoke with exasperation, eyes darting between Wheel and Fruit Basket.
The siblings just looked at each other and shrugged.
“Sorry.” Wheel said. “But look, we should really get you some food and then I can show you to one of the spare rooms we have here. Half of this building was built as a hotel.” He reached a hoof around her shoulder and led her out the lobby.
“Yeah, thanks.” Applejack rubbed her face and went along with him.
Lying in her temporary bed that evening, stomach full for the first time in a while, Applejack restlessly stared up at the ceiling. She didn’t know where exactly she was but she knew that a place without apples, without even the knowledge of apples, wasn’t a place she wanted to be for long. Her hope of being able to sate her hunger with a perfect crisp apple was dashed. But if she was lucky somepony would be able to point her in the right direction to Ponyville tomorrow. She decided to finally try and get some real sleep and closed her eyes.
Morning came quickly. Not in the best of moods, Applejack tossed the bed covers off of her and rolled out. Leaving her room she noticed that despite the size of the building it didn’t seem like any other pony was around. But if what Sturdy Wheel said was true then she figured there wasn’t much reason for them to be either. Yawning greatly she walked down the fancy spiral staircase, so fancy it was out of place to Applejack, though she bet Rarity would think different.
Sturdy Wheel and Fruit Basket were already up, this time Applejack met them down the opposite hallway to the lobby she had first found them in last night. As Wheel had told her this was the part of the building built like a hotel and it had a nice sitting room for ponies to eat in and talk with each other. Even Applejack could appreciate that whoever did the upkeep for this place did a good job, all the chairs and carpets were spotless and the large rectangular table in the center of the room looked like it had practically just been polished.
“Morning, Miss Applejack.” Wheel greeted her with. Him sitting at the close end of the table with Fruit Basket at the far end, drinking what looked like lemonade to Applejack’s eyes.
Applejack chuckled heartily, sitting across from him. “Just Applejack is fine.”
Wheel smiled and pushed a tray of muffins toward her. “Of course. I hope we can help you out today but let’s have some breakfast first.”
A short while later and Sturdy Wheel was showing Applejack around town. Passing back through the center of town they went down a wide street that led them the opposite direction of the town hall. The buildings looked a lot nicer than most Applejack had seen in Cross Way, she spotted a nice flower store and a large outdoor cafe where many ponies had gathered for the morning. However she couldn’t help but notice the lack of trees and faint dustiness that seemed to roll in over everything, Clod said they did alright for water but it still looked like the town was halfway in a drought.
“So down this way is the school and the library and at the end of the street is our theater. Mostly it just gets used as a gathering place now.” Wheel explained to her as they walked on. “If you head down that street there.” He said pointing down a side street to their left. “You’ll find most of the houses where ponies live. Go the other way and it’ll take you to the farms eventually.”
Applejack was only half paying attention, she didn’t want to be rude but she kind of already wanted to be on her way. And the apple revelation was still eating at the back of her mind.
“I’d say to mostly stick close to the center of town, the farther away you get the worse things are. A lot of our buildings are falling apart, we’ve just had a steadily declining population for years now, lot of younger ponies just up and left over time. Can’t blame em since there really isn’t much here. But for ponies who are already settled in they like the quietness and how out of the way we are now.”
Applejack could understand that, both the feelings of the ones who left and the ones who stayed.
“Your town is nice, and you’ve all been really helpful even though the guards pointed spears in my face at first.” Wheel sheepishly rubbed the back of his head when he heard that. “But I really do want to get back on the way home, do you know where Ponyville is? The guards hadn’t heard of it.” Applejack asked, more than just a hint of hope in her voice.
Wheel stopped and put his hoof under his chin, eyes looking up thoughtfully as he racked his brain.
“Can’t say I’ve heard of it either. The only place I know how to get to from here now are the Twin Towns. Opposite direction from where you stumbled into town, back the way you came there’s nothing left.”
Applejack sighed. “Well thank ya anyways. Guess my next stop will be these Twin Towns you mentioned?”
Wheel frowned a bit. “Yeah… the problem with that is that things aren’t going so well with them, among other things. Here, let’s take a seat at the cafe and I’ll tell you about it.” He led her to the open air cafe and the two of them sat together at one of the corner tables, a waitress started to come over to see what they wanted but Wheel simply waved her away.
“So, uh, what’s up with those Twin Towns then?” Applejack asked.
Wheel chewed on his lip a second before replying. “Well, so a long time ago a group of settlers came to where the Twin Towns would eventually be built. You see it’s an area right at the edge of a mountain range with a really lush and fertile valley coming out of it. A big river comes down from a mountain lake and runs all the way through the valley. One group of settlers went up the side of the mountain and made their town there, the other group settled in the valley. The mountain ponies mined the mountain, cut down trees, and stuff like that. They made things like tools and building materials and traded it with the valley ponies. Meanwhile the valley ponies made lots of farms and orchards and gave the mountain ponies food in return. Now from what I know they had a lot less contact with each other than you’d think considering they once came from the same group, but they got along well enough. I don’t remember ever hearing about any problems at least. But...”
Always a but. Applejack thought, not wanting to interrupt.
“A few years ago the valley town had a bad harvest, don’t know why, drought I guess, so they hoarded most of what remained and what they did give to the mountain town they asked for a lot more than normal in return. Understandably that made a lot of ponies angry. And the valley ponies made plans so that if there was ever a bad harvest again that most of their produce would be totally off-limits to trading in the first place. Now the mountain ponies still had some crops of their own but not on the same level, so they weren’t starving or anything, they just needed to cut back a bit. But they still wanted to get back at the valley ponies for being “greedy”. So the mountain town constructed a dam, they closed off most of the river, reducing it to barely a tenth its previous size. So after that the valley ponies lost most of their water and their crops suffered for it. The towns have been at each others throats since. No one trading anything, both hurting for food. That’s what I’ve heard from a couple of ponies who have come from there to live here since all that trouble started.”
Applejack sat there quietly for a second, looks like things just couldn’t be simple for once. “Thanks for telling me all this but its still gotta be the next place I’m going. I’ll just have to hope things aren’t too bad there.” She shrugged.
“Yeah, sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.” Wheel sighed before glancing back at his flank. “You see my cutie mark? It’s a mark in keeping things running, making things work and staying organized. Ponies in town always come to me when they have a problem. I wish I could help you with yours.”
Applejack smiled and giggled for a second. “Aint you just the most helpful pony then? Heh, don’t worry about something like that. I know what it’s like to help out everypony that needs it and how exhausting it can be. It’s tough work and you can’t always do it on your own.”
The two of them had a short laugh over their shared experiences before Wheel spoke up again.
“So aside from the towns themselves there are a few other issues, first being that a desert separates us from them. Though it’s not too big and you can find a couple oasis's dotted throughout it.”
“Got it, thanks for the heads up.” Applejack nodded along.
“Now the biggest problem is...” Wheel frowned before continuing. “For the past year or so a group of brigands has been camped out in the desert, every now and then they come raid Cross Way. To be honest I think it’s a very dangerous idea to go through the desert a-”
Wheel stopped as a bell began to ring in the distance, Applejack heard it too, it sounded like a big clock tower bell, the same kind they had in Ponyville.
All the ponies at the cafe started to panic, gasping and screaming and running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Applejack could see many ponies in the street doing the same and the ones that owned shops were quickly locking up.
“What in the hay is going on around here? What’s that bell?” Applejack asked Wheel.
Wheel slammed a hoof down on the table in frustration. “I’m sorry you had to come here at a time like this, but that bell ringing means raiders have been spotted. I’ve got work to do.” He got up and started running east, to the farms as far as Applejack knew.
Applejack caught up with Sturdy Wheel as they darted in-between panicking ponies running all over the streets.
Geez, it’s even worse than seeing how the townsponies react when a monster comes into Ponyville.
“Hey! Sturdy Wheel, let me help too! I’ve been in more than my fair share of tussles.” Applejack said as she came up alongside him. “We’re going to the farms right?”
Wheel bit his tongue and kept looking dead ahead. “Truthfully I’d like to refuse, but we really need all the help we can get. Ponies here aren’t fighters and even our guards don’t have any real weapons or way of defending the town. And yeah, we’ve got four bell towers in town, that’s the east one ringing right now. Means the raiders are going after the farms again most likely.”
“It’s okay, I’m used to helping out all over. So who in the hay are these raiders anyways? Where’d they come from?” Applejack almost plowed into a pony pushing a cart of carrots while she was talking but a high jump over that spared them all a bit of trouble.
“Dunno exactly, I know that sometimes they attacked the Twin Towns and maybe even a few places north of there, and they’ve harassed a lot of travelers. But I don’t really know who they are aside from their leader being an earth pony called Sandstone, obviously we don’t talk with them too much. They come here to steal food, or money, or anything really.” Wheel’s face darkened. “Even kidnapped a few ponies before.”
Applejack frowned. Whoever these thugs were she was gonna let them have a piece of her mind, right after she gave em Buckin' MacGillacuddy and Kicks-Magee.
A short run later and they had made it to the edge of town where Applejack saw a multitude of ponies gathered by a large red farmhouse, mostly stallions holding the same kind of shoddy spears the guards from yesterday had.
Looking out she saw the farms she’d been told of, lots of cornstalks on the north-side and the various fruit orchards on the south. In the distance a large picket fence ran the perimeter of the farms, not anything that would stop some raiders. Beyond the fence she could see a large cloud of dust being kicked up to the north.
Getting closer by the second.
Applejack and Sturdy Wheel walked over to the group of ponies. Sturdy Wheel turned to her.
“These are our guards and some other volunteers. Not much but it’s all we’ve got.”
Applejack saw Clod and that other guard from yesterday assembled in the group. As she and Wheel got closer a large white stallion with a close cropped red mane and a plow for a cutie mark came over to them. He had enough muscle on his bones to give Big Mac a running.
“Wheel.” He nodded to him, speaking with a thick drawl. “Spring saw em coming from the tower, what do we do?”
“The guards will spread out along the northern fence. You have the rock piles ready right? We wait for them to hit the ditch and then unload on them. Hopefully they’ll just figure it isn’t worth it any more and head back soon enough.” Wheel directed while the big pony and the other guards listened in. “But we gotta keep some of us by the north side of the town too or they’ll just ignore the farms and go through there. Tomato, I want you to pick a dozen and head to the northern gate, the rest of us will stay here.”
The big pony, Tomato as Applejack now knew him, didn’t waste any time in grabbing some others and running back down another street leading out of the farms. Applejack watched as Wheel had the remaining guards spread out to the picket fence, she went along with him and now saw that a large ditch had been dug about 20 feet in front of the fence and dozens of rocks had been piled up at each post.
“Like I said, not much.” He told her.
“That’s alright, I wouldn’t really feel comfortable with a spear in my hooves anyways.” She looked down the fence line and saw that other guard from yesterday blithely waving back at her as if this was a normal day and a bunch of brigands weren’t barreling down on the town.
“This is Applejack.” Wheel said to the guards, raising his voice to introduce her to the ones further down the fence. “She’s a visitor who just came into town but she wants to help us so let’s work together to drive these raiders back!”
The guards cheered lightly and raised their spears in appreciation.
“Y'all don’t need to worry about me either, I’ve dealt with a lot worse than some jerks like this.” She said, grinning proudly. The guards around her smiled back but she could tell that a good deal of them were still afraid of the coming fight. The dust cloud was nearly here and she could hear a fierce racket start to come from it.
“The raiders ride these pedal-powered wagons and big-wheeled cycles, that’s what’s making all the dust.” Wheel told her. “We have to be careful cause they can maneuver fast, they might see us and try heading to the other side of the farm before we can regroup or go over and try and ride right into the city.”
The dust cloud was almost on them now, she heard a clattering like wagon wheels pounding the ground. A drop of sweat fell from her brow while Wheel gulped nervously.
Suddenly the raiders came into view, their vehicles bouncing over the ground and all of them hooting and hollering at the defenders.
Applejack’s eyes went wide in surprise. Not just from the unusual vehicles but from the sheer variety of creatures that made up this brigade. Diamond Dogs, Griffons, Lizard and Fishfolk, even a few cats like Capper were among them. All that weren’t steering or pedaling were waving swords and clubs, some of the more adventurous ones hanging off the sides of the wagons. A pegasus riding an over-sized and armored cycle was at the front of the ragtag army, pedaling away fast as he reached the ditch. Sturdy Wheel prepared to throw a rock at him but as soon as the pegasus hit the edge of the ditch he flapped his wings frantically to raise him and his vehicle into the sky, jumping over the ditch and heading straight on a collision course for the fence post next to Applejack and Wheel.
“Look out!” Applejack cried as the two guards standing at the post dove out of the way, the huge cycle plowing into it the next second.
The whole portion of the fence was obliterated but the cycle and rider continued to crash and roll across the ground, the pegasus getting knocked out of his vehicle and falling hard into the cornstalks. Applejack was pretty sure he just took himself out of the fight.
What a bunch of nutjobs.
Still there was now a breach in their already useless for defense fence, and the guards and rock pile there were now in disarray while the rest of the raiders had made it to the ditch.
“Attack!” Wheel shouted as he and the other guards began chucking rocks.
Two large Diamond Dogs simply got out from behind one of the wagons and laid down over the ditch, not minding the rocks pelting them. Holding onto the edges with their hands and feet they made a “bridge” and waited for their comrades to drive right over them.
“Are ya serious?” Applejack couldn’t help but say, watching the absurd affair.
But it worked, the dogs somehow held up the weight of the wagons and cycles riding on their backs, when the first group made it over the ditch they began coming for the fence again. Two big cycles to the side of one wagon led the front with more coming to the ditch from behind.
“Fall back to the farmhouse!” Wheel yelled out to the guards. “We’ll just get trampled if we stay!”
“Hold on!” Applejack responded, taking her lasso out from under her hat and spinning it overhead.
Eyeing her target she threw it over to the cycle on the left of the wagon, her aim perfect she pulled the rope taut, lassoing the rider and the handlebars all at once. Yanking hard, Applejack pulled the cycle into the path of the wagon.
The creatures all aboard shouted as the cycle slammed into it, smashing the front wheel it hit and causing it to crash onto the ground, flipping end over end and taking out the other cycle on the side as the Diamond Dogs, Griffon’s and all the others dove out of it to safety. The other wagons and vehicles behind it screeched to a halt so they wouldn’t become part of the wreck too.
“Yee-haw! Now that was some fine lassoing wasn’t it?” Applejack pumped her hooves at the job well done.
The guards and Wheel, momentarily stunned at what happened, snapped back to reality and began pelting the raiders that had ditched the wagon. The griffons just flew off, and the others ran into and past the ditch covering their heads while the other wagons and cycles chose to turn around and leave, not wanting to take the risk and carry on.
Good riddance. She thought and pulled her lasso back from the fallen cycle.
“That’ll teach em for now at least. Normally they wouldn’t give up so easily but you really got em good.” Wheel beamed at her. “So, uh, you keep a lasso under your hat?”
“Where else would I keep it?” Applejack plainly said back to him as if he asked her if she drank water.
“Fair enough.” He just shrugged. “That was great though, I’ll have someone go find that pegasus who went flying into the cornstalks and tie him up. We made a jail about a year ago in case we caught any of these fellows.”
“I wasn’t expecting them to be so wild.” Applejack looked out at the wrecked vehicles. “What a bunch of varmints.”
“Yeah they were being even noisier than normal, you know-”
Wheel didn’t get to finish his sentence as a bell started ringing again in the distance. He and all the other ponies looked around in surprise. Before they could act a pink pegasus mare came flying down to the ground at high speed, landing in front of Wheel and Applejack and breathing heavily like she just pushed herself to exhaustion to get here as fast as possible.
“Spring!” Wheel said to her. “What’s going on? Why’s the west bell ringing?”
The pegasus, Spring, caught her breath for a second before replying. “They were… hiding in the riverbed… Dusty couldn’t see them. Sandstone and the rest are already in the west side of town.”
The guards started panicking and yelling amongst each other. Applejack heard more than one or two say something about family being over there. Wheel’s mouth as well opened in shock before he caught himself. Turning to Applejack and the assembled guards he waved them to all come together and follow him as he ran down the street he and Applejack initially came in on.
“Come on everypony! We’ve gotta move as fast as we can. Don’t panic now, we can still make it!”
Applejack saw smoke rising in the distance. She and the others were almost to the chaos, they had seen enough ponies running away and heard enough screaming to know they were close.
Turning a corner they came upon a group of ponies being corralled by some Lizardfolk. Applejack sprung into action and smashed into the back of the nearest lizard, Wheel coming up behind her to kick him in the head and knock him out. The other lizards gave up on the civilian ponies and turned to fight the newcomers, one of them whistled loudly, surely to alert their comrades that the guards had come.
A melee began as all the guards fell on the Lizardfolk, spears clashing with swords and clubs, Applejack darting in and out of little fights, giving a well placed buck when she could. She saw Wheel pick up the club of the fallen Lizardfolk and charge at the rest while the remaining townsponies all scurried away. Things were going well for the guards who outnumbered their foes by a wide margin but soon enough the raider’s reinforcements came. A group of Diamond Dogs, ponies and griffons entered the fight, Applejack saw a dog pick up one of the guards and throw him over his head where a griffon pounced on him. A strike from a club nailed Applejack in the side but her return buck smashed the offending Diamond Dog into the wall of a street side store, hitting it so hard he was left stuck in it. She saw a griffon trying to fly down on top of Wheel so she jumped up and headbutted him in the stomach causing him to collapse back into the maddened crowd.
A cloud of dust filled the street as the brawl continued, it was hard to tell who was even fighting who at this point but the guards still had the numbers advantage and Applejack had taken down a number of raiders already on her own. She and Wheel found themselves fighting a pair of fat Fishfolk when a booming voice called out across the street.
“You can all stop right there!”
The raiders fighting all stopped, retreating from the messy brawl and heading towards the voice. The guards, Wheel and Applejack formed up and looked towards the source of the voice.
A tan, eyepatch wearing, earth pony with an orange and black striped mane tied back in a ponytail stood in the middle of the street. He sneered at them and spat on the ground.
“Still doing this, Wheel?” He asked, looking like he was having trouble holding in laughter.
“Shut up.” Wheel replied, angrily. Applejack saw an intense look on his face that she hadn’t seen before, she had seen him frustrated but now it was like he was staring down the biggest scum on the planet. It was obvious to her who this pony was. “Why don’t you and your goons just leave us alone?”
“Oh? Why don’t you all just listen to us?” Sandstone grinned widely and started looking around at the buildings surrounding them. Following his eyes Applejack saw that quite a few of them still had ponies hiding in them, watching the whole fight and the confrontation now. “I’ve sent plenty of letters and messages to Sturdy Wheel and his father.” He spoke, addressing all the townsponies around. “Me and my friends just want a nice peaceful place to live. We’ve been roughing it all over and we finally heard about a quiet out of the way place where we could settle down. All we wanted was to live here too.” He finished, grin going even wider. Applejack could see a lot of the civilian ponies and even a few guards muttering to each other.
“Ugh, don’t listen to this guy!” Wheel shouted to everyone. “The first thing they did was attack us and when they realized they couldn’t just push us around he came to my dad and said they’d stop if we gave them the farms and the east side of town! My dad refused and you know how it’s been since, don’t forget all the awful stuff they’ve done.”
“Oh please, we just want a home. You’re only forcing us to do awful stuff, like this.” Sandstone gestured behind him and a Lizardfolk came out from the ranks of his underlings holding a lime-green earth pony mare, scared out of her wits with tears running down her cheeks.
Applejack gritted her teeth and felt her face flush in anger, it took all she had not to just run down there and beat the hay out of all of them.
Sandstone aint paying attention to me though. Applejack noticed as he was keeping his eyes firmly on Sturdy Wheel, a plan brewing in her mind.
“Let her go Sandstone!” Wheel yelled at him, the guards standing behind him with their spears pointed at the raiders.
“Uh, no?” Sandstone mocked him. “What’s going to happen now is that you let us take all we want today, we wont hurt her if you do, then we take her with us and tomorrow we can all sit down for another talk. How about that?”
“My dad’s not gonna let you just do whatever you want with this town, and none of the ponies here will just let you walk all over and terrorize them either.” Wheel replied.
“I think they will after they see what happens to her.” He nodded back at the mare. “And you can’t tell me they’re not all tired from this?”
Wheel growled under his breath and was about to reply when a lasso suddenly shot past his head.
Catching everyone off guard the quick lasso found its way around the lime green mare’s hoof before Applejack pulled it tight and tugged on it hard, the Lizardfolk squawked in surprise at the sudden forceful pull and the lime green mare was dragged right out of his grasp. Applejack pulling her all the way to herself in one quick motion.
“Ya alright, miss?” Applejack said to the crying mare as she held her in her hooves.
Shocked by what just happened she nodded simply at her savior. “Uh… uh-huh...”
Sandstone looked dumbly between the Lizardfolk and Applejack, jaws and eyes open wider than a yawning lion. “Buh... wha… huh?”
Wheel and the guards also just looked flabbergasted. But a smile quickly broke out on Wheel’s face and he turned back to smugly grin at Sandstone.
“You were saying?”
Sandstone’s face was so red he looked like he might explode. “You’ve done it now kid, we’ll be back soon. And you just made the wrong pony your enemy, missy.” He said as he glared at Applejack. But for now it was just hot air as he and the other raiders turned tail and ran off down the street on their way out of town. Sturdy Wheel keeping the guards from chasing so they could tend to things here.
Applejack wasn’t worried and just watched them leave, carefully depositing the shaken mare on the ground. “Think ya got that backwards, pal.” She mumbled to herself.
An unruly crowd had gathered at the intersection in front of town hall the next day. Applejack saw many of the ponies that had been watching the big fight were there, mixed in with a number of guards that Applejack recognized and a lot of elderly ponies that Applejack hadn’t seen before.
After the fight had dispersed yesterday, Wheel had the guards clean up. The smoke they had seen came from a torch thrown into a cart hauling carrots so thankfully no buildings were lost. Tomato and his group ended up going back to the farms to repair the fence and take care of all the wrecked vehicles. Now Applejack stood inside town hall, watching from a window as fed up ponies gathered to air their grievances with the mayor and Sturdy Wheel.
Heading to the lobby she saw Wheel nervously pacing around while Fruit Basket watched.
“At least they aren’t rushing in here.” Applejack said to get their attention.
Wheel stopped and looked at her, dismay written all over his face. “Everyone’s angry, we almost had another kidnapping, the ponies are tired of this. You can see out there we’ve got a lot of old folks who don’t want to be dragged into a big fight. Parents too who don’t want their foals in danger.”
Applejack just sighed and walked up to him, putting a hoof on his shoulder. “How come you didn’t tell me about Sandstone’s demands? You said you didn’t know much about the raiders.”
“I didn’t want it to get out that he offered a “peaceful” solution. I didn’t want ponies to think we were just being stubborn or that things might be better if we just capitulated to him.” Wheel frowned. “Also I did just meet you two days ago.”
“Hehe, guess so. I like to think I’m a pretty trustworthy pony though.” She winked at him. “And I’m not from around here.” Applejack gave him a sad smile as she continued. “I can already tell that you’re the type who likes to take everything on his shoulders, believe me you need to let others help you out. I learned that lesson a long time ago. You’ve got friends here don’t you? Tomato, Spring, your sister right?”
Wheel smiled in response. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. Thank you.”
Suddenly a loud crash sounded throughout the lobby as the door to the mayor’s office slammed open and the three ponies in the lobby turned their heads to see the commotion.
“Ruckus! As if the first time something bad has happened to them!”
The fattest stallion Applejack had ever seen waddled his way out of the office, sucking in his gut to make it through the door frame. Grey coated with a bald head but a huge bushy brown beard, despite his size it was easy for her to see the family resemblance to Sturdy Wheel. Fruit Basket obviously took after her mother, something she must be quite thankful for. The mayor swayed with each step as he walked over to Applejack and Wheel, she noticed that although he was very wide he was only slightly taller than she was, and he carried a well-worn grumpy look on his face that made her think he probably even slept wearing a frown.
“Hi dad.” Wheel said exasperatedly. Face a perfect example of being too occupied with something more important to care.
Applejack raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. “Do ya sleep in there or something?”
The mayor turned his face to look at her, big eyeballs staring her down. “New visiting pony, welcome to our town! And yes!”
“Riiight...” Applejack said, backing up a step or two.
Wheel just shook his head. “Well now that you’ve formally met, Applejack this is my dad Hard Head.”
“Pleasure!” Hard Head bellowed out and reach a hoof forward for her.
“The same.” Applejack replied gingerly, eyebrows scrunched up as she shook hooves with the mayor.
Hard Head went to look out the lobby window, seeing the large crowd that gathered before the town hall. Blowing air out of his nose he turned back to his son. “You tell them that Sandstone gets nothing. We give nothing. They can’t come in to town. Ponies like that no good. Scaredy cats out there need sense knocked into them!”
Applejack found herself nodding along with him a little, even though she would’ve been a little less rough about things. She knew most ponies out there were probably just scared, and for good reason, but she also knew you couldn’t just give in to ponies like Sandstone. Give em an inch and they’ll take a mile, Granny Smith taught her that. She had no doubts that if the town just gave up it would very quickly stop being the quiet and peaceful place that they all liked it for in the first place.
“They’re angry dad. They think this could’ve all been avoided and that we’ve been lying to them. Even some of the guards are upset about it.” Wheel sighed and went to take a seat in one of the lobbies chairs. “I’m worried that things have gotten too out of hoof, that no pony out there will listen to us, and Sandstone said they’d be back soon so we really shouldn’t even be arguing about things like this.”
“What kind of talk is that?” Applejack said to him sharply, causing the three family members to look at her. “Sometimes you just need to up and do something even if it’s trouble. And I told you it’s not like you’re alone, I’ll help you out gladly. You and the others in this town were still kind enough to help out a complete stranger even though you’re under attack by all them fellows. I owe ya.”
“Haha! Listen to visitor pony! More sense than son!” Hard Head laughed grandly, trotting to Applejack’s side and slapping her on the back.
Wheel looked between the two of them and to his sister who was nodding along with a big smile on her face.
He got back off the couch and began walking out the hallway to the atrium. “Alright, alright, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Not a time for moping.” Steeling himself and carrying a focused look in his eyes Sturdy Wheel approached the door.
Applejack followed close behind him, ready to give her two bits to the crowd if need be.
Pushing open the door the two of them went out to face the crowd.
“Oh, finally decide to grace us with your presence?” An elderly grey maned and blue coated stallion sarcastically asked Wheel. “Lucky we had the common decency to not go in and drag you out, sonny.” A few of the other old ponies started grumbling at that, clearly agitated at Wheel staying inside for so long.
“Look everypony, I know you’re upset but I want you to calm down and listen to reason. You can’t just buy into what Sandstone says, you all know what he was prepared to do to Bouquet yesterday.” Wheel said as he surveyed the crowd, holding his hooves out for silence.
Applejack figured Bouquet was that lime-green mare she rescued yesterday. She could see some of the ponies in the crowd mumble their assent and nodding to each other, acknowledging the truth in Wheel’s words. They were mostly the few guards that had gathered though.
“Feh!” The same elderly stallion that had first spoken spat. “None of this would be happening if you and your darn father told us about what was going on in the first place! You didn’t even let us talk about it!”
“That’s right!” A guard Applejack recognized from their defense of the farms yesterday said as he walked forward. “And I’m tired of all this! Some of us could’ve died yesterday!”
Shouts and accusations started flying from the crowd. Wheel tried to get them to be silent so he could speak some more but they weren’t giving him an opportunity. Applejack could see Clod and his cream colored partner whose name she still didn’t know in the crowd trying to calm down some of their fellow guards to no avail. Things were getting a might bit hairy for Applejack’s taste and as she looked beside her she could see the sweat rolling down Wheel’s face, he was trying his hardest but things were getting out of control as more and more ponies shouted over each other.
“I just want my foals to be safe!”
“Just let them have some of the south side of town!”
“Let’s throw the mayor out and tell Sandstone he’s gone!”
“Forget it all, just throw down our weapons and hope they aint too bad.”
This place is turning into a powder keg with a short fuse. Applejack thought to herself. Something would need to be done.
Wheel was nervously stepping back from the crowd of ponies as they encroached on him. The elderly stallion flanked by a pair of irate guards.
“Enough!”
The shout wasn’t enough to get everypony’s attention but what followed right after it was. Applejack balanced on her forelegs, raised her hind legs up, and slammed them as hard as she could into the ground. A shockwave sent through the ground made everypony nearby feel like an explosion just went off right next to them. Town hall shook briefly and its windows rattled, more than a few elderly ponies and even some of the sturdier guards simply fell over from Applejack’s powerful ground buck. If she had been standing on stone instead of dirt she would’ve smashed it like glass.
“Yer all acting like a right bunch of fools!” She told the assembled ponies, glaring at the ones who tried accosting Sturdy Wheel.
The elderly stallion just stared at her with a confused look on his face. “Uhh… who are you?”
“Oh, uh, I’m Applejack. I’m from out of town, hehe.” She replied, grinning and rubbing the back of her head.
“Well forgive me, but I don’t give a wooden bit about what some outsider thinks!” He yelled at her.
Applejack frowned but didn’t let him rile her up. “But it’s because I’m an outside that you should all listen to me right now!”
At that many of the ponies in the crowd started murmuring in confusion, wondering what the hay she was talking about. Applejack took that moment to place herself in-between Sturdy Wheel and the other ponies, standing as tall and proud as she could.
“I’ve only just gotten here but I’ve already seen how bad a pony Sandstone is. All it took was meeting him once! And I’ve also seen how good of a fellow Sturdy Wheel is and even though he was a bit gruff I think the mayor really wants the best for you all too. And believe me when I say I’ve fought a lot of villains, I wish there was a peaceful solution all the time but sometimes you gotta fight. It just can’t be helped. If you show weakness to a bully like Sandstone you’re inviting him to do anything, he won’t stop at just one little thing or one little portion of the town. You’re all gonna be in trouble. This isn’t a problem you can just wish away either.”
The guards before her were cowed by her speech, lowering their heads and backing off in embarrassment. The elderly pony too rubbed his chin and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something before closing it and backing away.
A lone mare with a troubled face took the moment to speak up. “But what if they really get mad next time! They’ve just been raiding us for food mostly but Sandstone really seemed angry yesterday after you rescued Bouquet. I’m scared for my babies!”
Applejack looked at her with a sympathetic face. “I know, it’s scary, I’ve lost ponies close to me in the past and it hurts.” She said as she raised a hoof to her heart. “But please, believe me and Wheel when we say that doing nothing or rolling over is gonna make things a lot worse.”
“I agree with Applejack!” A voice from the back of the crowd shouted.
The crowd turned to the speaker and Applejack looked past them to see Clod.
“Soda and I were the first to meet her, she only just came into town two days ago. But yesterday she was willing to throw herself into danger to protect us from the raiders. She put herself in harms way just to protect some strangers and some town she’s never been to, when she could’ve just gone on her way. No normal pony does that kind of thing! She’s a good pony and I trust her!” He said, stamping the ground for emphasis.
The other guards stomped their hooves along with him, most of the rest of the crowd perking up at what Clod had said.
“But… but still.”
Applejack turned to see the elderly stallion speaking up again, but with a more dejected look this time.
“They’re dangerous, and even our “guards” aren’t really fighters or anything. We don’t have a way to really defend ourselves and what if they start setting buildings on fire next time instead of just carts?”
Keeping her face even and eyes filled with strength Applejack went over to him and rested a hoof on his shoulder.
“I’ll be here. If it comes down to it I’ll even deal with Sandstone personally. Clod’s right, this aint my home and I could just leave. But I won’t. Not until I’ve helped you all through this.”
“I’ll keep fighting too.” Wheel said as he came up beside her.
The stallion looked between the two of them and quietly nodded, then turned around and headed back through the crowd. The rest of the ponies slowly dispersed with him, some still upset or angry but not willing to continue the argument. Applejack saw the frightened mare trembling with watery eyes as she walked away.
I hope I wasn’t just blowing hot air.
The guards ended up being the only ponies remaining at the intersection, even the ones who had been angry and moved against Wheel, waiting for anything else Wheel or Applejack might have to say.
Taking a look over the ponies before him, Wheel spoke up. “Alright, I want somepony to gather up all the rest of the guards besides those on watch and bring them back here. It’s time to start preparing.”
The guards were all now assembled in the large atrium of town hall. Applejack saw Clod, Tomato, and could happily name Soda now, Spring was missing so she figured she must’ve been one of the guards on watch. All in all there was only about 50 of them. Outside the sun hung high in the sky, its sweltering heat covering the town.
Wheel stood before them all with Applejack and Hard Head at his side. Taking a moment to survey the towns fighting force before speaking.
“Alright. I know a lot of us are worried about what might come next. So am I. But like Applejack said sometimes you’re in a situation where you’ve just got to fight. None of us are real soldiers or anything but you all became guards because you wanted to protect this town from Sandstone. So that’s what we’re going to do, right?”
The guards all stomped their hooves in unison, showing their support.
“Thank you. Sandstone seemed angrier than usual after what happened yesterday, I don’t think he likes getting shown up like that, he might really try something big next time cause he’s probably just as tired of the way things are going as we all are. We need to be as ready as possible for the next attack.” Wheel stopped momentarily to let this all sink in, taking the time to look at how the guards were processing it.
Finally his eyes landed on Tomato. “Tomato, I want you to get everyone into groups and spread them on the outskirts of town. We don’t want a repeat of yesterday with them coming up from somewhere the watchers couldn’t see from the bell towers. And for now everyone needs to consider themselves on perpetual duty until Sandstone is dealt with. Sorry if you have other obligations.”
Tomato and the others nodded their heads, accepting his orders.
“Good, I’m also going to go around and ask for any volunteers. It’s unlikely we’ll get any more than usual, in fact we’ll probably get less after yesterday, but we need all the help we can get. That’s all I have to say, Sandstone said they’d be back soon and I believe him, let’s get to work. Dismissed!” Wheel stamped his hoof once and went back to talk to Hard Head while Tomato began organizing the guards.
Having not much to do Applejack kind of just stood off to the side.
Until four of the guards tomato had been directing came up to her.
“Um, miss Applejack?” The lead guard asked, a dark yellow earth pony with an unkempt brown mane and one of the ones who had been with the elderly stallion as they almost accosted Sturdy Wheel just earlier. In fact as she looked over the group she noticed they were all guards that had not exactly been happy at that meeting.
“What can I do you for?” She responded, eyebrow raised but still polite. She knew there was no sense in being angry at these fellows.
“Well, I wanted to apologize on behalf of us all, and thank you for getting us back to our senses. We know good and well that we can’t just roll over for Sandstone but we let our fear get the better of us.” He wrung his hooves together nervously. “So I just wanted to say that we’ve got your back out there.”
Applejack smiled brightly at him. “Well shucks, thank you. And you really didn’t need to apologize, I know how it is. What’s all your names then? I’d like to get to know you better before things get all crazy around here.”
The lead guard smiled happily to her. “Oh, I’m Cornstalk.”
“I’m Weathermane.” The only pegasus in the group, a lithe stallion with a sky blue coat and white mane introduced himself to her.
“Keg.” A burly earth pony stallion with big buck teeth supplied. He had a yellowish-brown coat and a black mane that looked like he combed it with a lawnmower.
“Evergreen.” The final one told her, a lanky stallion with a sickly green colored coat and a deeper green mane that hung straight over his right eye.
“Pleasure to meet you all.” Applejack said warmly, and meant it.
“Well, t-that’s about all we wanted to say.” Cornstalk nervously got out, blushing a fair bit to Applejack’s confusion. “Hope everything goes well, thanks for helping us, and our town.” He waved goodbye and turned to leave with the other three, Applejack saw them grinning and giggling at him for some reason.
Nice fellows but a bit strange.
Later that evening the patrols had all been sent out, Luna’s moon was in the sky and Wheel was taking no risks, the raiders hadn’t attacked at night before but he figured Sandstone might try something special after what happened yesterday.
Applejack was still in town hall holding down the fort until needed. Wheel had ran around town looking for anypony that would help out the guards and was now relaxing in his chair. Fruit Basket lay sprawled out asleep on the floor, reminding Applejack of Winona after a run more than anything. Hard Head was pacing around and grumbling about not enough ponies willing to help out. Despite the situation Applejack couldn’t help but smile at the scene, family working together, family that cared about each other and their town. Something reminding her of home was a pretty nice feeling to have when you were so far away from it.
It was then that Applejack realized that when everything was back to normal she’d really love to come back here and see her new friends again. Only next time she’d bring a cart full of apples with her.
“Maybe I should’ve tried sleeping some.” Wheel suddenly spoke up. “If they do attack in the night I’m gonna be exhausted.”
“Too late now.” Hard Head replied, stopping his pacing to talk to his son. “Drink coffee, stay awake.” He pointed down the hallway to the sitting room.
Wheel just sighed and did as his father directed. Fruit Basket sneezed in her sleep and turned over, legs kicking at air like she was running in a dream, the silliness of it all making Applejack shake her head.
Hard Head came up to Applejack. “You very good pony. Town owe you.”
Applejack was surprised at his words and she quickly waved her hooves in front of her. “No, no way, if anything I owe you all for helping me out when I was lost. Not everywhere would just let me in and give me a nice place to rest and eat for no charge.”
Hard Head just kept the same frown that she figured must’ve been carved onto his farce. “Visitor already pay that back and more. Already done more good for us! Hospitality normal! Fighting violent creatures not normal!”
Applejack really didn’t want anypony to feel indebted to her, it was more than good enough if she could just help some ponies out.
“Find suitable thank you for you after Sandstone gone.” Hard Head told her and then waddled into his office, slamming the door loudly and startling Fruit Basket awake.
The quiet, skittish, pony jumped up and looked around in surprise before her eyes settled on Applejack. Smile forming under her thick make-up and with a vacant stare she gave a polite wave that Applejack returned with an uneasy grin and small wave of her own.
Strange fellows all around.
A few minutes later Wheel walked back into the lobby, holding a cup of coffee.
“If you want any I left the kettle on.” He said to his sister and Applejack.
Fruit Basket quickly trotted out of the room but Applejack just shook her head.
“None for me. I’m already more wound up than a ball of rattlesnakes. Night’s still young, anything could still happen.” She said as she went into the hallway to look out one of the windows.
The town was dark but still lit up well enough by the stars and moon and some lanterns that ponies put up at some of the street corners. Looking to her left she could see the east bell tower, the farms not too far beyond it. To her right she saw a group of kids running around in the street playing some game, their parents probably had no idea. She knew the theater and school were down that way too from what Wheel told her. Ahead of her was the road that would lead straight back to the center of town, funny that despite getting good directions on things from the ponies here she’d still spent almost all her time in town hall or fighting. If things weren’t so hectic she would’ve liked to take a nice walk through town. Maybe actually visit the theater too and see what they were doing.
BOOOONG!!
Applejack’s eyes opened wide and she heard a crash as behind her Sturdy Wheel dropped his coffee mug on the floor.
BOOOONG!!
The loud bell rang out again and the two ponies turned to look at each other, Applejack’s eyes narrowed in resolve.
“It’s the northern bell tower.” Wheel said, face turning to steel determination. “Let’s go.”
The two ponies raced to the northern edge of town, thanks to it already being night out this time most every other pony was already in their home. Applejack could see they were getting closer to the towns limits as they started to pass some abandoned and boarded up buildings. The one thing she was thankful for as she ran down the street with Wheel was that it was a lot cooler under Luna’s moon than Celestia’s Sun.
Up ahead she saw a large crowd gathered, definitely the guards, Clod, Tomato, Cornstalk and the others were there. Even Spring this time.
“Looks like about half the guards and volunteers I scrounged up are here already. Everypony else must still be coming from farther in town.” Wheel said to her.
He and Applejack made it to the meeting place. It looked like there used to be something like an actual gatehouse and the start of a stone wall at the north side of town but it was either never completed or had fallen into disrepair. There was no gate at all and the wall fell apart only about 50 feet out in both directions from the building. The street leading into town from the gatehouse widened into a large circular intersection that multiple smaller streets branched off from. The guards had all been gathering there.
Upon seeing Wheel and Applejack arrive Spring stepped forward to fill them in.
“Heya boss, Thunderbolt saw them coming so we came here. He went to grab Dusty and Cool Wind too.”
“Is it okay that everypony’s gathering here? What if they’re making another distraction or doing some kind of surprise attack?” Applejack asked Spring and Wheel.
“Oh you don’t have to worry about that.” Tomato said as he walked up to them. Taking his big hoof he pointed past the guards and out the gatehouse, Applejack and Sturdy Wheel following his gesture.
She could see the torches they carried.
Dots of fire in the darkness spread out in the desert outside of town, slowly approaching closer. With their light and the light of the moon, Applejack could see there were a lot more than just those who attacked the farm or went inside the town yesterday. She heard Wheel gulp and glanced to her side, seeing the uncertain grimace on his face and the sweat on his brow.
“I guess they’re done playing around.” He said. “They don’t care how bad things might get now.”
“Thunderbolt could see from the torches and size of their shadow that they were bringing everyone right here, that’s why he went to grab the others on watch.” Spring explained. “You can see they’ve got all their wagons too.”
“We can’t really garrison the old gatehouse or anything, they can just go around and torch other buildings or even the farms.” Tomato said. “We have to be able to meet em and stay mobile or they’ll just run ramshackle over the whole town.”
“I’m a lot more of a doer than a thinker myself.” Applejack chimed in. “But I don’t know if we can just charge em straightforward like that.”
Wheel brought his hoof to his chin, trying to think. “I still don’t think Sandstone actually wants to torch the whole town and certainly not the farms, not unless things go really bad for them, he’s probably gonna come around yelling demands or something and try to scare us. He also probably thinks he has a bigger numbers advantage than he does. Or that the town’s a lot angrier at me and my dad. I think he might try to just walk in here, we can have the volunteers I rounded up hide in the abandoned buildings on the street so he thinks the normal guards are the only ones here. When he tries to negotiate with us we can just refuse until he blows his stack and attacks, then we can collapse on them from all sides. If we can surround Sandstone and keep him from escaping we can finally put an end to this, some of them might try torching the buildings here but so what? Nearly this whole area is abandoned. They might have a numbers advantage but we have the element of surprise and we can take out their leader right at the start if we play it right.” Wheel perked his head up, looking at Applejack and his two guards with a confident smirk. “Sound good?”
“Heh, for a second there I thought I might have had to give you another pep talk. But you got it together just fine.” Applejack said as she playfully cuffed him on the shoulder.
Just then three pegasi landed by them. Applejack also looked down the various streets to see a few more stragglers making it. Most every guard was probably there by now.
“Got everypony coming here.” A silver stallion with a swept back electric blue mane announced to Wheel and the others. When he noticed Applejack was there he nodded to her. “Hi, I’m Thunderbolt. You must be Applejack? Pleasure to meet you.”
"Pleasure’s all mine.” Applejack said and nodded to the other two pegasi. One a deep violet stallion with a black mane and the other a rust colored stallion with his copper mane done in a mohawk.
Wheel didn’t wait for any new conversations to start up as he pushed Spring towards the new arrivals. “Catch them up on what we’re doing. Tomato, I want you to get all the regular guards together in the back half of the circle. I’m going to tell the volunteers what we’re doing and have them hide, I’ll come up with a signal or code word for when it’s time for them to come out and attack.”
Tomato nodded and hurried off to organize the guards.
Wheel then turned to Applejack.
“And when everyone’s in place I want you front and center with me. We’ll deal with Sandstone.”
The raiders marched into town unhurried.
Ponies, Lizardfolk, Diamond Dogs, Cats, Griffons, they all came like a mob. Some carrying torches, others clubs and swords. They crowded through the gatehouse or climbed over its walls, some of the creatures on the outside of the group simply walked around it all together. They seemed unafraid, thinking that they were just finally dealing with a bunch of annoying ponies that couldn’t even put up a real fight. They were happy that they would get the chance to pay them back for the humiliation yesterday and all the previous times they were driven off. It was no more fooling around, no taking things easy because Sandstone didn’t want the trouble of a full-blown battle or risk destroying what they wanted in the first place. They wouldn’t run off just because some rocks were thrown at them this time. They wouldn’t run off because it was “A hassle”. This was it. And as they looked at each other and towards their enemies, they were confident.
Sandstone led them, behind him was a large wagon being pedaled by a pair of Fishfolk. Now he wore a brown, high-collared jacket with a knife strapped to it. Sauntering towards his enemies with a mocking smirk, looking from side to side at the assembled guards as if saying “This is all you’ve got?”.
At last he stopped in front of Applejack and Wheel, holding up a hoof to get his raiders to stop.
He looks slimier and more full of himself than Flim and Flam pulling a scam.
“Well, glad you’ve decided to make this all simple for me Sturdy Wheel. I was worried that you were gonna make some traps or have all your little guard ponies attack us in town. But when you saw how serious we were I guess that knocked some sense into you.” He said, letting out a small chuckle after. “Now I was fully prepared to use these torches to burn down whatever I had to, but I really would rather not. What’s the point of that? And what a shame it would be if those farms ended up burning. Nobody wants that, least of all me, you know how I love a good strawberry.” He looked past Wheel and Applejack at the assembled guards. “I know you can’t be thinking of seriously fighting me with that. Here to step aside all at once? Want us to see that you’re serious about not resisting us? That’s good. We’ll just go right on in and set up in your farms. Oh, that is after we throw your father in that jail he had built for me. Any objections, Wheel?”
Wheel’s eyes narrowed, he was about to respond, about to tell Sandstone that they weren’t going to surrender and he’d have to fight them if he wanted this town.
But Sandstone stomped his hoof on the ground, interrupting Wheel before he could start talking, eyes narrowed in anger as he looked at Applejack.
“However! That aint all. This little missy thought it was a good idea to humiliate me yesterday. I don’t like that. I don’t know who you are but nobody does that to me. So Wheel, it aint just your town or father that I want.” He reached up and pulled his knife from his jacket. “You and your guards are gonna step back and me and this gal are gonna throw down.”
“What?” Wheel replied, shocked. “No way, I-”
He was cut off as Applejack reached her leg out in front of his body, stopping him and walking forward herself to Sandstone.
“It’s alright.” She said, not even turning to look back at Wheel. “I’ll handle this.”
Sandstone smirked at her. “Well, well, look who’s got some guts. Hey Wheel-” Sandstone said, looking past Applejack at him. “I promise that I won’t hurt anyone else besides her.”
Applejack just looked him dead on, face blank and stony.
“You know if it wasn’t for you things probably wouldn’t have changed so much. But I got so riled up yesterday that I just had to do something big, got so sick of the little stuff.” He said, pointing his knife at her. “In a way I guess I should thank you, if you hadn’t been there we’d still be stuck in our old routine. So thank you.”
He turned his flank to her to show off his cutie mark. “You see my mark? It’s a wooden pony, I got it in carving. Always something I’ve been good at. That’s why I carry this knife, it’s something I’m good with.” He grinned at her. “Carving wood sure is different from knife fighting but I’ve done enough of each to be able to deal with some hat wearing, slack-jawed, glassy eyed pony like you.”
Applejack was unimpressed.
Turning her own flank to him she pointed at her cutie mark. “Yeah? Well you see my mark? Three apples, it means how my home and place is back on my family apple farm. I’m a farmer and, uh, that’s it.” She finished, mocking his attempts at intimidation.
Sandstone wasn’t angry though, just a little confused, he tilted his head at Applejack.
“What are apples?”
Applejack snorted and her face scrunched up, hooves kicking at the ground in frustration. “Oh, I am just done with this. Are you gonna fight me now already?”
“Heh, alright.” Sandstone’s face went back into its mean sneer. “Oh, and after I’m all done here? You said your family had a farm, I’ll find that and burn it down.”
She didn’t explode in anger or rush at him or anything like that. Her eyes just became cold and hard as she narrowed them at him. “No you wont.”
He grinned, and lunged at her, knife outstretched in his hoof aiming right for her chest. Applejack ducked, pivoted, and bucked him hard in the chest. Sandstone was sent flying backwards, he hit the wagon behind him so hard it was smashed to pieces, the Fishfolk thrown out of it as Sandstone and the wreckage kept tumbling backwards taking out a few more raiders in the process before finally coming to a stop. Sandstone lay on the ground, chest rising weakly but otherwise unmoving, completely knocked unconscious.
The guards, other raiders, and Wheel all stared with mouths agape.
Finally, Wheel’s mind came back to him.
“Huh. Or I guess that can just happen.” Raising his hoof in the air he quickly threw it back down. “Attack!”
The guards immediately charged forward to assault the raiders while at the same time all the volunteers hiding in the abandoned houses came rushing out. Surprise attacked on three sides and with their leader out of commission the raiders only put up a poor effort. Afraid of what Applejack just did, and seeing the obliterated wagon, many just threw down their weapons and tried running off. A few of the more courageous ones stood their ground to fight the guards but they were quickly outnumbered. Applejack saw a few raiders with torches preparing to fling them into the buildings so she jumped in front of them.
Fixing them with a hard stare she spoke calmly. “You can put out those torches or, if you want, you can get more of what he got.” She pointed at the crumpled body of Sandstone.
The torches were put out.
Most of the raiders in the back half of the group had run off or taken off on their cycles and wagons. The rest were surrendering or being beat up and tied up. Applejack saw Tomato wrapping a thick chain around Sandstone’s unconscious body.
Wheel walked up beside her as she was finishing hogtying a particularly stubborn griffon. “Well, I don’t think they’re gonna cause any more problems for us. That all went better than expected.”
“Hehe, sorry, I feel like I kind of stole your thunder a bit.” Applejack said, grinning embarrassedly at him.
“I really, truly do not mind.” He replied with a big smile. Giving her a light tap on the shoulder.
Applejack suddenly felt herself grabbed from behind and lifted up, finding herself on top of Tomato’s shoulders.
“Three cheers for Applejack!” He called out to the crowd.
The guards all joined in, Clod, Soda, Cornstalk and all the rest. Pumping their hooves with victorious smiles on their faces.
“Hip hip, hooray! Hip hip, hooray! Hip hip hooray!”
“Aw shucks...” All she could do was blush in embarrassment.
Sandstone had been thrown in jail along with a lot of the other raiders. Those that weren’t were put on a strict probation. There wasn’t much cleaning up to do this time and the morning after the big fight the word had already been spread and the whole town was starting up a big celebration in the center of town. Snacks, music, dancing, Cross Way was having a great time.
Applejack was the pony of the hour and had to refuse more than a few gifts. She did have quite a fun time dancing and when she saw that one of the townponies had a fiddle she sawed that thing good. Guards talked up how she single-handedly defeated Sandstone to the children of the town, while a few took the opportunity to brag about their own heroism to any pretty mares they could. Spring and Thunderbolt were passed out drunk on corn whiskey before the clock even hit noon.
Applejack had a mug or two of that herself.
Even grumpy looking Hard Head was out celebrating. To Applejack’s surprise he was doing face-paintings for all the young fillies and colts. His artwork was surprisingly good and his hoof movements nimble and precise.
Finishing up a dance with Cornstalk, after he repeatedly stepped on her hooves, Applejack chose to lay down in the grass in the park and just looked out at everypony enjoying themselves. It felt good. If there were any apples around she’d cook up some turnovers or her apple brown betty’s. Instead she just yawned and lay back, tipping her hat over her face for some shade.
Rarity and Pinkie Pie would do something big for this party if they were here.
Applejack slowly frowned to herself. It was nice that she could help everypony here, it was nice that she could make new friends and it was nice thinking of coming back one day.
But it was time to get going.
She missed her farm, she missed her family, she missed her friends, and she really, really, missed apples.
“Tired of the festivities?”
Applejack tipped up her hat and opened up one eye a wink, Sturdy Wheel standing above her.
“Not really, just not one to toot my own horn. Was thinking about some other things too.” She replied.
“Guess you’re gonna be looking for a way back to Ponyville?”
Applejack paused for a second. “Yep.”
“Figured. Haven’t known you for too long but I’m definitely gonna miss you.” He said, smiling down at her.
She smiled back at him. “I’ll miss you too. But still,” She got back onto her hooves. “Best head on out to those Twin Towns as soon as possible. Putting it off will just make more trouble.”
“Well we can at least give you a saddlebag with some food and water for the desert. It’s only a day or two’s walk though.” He looked over his shoulder at his father painting. “And he’s still trying to come up with some big prize for you so you’d better leave now before you have to refuse whatever he’s thought up too, miss humble.”
“Hehe, now if I was my friend Rainbow Dash I’d just be basking in the attention. But I’m just happy I could help you all.”
“And we thank you for that.” A voice said from behind.
Applejack turned around to meet the new arrivals. Clod, Soda, Weathermane and Dusty.
“You should still be celebrating with all of us. The day’s just getting started.” Clod asked her. “We don’t really have any other way to show you how thankful we are, Applejack. I don’t know how things would’ve gone if you didn’t take care of Sandstone like that. Or even earlier when you shook some sense into all the ponies outside of town hall.”
“Thank you for the kind words but really, I just want to get back on the road home. I’m happy I met you all but I got friends and family to get back to.” Applejack said, smiling sadly at them.
“You’ll be sure to come back though right?” Soda asked her.
“Of course.” Applejack replied instantly. “After I find my way home and figure out an easy way to get back here. I’ll be sure to bring some apples too so you can see what you’ve been missing.”
After that it was the standard pleasantries and hoofshakes with everyone, Applejack saying goodbye, promising to return and so forth. Spring was woken up from her drunken stupor so she could say farewell, Tomato stopped letting the local foals climb over his big body like a playground for a second so he could say his thanks too. Evergreen, Keg, Cool Wind, and all the other guards she only got to briefly know came to say their goodbyes to her once they knew she was getting ready to leave.
The celebration was still in full-swing for most ponies, but Applejack and the guards were in their own little world.
“What? No more fun? Stopping already?” Applejack would recognize Hard Head’s voice anywhere, she turned to see him walking towards her and the guards with Fruit Basket following behind.
“Hey there Hard Head, I was just talking with everyone and, well, it’s just about time for me to head out.” Applejack told him, hoping she could skirt around the issue of him wanting to give her a big reward.
“Yes! Visitor needs to head back to her home. Understandable!” He bellowed, running his hoof through his beard. “First have offer for you instead. I give you son’s hoof in marriage.”
She could swore she heard Sturdy Wheel’s hoof smack his face in disbelief from behind her.
“Haha, what?”
“You prefer daughter’s hoof instead?” Hard Head said, gesturing to an obliviously smiling Fruit Basket.
“Huh? What! No!” Applejack said frantically shaking her head. “Look, I’m flattered but I can’t get married, I have my own life to get back to. I’ve never even thought about marriage! I’m sorry, I like your son, and uh, your daughter is very nice too but I can’t settle down and get married to either one of them.” She finished, frowning.
“Are you sure? I-” He tried starting up but was interrupted.
“Dad, please. Stop.” Wheel said as he came forward, putting his hoofs on his fathers shoulders and trying to push him away.
Most of the guards just laughed at the scene. And before long Applejack found herself joining them. Even though she had to refuse him it was nice that Hard Head really tried to think of something meaningful to thank her with. And that he was perfectly okay with having his children marry her said a lot about what he thought of her. Even with the fighting the days she had spent here were days well spent in her mind. Any days were if they meant she had made some good new friends at the end of them.
Heh, and I bet Rarity would be pretty darn jealous to learn that I just got two offers of marriage.
It was late in the afternoon when the time came for Applejack to finally leave Cross Way. She and the farewell party were at the old gatehouse on the north side of town, dirt road heading off into the desert and the Twin Town’s beyond that. She had a saddlebag with a full canteen of water and a bunch of carrots gifted to her by Sturdy Wheel.
“Take care now.” Wheel told her. Fruit Basket waving to her from his side.
“I will. Just a couple days walk huh?” Applejack said, looking out at the desert. No huge rolling sand dunes or as blisteringly hot as the desert outside of Klugetown was, almost a featureless flat sandscape with the horizon shimmering in the distance and the barest sign of hills far away.
Turning back she started to wave goodbye to everypony, Clod, Tomato, Hard Head and Fruit Basket. Cornstalk was there waving frenetically at her, big blush on his face for some reason. Maybe the heat was getting to him she figured.
No more words needed to be spoken, Applejack gave a final smile to them all and started her walk into the desert.
“Wait!”
The ponies at the gatehouse turned in surprise, making way for a lime green mare holding a basket running up from the street and through the small crowd.
“Hold on! I was looking for you!” The mare said as she ran up to Applejack, panting heavily. “You weren’t at the party anymore, I looked all over.”
“Well howdy, I recognize you, you’re the one I lassoed away from that lizard fellow.” Applejack said to the exhausted mare. “It’s Bouquet isn’t it? I think I heard that from somepony.”
“Yes, I’m Bouquet. I grow roses.” She said, reaching into the basket she carried and pulling out a stunning red rose. “I don’t have much, but I had to thank you in some way for saving me. Please, take this.” She reached the rose out to Applejack.
Applejack smiled and took the rose from Bouquet. “Well thank ya kindly for this. I know just what to do with it.” She took off her hat and pushed the stem of the rose into the brim, letting the flower rest right by the crown at the front right side of her stetson. “Normally I wouldn’t do something with my hat, but I’d like something to remember Cross Way by. Especially when I’m planning my return trip.” She said, winking at Bouquet and the others behind her.
Bouquet blushed and waved goodbye to her, stepping back to be side by side with Wheel and the others.
“Bye bye now!” Applejack said to them, beginning her walk into the desert.
“See you later!” Her new friends responded with.
And Applejack continued on her road that would hopefully eventually lead her home.
Applejack had just finished cresting a sand dune to see the many more that awaited her. The Twin Towns not yet visible in the distance and Cross Way already vanished in a sea of sand behind her. Her canteen about halfway empty and a half eaten carrot in her mouth, Applejack began the descent of the sand dune. Taking herself down it slowly so she didn’t stumble and get sand everywhere. Again.
It didn’t look like there were so many sand dunes when I started…
Rising above the next sand dune, and the next one, and the next one, she finally made it to one long drift of sand and dirt. Cacti dotted the desert around her and a slight breeze blew trails of sand through the air.
I really hope those Twin Towns or whatever have apples.
There wasn’t much for Applejack to think about as she trudged through the desert. She couldn’t really do much to prepare herself for what might come in the Twin Towns, having only the barest knowledge of them. Hopefully nothing bad would happen while she was there. If it was such a powder keg like Sturdy Wheel made it seem then at least let its fuse be long enough to explode after she left. One adventure at a time was more than enough for her, helping people was nice but she liked her simple life just fine. Course she wouldn’t mind making more friends again either.
Sweating up almost enough to fill her canteen, Applejack decided to sit down for a second. Sand was getting in her tail but it was nothing a good shake or two wouldn’t get out. And thank Celestia she had her hat, the shade and cover for her head made all the difference. Chomping down the rest of her carrot Applejack checked out a large cactus to her right, pink flower blooming on the top of it. She was pretty sure cacti had some juice or water in them but she didn’t have a knife or anything to get it out.
At least whatever raiders didn’t get rounded up either ran off entirely or were too scared of Applejack to come after her.
Letting out a deep breath, Applejack got back up and started walking again, shaking her tail side to side to get the errant sand out. She figured it must be pretty soon that she could see the Twin Towns, already walking through the desert for a full day and now the sun’s position was telling her it was clearly past noon. She forgot how cold a desert could get last night, wishing she had asked for a blanket or something that she could’ve also packed in her new saddlebag. Instead she was shivering for most of last night before she decided to practically bury herself in the sand. As incredibly uncomfortable as that was. Rarity never would’ve done something like that.
Shortly later Applejack was getting to a rockier part of the desert, ridges and formations shooting up all around her practically out of nowhere. It reminded her a bit of the canyons she had nearly gotten lost in before she ended up on the road to Cross Way, only this time it was all surrounded and covered in sand. Jumping up on a big granite boulder she was happy to see a more solid surface to walk on below, a huge slab of orange stone creating a valley in the desert, the sand shored up on both sides making something like a pipe cut in half that she could walk in.
Walking through the rock way was a nice change of pace, it felt good on her hooves to have some sturdy ground instead of the sinking and occasionally mud-like grasping sand.
“Would’ve been a good place to rest last night since the walls keep the wind out.” Applejack said to herself. “Oh well, I’ll remember this if I ever come back this way to Cross Way.”
Applejack’s ears suddenly perked up as she heard something behind her. Turning around she saw some pebbles tumbling down the side of the rock, but nothing else.
“Critter?” She raised an eyebrow and shrugged, getting back to her walking.
But a minute later she heard some shifting in the sands around her. Keeping her eyes open she started scanning the edges of the rock, spying the occasional sand sliding over the edge and hearing the occasional clunk of a rock being struck by something.
She shortly came to the end of the rock and back out onto the sand, boulders of all shapes and sizes arrayed before her. Somepony could easily be hiding behind one.
Applejack stopped, eyes narrowed. “Alright, I don’t know who you are but you can come out already! I know you’ve been following me!”
It was like the floodgates had been lifted.
Four green cloaked figures leaped from behind the rocks and assaulted her. Applejack didn’t have a chance to say anything else as the largest figure launched itself off a rock and came hurtling towards her from above, she quickly jumped out of the way to avoid it. The figure came crashing to the ground like a cannonball, the sand and stone exploding outwards, the shockwave nearly causing Applejack to tumble over but she was able to dig in her hooves and withstand it. It was a good thing too as two of the other figures had quickly darted behind her, Applejack turned to face them, one of them about her height while the other was almost a full head shorter. A hoof darted out of each of their cloaks, reaching forward as if trying to tag Applejack.
They’re ponies huh? She thought as she jumped away from them as well, barely dodging their strikes.
This left her open to her final assailant though, who glided by her in mid-jump and lightly tapped her on her right foreleg before she could react. The cloaked figure came to a stop in front of their allies, about the same size as Applejack as well, turning its head back at Applejack and piercing her with deep blue eyes.
Frowning, Applejack landed with the large attacker in front of her and to her left and the other three standing a dozen feet directly before her. Her legs were shaking as she stared the cloaked figures down.
“Now who in the hay-” Applejack stopped as she realized it wasn’t all her legs that were shaking, just her right foreleg. Her mouth opened wide in surprise as the vibration in her limb grew stronger until it felt like a manticore was shaking it.
“You, what did you do!” Applejack shouted out, feeling the tremors all the way down to her bone. Gritting her teeth and scrunching her face in anger she raised her right foreleg over her head. “Stop!”
Slamming her hoof onto the ground she felt the tremors suddenly abate, a small shockwave passing through the sand and creating a series of circular ridges extending out from her hoof.
The four cloaked ponies stepped back in shock. Quickly looking between each other in surprise and confusion.
“Okay, now you tell me who you are and why you attacked me!” She yelled at them.
Hesitantly the one who struck her stepped forward. “How did you cancel out my attack? Such a thing should be impossible without profuse training.” The pony, a stallion as she could now tell from his voice, said.
“Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking about at all! What in the hay is going on here?” Applejack stamped her front hooves on the ground in frustration, tired of these ponies already.
The four looked between each other again before the one who had spoken nodded and they all lowered their hoods. The burly one was a gray-ish blue stallion with an orange-brown mane, he openly stared at Applejack with a fearful eye. The smaller one was a peach colored stallion with a thin, wispy, jet-black mane, his face a mask of indifference. The one standing next to him that was about Applejack’s height was a black mare with a long, sparkling, white mane that covered half of her face much like Fluttershy’s. When the one who had spoken lowered his hood Applejack grimaced and stepped back in shock. He was a gray stallion with a short brown mane but his whole face was covered in innumerable tiny scars.
“You… aren’t perhaps part of a group of brigands that has been harassing a town called Cross Way are you?” The scarred one asked her.
“What! No! I just came from Cross Way, I helped them out with those raiders who were attacking them! In fact, I dealt with their leader so they won’t be bothered at all anymore. Who are you ponies?” Applejack responded in surprise.
“I see. We have done you a great disservice then, noble pony.” The scarred one continued. “We had heard from others that a violent group of creatures had made their home in this desert and were attacking the town to the south of here. You were the first creature we came across and we simply figured you were with them. We were coming to help the town...” He finished, trailing off in shame at having attacked the pony who had done what they came to do in the first place.
“Oh...” Applejack relaxed a little but kept her frown. “Well if you were really intending to go there to help them with those raiders then that’s pretty nice of ya. Still a little annoyed that you attacked me out of the blue like that.”
“Yes.” The scarred one replied slowly. “But please, I must ask you now how you were able to do that. No creature should’ve been able to do such a thing.”
“Uh, I really have no idea what you’re talking about.” Applejack just tilted her head at him. “I just wanted to get that shaking to stop.”
The scarred one again looked back at his comrades, them sharing glances before each one of them nodded to him and he returned to stare down Applejack. Like she had noticed earlier his deep blue eyes were striking, it was like looking into the ocean.
“Perhaps it would be best to introduce ourselves formally to you and explain some things.” He said to her. “I am Quartz.”
“Bedrock.” The burly one said.
“Marble.” Said the little stallion.
“Obsidian.” Said the lone mare.
“And we,” Quartz spread his hoof out wide, gesturing to the other three as they walked up to stand beside him. “Are the last disciples of the Hoof of the Earth fighting art.”
Applejack had been on many journeys. She had fought the greatest of villains, she had dealt with the smallest of problems. She had seen many strange things, she had had many more normal days. She had been as far north as the Crystal Empire and as far south as Mount Aris. From one side of Equestria to the other, from her farm to Twilight’s castle. Applejack was a traveled pony. She had seen, heard, smelt, and tasted a greater variety of things than most ponies ever would. Quite the contrast for being a “simple” farmer as she liked to think of herself. There was probably nothing stranger she’d been through than the time Discord first got free, although fighting the Tantabus was a doozy too. She’d been out of her element more than once, why Rarity asked her to be that judge she’d never understand.
All in all, Applejack had been through a lot. All of her experiences led her to respond to these new ponies in the most appropriate way someone who had fought unparalleled monsters and been through unparalleled strangeness could.
“Huh?”
Applejack, even with all her experiences, was a pretty no-nonsense pony who wanted things to be simpler. So when she heard something weird, even though she’d been through far weirder, there was no more appropriate way for Applejack to respond.
“As I said, we are the last disciples of the Hoof of the Earth fighting art.” Quartz replied to her confused statement.
“Yeah, uh, you’re gonna need to go into a little bit more detail on that for me.” Applejack said, rubbing her head.
The black mare then stepped forward to try and explain things better. “Hoof of the Earth is a technique created ages ago by wise and great earth pony warriors to give them a way to fight against the dangerous creatures of the world, and against unicorns and pegasi. They saw how outmatched we simple earth ponies were and sought to even the playing field, so to speak.”
Applejack didn’t know how to react to all this, ancient martial arts for earth ponies? Her befuddlement was clear on her face as Quartz sighed and attempted to make things more clear.
“You see, Hoof of the Earth started back when the three tribes of ponies were still enemies. Ever since they made peace the art has been in decline. We’re the last ones left due to… a variety of reasons, and we’ve been going around offering our services to anyone who needs them. Anyone who needs help.” He continued on as Obsidian and the other two nodded along. “All of us were raised in the monastery, which is pretty much nothing more than a ruin now, it’s to the northeast of here.”
“Uh, that’s all fine and dandy but this is all stuff a bit unusual for me, I didn’t know earth ponies tried to invent a way to better fight other ponies.” Applejack said, frowning at the thought.
“Well think about it.” Marble spoke up. “Pegasi can fly, giving them a huge advantage in normal combat, and unicorns have magic. What is anyone supposed to do about that? Hoof of the Earth is something only earth ponies can do, it draws on the natural strength and ability of an earth pony. It doesn’t let us do what other ponies can do but it gives us unique strengths just like them.”
“I guess that makes sense back for that age. But what does your Earth Hoof thing even do? I felt a really crazy shaking going on in my leg, like I had my own personal earthquake. Oh, and, uh… why do you keep saying ‘"anyone" instead of anypony?” Applejack asked.
“We lived around many different creatures when we were younger, it’s just something we picked up.” Quartz answered. “As for your other question, I think I’ll show you.”
Quartz walked to a large boulder next to them. Closing his eyes and inhaling, he lightly pressed his hoof to the surface of the rock.
For a second it was like nothing had happened. But then the boulder began to tremble and Applejack could feel mild vibrations coming from it, suddenly the top of the boulder exploded, sending smaller chunks of rock flying in all directions. Applejack just stared in shock, how in the hay did they do that just by touching the boulder?
“Hoof of the Earth is a technique for sending tremors into something and destroying it from the inside out. My attack against you was meant to break the bones in your leg.” Quartz explained. “I could have made the whole boulder crumble as well but I wanted to show you something else.” Quartz pulled back his hoof and then this time slammed it forward with far greater speed and strength. “A skilled user can also direct tremors wherever they want...”
Quartz trailed off as instead of the boulder he struck exploding a smaller one ten feet away in the sand did.
“It doesn’t matter where I initially strike, I can send the power anywhere there’s a solid connection. This time it was through the ground, but one could also touch a pony and send the tremors to anywhere in their body.”
“That’s really something...” Applejack said, a bit put off at the thought of somepony’s body being mangled from the inside out. “But uh, you all seem to take this pretty seriously. Is this really something you should be telling me?”
Quartz looked at her with his scarred face and deep blue eyes. “You, without any training or knowledge, nullified my attack. You instinctually sent the tremors into the ground and dissipated them. Such a thing should be impossible, not every earth pony can even use Hoof of the Earth, the fact that you were able to do such a thing means you must have a natural aptitude for the art unlike any other.”
“Um, okay?” Again, there was no other way for Applejack to respond.
“What Quartz is saying.” Obsidian started up. “Is that we would like to teach you how to use Hoof of the Earth.”
“What!” Applejack’s eyes flew wide open. “Look, this is all… interesting I suppose but I really don’t have the time for this. And I can’t say I’ve ever given much thought to learning how to fight to begin with. I’ve gotten along just fine the way I am.”
“You may not have the time but we have all the time in the world.” Quartz said. “We essentially do nothing but travel around nowadays and you have apparently already solved the problem we had come out here to fix. Now we have nothing else to do. We may as well travel with and teach you, and besides, someone with your natural affinity should be able to pick up Hoof of the Earth easily enough.”
“You said you had to fight those raiders too didn’t you?” Marble asked her. “Would it really hurt to learn how to be a better fighter?”
“Well, I suppose not no.” Applejack allowed.
“Please, since a while ago we’ve just been drifting through life, and we’re the last who have been taught Hoof of the Earth. If we can at least give that knowledge to someone else, especially someone as worthy as you, I feel like it will have given my life real meaning.” Quartz pleaded with her, stepping forward to clasp his hooves with hers and staring into her eyes.
Applejack bit her lip, on one hoof this was all kind of strange to her. Four ponies she just met, from somewhere she’d never been, who could do things she never knew earth ponies could do, now wanted to teach her those things. Kind of an odd side hobby for an apple farmer. She felt like Rainbow Dash would jump at the opportunity for something like this. Twilight might too just because it would be something new to learn. On the other hoof if they traveled while they taught her it’s not like she’d really lose any time, she still didn’t know if anyone in the Twin Towns would have directions to Ponyville.
What’s the harm, I guess…
“Look, I’d be willing to learn this Hoof of the Earth stuff but only if we keep traveling, I’m not gonna sit down for days or weeks or however long it took you to learn it. I’m going back home to Ponyville. Okay?” Applejack told them.
“That is acceptable.” Quartz said, nodding to her. “We can easily teach you as we journey, I suspect that with your natural ability in the art already you shall make a quick learner.”
“Whatever you say pal.” Applejack shrugged. “I’m heading to the Twin Towns first of all, you been there?”
“We have been by it, it’s about a day away from here.” Quartz answered.
“Good, I want to get back to walking then.” Applejack said, turning her back to them and starting back through the desert like she was before they attacked her, letting them catch up.
The four ponies trotted along beside her, keeping their hoods down, Bedrock still hadn’t spoken once since he told Applejack his name but at least he wasn’t staring at her like at first anymore. Obsidian was happily smiling at the turn of events, flipping her long sparkly mane back over her shoulder, for the first time revealing the right side of her face to Applejack. Upon seeing it Applejack bit back a gasp, a long scar went from her forehead and over her eye, the eye itself was clouded over and clearly blind. Applejack figured it must not bother her though if she was so casual in revealing it to someone she just met. Quartz just stared ahead, face as impassive as a rock, all the numerous scars across it weren’t as nauseating as Obisidian’s single one. With so many there it was even less noticeable in a way than a single large scar. And Marble-
“Huh, so your name is Marble?” Applejack started wondering aloud. “I’ve got a distant cousin named Marble.” She figured it best not to mention that that cousin was a mare.
“Small world.” Marble replied.
Applejack just frowned, looking far ahead into the desert where the Twin Towns lied beyond.
A lot bigger than I thought it was.
The five earth ponies made good headway into the desert, the rocky area well behind them and now back to simple waves of sand. The heat of the sun wasn’t as bad as Applejack expected it to be anymore but the sand was still a bit hotter than she liked to step on. No more cacti or other plants around, no critters scurrying through the sand and only the occasional vulture high in the sky. Just sand and sand and sand for the ponies to look around at.
In short, it was the perfect time for Applejack’s new companions to tell her more about Hoof of the Earth.
“Since you are completely new to this I will try to explain things as simply as possible. Now, from the beginning,” Quartz began to tell her. “The Hoof of the Earth fighting art is used by-”
“Wait.” Bedrock suddenly said, coming to a stop and holding his large foreleg out in front of Applejack and Quartz.
Alright, guess it wasn’t the perfect time for Applejack to learn more about Hoof of the Earth.
“I can feel something coming.” Bedrock said to the others.
Applejack looked all out in front of them but saw nothing but the rolling hills of sand.
“What are you talking about? There’s nothing out there.” She told him.
“It’s under the sand.” He replied, eyes narrowing and face constricting in a frown. “Sand worm.”
Quartz and the others stepped in front of Applejack, defending her. “A sand worm on the outskirts of the desert?” Quartz said. “Unusual, someone must have been eating carrots nearby.”
Applejack wisely chose to not question that statement. Instead just gulping nervously as she thought of the numerous other carrots still tucked away in her saddlebag. The other four stood sharp at attention, not moving a muscle or making a sound at the threat of this invisible foe. Applejack wasn’t sure if she should try to stay as steady and quiet as well but that all became a moot point as soon enough she could feel the ground shaking beneath her. Bedrock was right, something was coming.
“There! Look!” Obisidian shouted and pointed her hoof forward.
Applejack’s eyes followed to see a quickly approaching bulge in the sand, whatever the hay this sand worm was it looked like its body was thicker than a cider barrel.
“Get ready!” Quartz shouted to them all.
I wish I could relax for just one second. Applejack thought, sighing to herself.
The ground shook violently as the sand erupted in front of the group, the worms pink body shooting into the air until its head was looming far over them. Judging by how much had come out Applejack figured the thing must be at least a hundred feet long all the way. It looked down on them, well looked was the wrong word since it didn’t have any eyes, and opened up its gaping maw. Six huge hooked teeth on each side of its mouth dripped saliva onto the ground, the worm let out a shrill shriek and lunged at the ponies.
“Jump!” Quartz said, somewhat unnecessarily if you were to ask Applejack.
Still, the five ponies jumped out of the way as the worm crashed into the sand right where they were just before. Applejack rolled to her right and quickly shot back to her feet, the huge writhing sand worm turned to her while Obsidian and Marble jumped at it from behind. However the worm could sense them coming and its tail darted out of the sand at the two, Obsidian and Marble deftly shifted in midair, avoiding the strike and pushing off the tail to safety.
The worm charged at Applejack, moving quicker than a cat dunked in water, she hunkered down getting ready to turn and buck it when Bedrock came shooting into its side. His left hindleg struck it hard and knocked the worm hard out onto the sand. She noticed the area where he hit was vibrating just like her leg was earlier and the sand worm started spasming on top of the sand, wriggling around for a second before sliding back under to safety.
“Worms don’t have bones.” Applejack said as she came up to Bedrock. “How did your Hoof of the Earth hurt it?”
“It may not have bones to break but I can still use my tremors to rupture its muscles and internal organs.” He replied.
Yuck. She winced, thinking about what something like that would feel like.
“And it’s not over yet, it’s still circling us a little farther below. Can you feel it?” He asked her.
Applejack looked down at the sand beneath her hooves, forehead wrinkling in concentration. She tried closing her eyes for a bit to see if that could make her focus better on just what she was feeling from the ground.
And she did feel it.
She could feel something moving around in the sand down there, all of its movements sending vibrations up to her. She could “hear” it too as the vibrations carried up to her ears, but it was mostly still just a bunch of noise to her. She didn’t know where it was exactly, just that something big was definitely down there and moving around. She opened her eyes again and nodded to Bedrock.
“You really are something special...” He trailed off, biting his lip.
Quartz and the others then came over. “Get ready, a sand worm is very persistent, it’ll come up again soon.”
Applejack didn’t need to be told twice, she could feel the heavier rumbling under her hooves moments before the tail of the huge worm shot up in-between all of them. Quartz jumped away as it tried to slam down on him, the other ponies forced to jump in the air as the tail spun around trying to knock them off their hooves.
Pinkie would play around with this like she was jumping rope.
They landed out of the tails range so it slunk back beneath the sand. Applejack thought they had another momentary reprieve but she was quickly proven wrong as the desert began to shift. The sand they were standing on sunk downwards as if being pulled, the whole area turning and sinking. Applejack and the others were caught in it and she realized she knew what was going on, like the water in a bathtub right as the drain is unplugged, the sand worm was spinning around to suck them all in to the center of the pit. It was creating a sand whirlpool.
“You’re kidding me!” Applejack yelled as her body was stuck waist deep in the rotating sand, being pulled deeper into the pit. Quartz and the others were in a similar state although they didn’t seem worried.
A low rasping noise made Applejack look to the bottom of the pit. The head of the worm was poking out, its horrifying mouth opened wide and waiting for the ponies to inevitably come to it.
“Yagh!” Applejack yelped, trying to scramble up out of the pit but being unable to due to the loose, ever moving, sand.
“It’s okay Applejack!” Quartz yelled to her. “We’re in no danger.” Quartz let out a single breath and tapped his hooves on the surface of the sand.
Applejack could see the sand rippling even as it constantly rotated down in the pit, the ripples reached the sand worm itself causing the beast to shriek wildly, Applejack saw its teeth shattering and mouth spasm as it sunk back below the sand.
The next thing she knew she was being lifted by Bedrock out of the sand as the pit collapsed on itself, leaving no trace of its existence aside from some rearranged sand dunes.
“Sorry things got a little troubling for you.” Quartz said to her as they all shook their bodies free of any remaining sand. “Although I can send tremors through the ground they still naturally dissipate over distance, I needed the worm to be close enough and not moving.”
“Fine, fine. Just glad that’s all over. I’d really like to get to the Twin Towns as soon as possible now.” She looked up, the sun much closer to the horizon now. “Looks like that’ll be tomorrow though.” She sighed, shaking her tail one last time before starting her walk forward, the four disciples of Hoof of the Earth following behind her.
It had gotten to the point where they were well out of the desert. Now they walked across a dried out plains, the dirt brittle and cracked. But Applejack could now at least see signs of the Twin Towns in the distance, there seemed to be a small group of buildings not too far from where they were and beyond those were copses of trees and lush rolling hills to the east. To the west Applejack could make out the mountain range that the other town was supposedly built into, it stretched on as far as she could see with peaks rising high into the sky. Looking up at them she could see snow around the higher ones.
“And so,” Marble’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Hoof of the Earth is all about the heart. Literally. An earth pony takes the vibration from the beating of their heart and amplifies it, sending it into their hooves and then into a target. With practice you can send a tremor of any magnitude to anywhere in a pony’s body. If you just wanted to rattle them a bit or break all their bones, anything’s possible.”
Applejack stared blankly ahead.
“Uh, I appreciate you helping me out as best you can.” She turned to look at him. “But none of what you’re saying is making any sense to me whatsoever.”
Marble facehooved.
“It’s… It’s really pretty simple, I think? You take the natural vibration inside your body created from your heart and you use it to destroy stuff.” He looked at her with one eyebrow raised. “What’s not to get?”
Applejack just groaned in frustration. He was acting like this was as simple as pie or something, like a foal should have no problem getting it.
“Look, I get what you’re saying, sort of. But how do I do that?” Applejack tried pleading with him.
Marble was about to respond when Obsidian cut him off.
“Oh forget it. Look, Applejack, I’ll tell you.” She pushed Marble out of her way and walked side by side with Applejack. “Remember how earlier you focused on trying to feel the sand worm from below? Do that again, focus on your heartbeat. Block out everything else and just feel your heartbeat through your body.”
“You should stop walking for a second too.” Quartz chimed in from behind them, with Bedrock further back picking up the rear.
Applejack frowned but did as she was told. Stopping for a second she closed her eyes and flattened her ears to block out any outside sounds. The others also stopped walking to not send any foreign vibrations through her.
Her heart was just beating like normal, she never really paid much attention to such a thing in the first place, she couldn’t even really hear it or anything even with no other noise around her. Her brow wrinkled as she tried to focus harder on just being able to feel it, just being able to feel one single beat or motion.
*Thump
Applejack’s eyes shot open, it was just for an instant but she definitely felt it. However as soon as her concentration faltered she lost it again, she didn’t know how she would carry and amplify it or whatever like Marble said.
“I did, I mean, I don’t think I got it all but I felt my heartbeat. Uh, I kind of lost my concentration and didn’t feel it all the way through my body though. It was just for a second.” She told them.
Obsidian just smiled. “That’s fine, you did well.” And then her eyes drifted upwards and she started rubbing the back of her head, like she was embarrassed about something. “To be honest… there’s a much faster way to do this, we just kind of wanted to see if you’d be able to do it the hard way because you’ve shown so much natural talent for it. Ehehe...”
“Sorry.” Quartz said as he walked up beside her, shrugging.
Applejack narrowed her eyes at them, not really angry but just a little annoyed. “Okay you, so what’s the easy way then?”
“Instead of just standing still and trying to feel your heartbeat simply bring a hoof to your barrel and feel it that way.” Quartz told her. “Then you can just focus on the beating and the vibration, feel it as it goes up your leg and hold on to it. Follow it throughout your body.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “I’m getting a little tired of this.” She said to him but still brought her hoof right to where her heart was. Now she could feel it beating under her skin without any effort.
She stood there for a little while, just getting used to the feeling of her heart beating against her hoof and the small vibrations being sent. She thought one of the others might have been speaking to her but she tuned them out, focusing on the path of the vibration as it started from the heart beat, following it as it went through her whole body but getting weaker the farther it traveled. Finally it ended in her extremities, turning into nothingness.
A wave, Pinkie Pie jumping into the lake and the waves starting big but getting smaller and weaker… Applejack visualized it, now she could try to grasp it.
“I think you’ve done good.” Quartz said suddenly as he removed her hoof from her barrel, snapping her out of the exercise. “Sorry for interrupting but I know you want to get to the Twin Towns soon. I figured if we just let you do that all day you’d be mad at us later. We can get back to walking and teach you more when we’ve settled down.”
“Uh, yeah, thanks...” Applejack said, uncertain of what just happened. It wasn’t like her to get lost in thought like that. Maybe it was the effect of discovering a whole new thing, something that was always inside her but she never realized it.
Applejack didn’t think about much as they got closer and closer to the buildings she had seen from afar but as they got practically to their doorsteps she noticed some other things. The buildings were built at the edge of a large river, it must’ve been the one Sturdy Wheel mentioned, one of them looked like a hotel and the others just some small shops. They certainly weren’t houses. She also saw a large bridge behind them that rose high up in an arc over the river, at least that made things simple.
“Guess we’re almost there.” Marble decided to state the obvious.
The others just nodded, Applejack spied a pony sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of a clumsily put together wooden shop. She could’ve built a better store in her sleep. A dirt pathway lined with watermelon sized stones appeared before them at the edge of the buildings, leading between them and probably to the bridge Applejack figured. As they walked past the store Applejack felt it was only polite to say hello.
“Howdy, the Twin Towns right beyond here?” She asked.
The pony, an older stallion, dirt brown in color, raised an eyebrow at her. “Just so. Not sure why you want to go to either of them.”
“Honestly I’m just passing through on my way home, anything wrong with the Twin Towns?” Applejack hoped it wasn’t as bad as she feared.
“I came from the mountain town along with some others years ago to build this little outpost on the other side of the river, the few of us out here have been staying out of their business. Bunch of fools. Thanks to the dam no one goes anywhere anymore and we don’t get any traders from other towns. They’re just all sitting on their two sides seething at each other.” He shook his head. “I’d make any trip over the river quick if I were you.”
“Uh, thanks for the advice.” She frowned and turned back to Quartz and the others, who looked similarly unenthused. Sighing, “Nothing we can do about it, it’s still the best bet for directions around here aint it?”
Quartz nodded. “Any other towns or villages are quite far away. If anything the Twin Towns will make a good rest stop for a day.”
Wordlessly they all continued down the path, finally getting to the bridge. And Applejack realized just how much things must’ve changed around here recently.
The river was a shadow of its former self, what was once obviously a large raging river was now reduced to a stream far below the old riverbank. It was practically no different from the stream that flowed through Ponyville. If this is what the dam had done then it’s no wonder there was bad blood between the towns, the mountain ponies could take whatever water they wanted while the valley ponies wouldn’t have had near enough for all their farms anymore. It was like if the weather ponies only came by Sweet Apple Acres half as much.
The bridge also was a bit unusual, it was built right where a distributary broke off from the main trunk of the river on the other side, heading northeast at a wide angle. The bridge arced up and over the river until about the halfway point, upon which it split in two, giving it a Y shape. One branch of the bridge went to the west side of the distributary and the other to the east.
Applejack and her companions walked up the bridge until they reached the middle. A sign sat right at the middle of the bridge in-between the branching paths. On it was painted “MOUNTAIN TOWN” with an arrow pointing to the left under it and then “VALLEY TOWN” with an arrow pointing to the right under it.
“Where should we go?” Obsidian asked everyone.
Each town was as likely to have the same knowledge of Ponyville as the other Applejack figured. She couldn’t think of any solid reason to choose one over the other. But she certainly had a personal reason for wanting to go to one side in particular.
“Let’s go to Valley Town.” She told them. “I heard they’ve got all the farms and orchards, I want to see if they’ve got apples.”
Applejack really wanted an apple.
The four disciples just shrugged, not having a problem with it, and they followed her as she walked down the east branch of the bridge to Valley Town.
Halfway across the eastern part of the bridge the five ponies saw that on each side of the distributary large wooden walls had been erected, stretching as far down the river as any of them could see and completely blocking out sight of the other side if you were standing on the ground. Not a good sign for how things were.
Stepping off the bridge the ponies ended up on another simple dirt path leading into a thin forest. From here Applejack could see some buildings through the trees and the hills were big enough to be visible above the treeline, there looked to be a single large building ringed by a wall on top of one of the hills, looking out at whatever was below.
“I’m somewhat surprised there isn’t any sort of small village or even a gate at the only entrance to their town from the south.” Marble voiced his thoughts to them.
“Maybe there was but they stopped caring when things got bad between the two towns.” Obsidian speculated. “You heard from that old pony back there, no one comes up the river anymore. And look,” She said pointing back at the large wall at the rivers edge. “Do you really think that was always there too? I’d say it’s relatively new. Something both towns didn’t build until they started arguing a little while ago.”
“Speaking of that wall there’s likely a break in it somewhere.” Quartz said. “Otherwise it would make trading or contact excessively troublesome and I can’t believe they’ve completely shut themselves off from each other.”
They kept walking down the path with this all in mind, the forest around them made mostly of pine trees and not fruit bearing ones, obviously their orchards were elsewhere. As they got further in the buildings became easier to make out.
Things weren’t exactly as Applejack suspected.
A large part of the forest had been cleared away, what they saw before them was no village but more like a camp or fort, large spiked tree trunks had been stuck into the ground, encircling the whole area. It wasn’t a completely solid wall as there was more than enough space between each trunk for a pony to walk through but it would certainly be an annoyance for any large group coming in. The buildings visible through the gaps looked to all be log cabins and tents of various sizes. A large watchtower had also been constructed on the inside of the camp, tall enough that it towered over any trees. If there was anypony up there they had likely already spotted Applejack and her friends.
Still there was no place else to go so they kept walking. The path still took them on a few more twists through the forest before they got to the large clearing, upon coming out they were on a straight path with a break in the tree trunks, obviously the main entrance to the camp.
“Guards.” Quartz said as he looked on.
And right he was, giving her memories of Cross Way, Applejack saw two guards at the entrance. But these guards already seemed much more serious, the both of them wearing black armor and helmets. The five ponies from out of town also noticed what had been invisible from farther away, a trench had been dug on the outside perimeter of the wall, lined with wicked looking wooden stakes. Applejack grimaced uneasily at them.
But a wooden bridge was built over it where the path went. Obviously the trench was mostly made to discourage any ponies from going in the non-official way. Quickly the five made their way across it, now just a few short steps from the entrance to the camp.
“Alright, that’s far enough.” One of the guards said, a mare as was the other. “State your business. I don’t think you came from Mountain Town.”
“Uh, my name’s Applejack, we’re just passing by really. I’m looking for directions to somewhere and we might want to stay and rest for a day or two.” She told the guard, the disciples standing stoically behind her. “This is Valley Town right?”
“Part of it.” A voice said from above.
Applejack and the others looked up as a pegasus came gliding down to them. From her voice she was clearly female and she wore the same black armor as the others, with a pale green coat underneath. When the pegasus landed right in front of her Applejack realized something else about that armor, it wasn’t metal at all but actually a varnished wood. Ebony most likely.
“I am Thithle.” She told them, speaking with a heavy lisp. “Captain of the Valley Town Fort.” At the end of her sentence a light spittle came from her mouth, narrowly missing Applejack.
“Pleasure to meet you, Thistle.” Applejack said nervously, hoping that was actually her name, and reaching out a hoof.
“Pleathure is all mine.” She replied with a smile and eagerly shook hooves with Applejack. “I thaw you coming from the watchtower. You are in need of direct… direc… directions!” She said forcefully to get the word out.
“Yes, I’d really appreciate that. I’m looking to get on my way home to Ponyville. Have you heard of it?”
Thistle shook her head. “I have not, but I have stayed in Valley Town my whole life. You should go to Big Dad Redwood, our leader. He lives in Redwood Manor on top of the big hill above the rest of Valley Town. Anypony is free to enter.”
Applejack was disappointed that another pony had never heard of Ponyville but at least they were friendly. Hopefully this Big Dad Redwood fellow would have a clue about it. “Thank you, ma’am. Can ya point us in the right direction to get up there?”
“Captain, pleathe.” Thistle corrected, more spittle coming out. “And yes, there is another opening on the north side of the fort. Take the road leaving from it, soon you will hit a four way crossroads. If you keep going straight you will end up at our fruit orchards and vegetable farms, left would take you to the river that separathes Valley and Mountain Towns. But there are gates and drawbridges on each side if you need to get from one to the other. Right will take you into the main part of town, then you can just follow the main road to Redwood Manor.”
“Thank you.” Applejack tipped her hat and she and the disciples started to walk past Thistle and into the fort.
“However!” Thistle suddenly said, extending a wing to block Applejack. “This is a fort, you are not allowed entry anywhere else inside. Keep to the path and head out the north way. Thank you.” She didn’t leave any room to respond, flapping her wings and heading back up to her watchtower.
Applejack turned and shrugged to the others. “I don’t think there’s much for us to do in a fort anyways.”
“Hm.” Quartz mused as they walked in past the two guards, when out of earshot he continued. “This is all a bit strange. I’m not familiar with these towns that much but from what I heard is a fort like this truly necessary? Are they on the brink of war? And these ponies were all farmers on this side, Thistle felt like less of a military captain and more like someone playing a captain in a play.”
Applejack nodded along, she hadn’t really given it as much thought as him but it was kind of weird. And as they walked through the fort she started seeing some unsettling things. Numerous spears, shields, and spare armor lined on racks, a few catapults, ponies going through vigorous exercise drills. And the ones that saw her group all watched them like hawks.
“They’re making sure we aren’t spies from Mountain Town.” Obsidian suddenly said. “That’s the feeling I get from this.”
“And again like that wall this fort has to be new, can you imagine this being the first point of contact for any travelers or traders coming in through the south? It must’ve been made well after the dam.” Quartz figured.
A powder keg. One about to explode. Applejack thought, bringing her mind back to her dark forebodings.
They walked through the rest of the fort uneventfully, not straying from their path or giving the ponies watching them any reason to confront them. Shortly they came to the northern gate. Two more guards were stationed at this one, both of them stallions this time, and instead of staring out at what might be coming to the fort they were both watching Applejack and her group intently as well.
Applejack was about to pass right on by them when suddenly she remembered something.
“Oh! I almost forgot!” She exclaimed and walked up to one of the guards, who was a little bit perplexed at her actions. “Pardon me for asking but I know you were big on farming in Valley Town right? And your captain, Thistle, said that your fruit orchards were right down this road, right?”
“Uhh, yeah? Why?” The guard asked. Confused by Applejack’s sudden familiarity. “We’ve got apricots, cherry trees, strawberries, watermelon, peach trees-”
“That’s all well and good.” Applejack cut him off, a bit of a manic glint in her eyes. “But do you have apples?”
“Apples? What are-”
He suddenly found himself unable to continue as Applejack put her hoof over his mouth.
“Okay! You don’t need to finish that sentence, never mind, I get it!” Angrily she removed her hoof and began storming off out of the fort, grumbling the whole way.
The guard just stared after her, confusion written all over his face. The disciples as well shared a look with each other, wondering what made their new friend so upset.
After finding the intersection and heading down the road to the right, since Applejack wanted nothing to do with the orchards and farms now, the party had been slowly walking through a thicker part of the forest on their way to what Thistle said was the main part of Valley Town. The trees grew close and big enough that their branches made a nice canopy over their path, giving everyone some shade. If Applejack had been in a better mood she would probably be able to appreciate the quiet nature around her. Instead of just the typical pines that made up the earlier section of the forest, around them now were towering redwoods. Obsidian spied squirrels and rabbits scurrying about just off the path, in their own little world.
“This is a nice place.” She said.
“Pff.” Applejack snorted. “Yeah, just great. Peachy.”
“Are you upset because they don’t have those… apple things you mentioned?” Marble asked.
Applejack turned her head to glare at him, giving Marble one big stink-eye.
“Guess so.” He winced.
As they traveled further they could see a light at the end of their path, it seemed a break in the forest canopy was coming up. As they got to the light they realized it wasn’t just a break or another clearing like where the fort was but was actually the end of the forest entirely.
“Huh, guess we’re here.” Obsidian said.
The town was actually pretty impressive to Applejack, it was no Canterlot or Manehattan but it was large and bustling. Buildings of all shapes and sizes packed densely together on either side of the main road. The road itself quickly turned from dirt to cobblestone as it hit the edge of the town and went straight up the hill, leveling out for a few hundred feet at a time, before hitting the top where Redwood Manor stood. This created a town cleanly divided into 5 different levels that Applejack could see, with her and the disciples standing at ground level before the road began its ascent.
Timber-framed buildings seemed to be the dominant architecture. Unlike Ponyville which had most buildings standing on their own, here it looked like many bled into and were connected to one another, creating densely packed areas around tiny side streets and alleyways.
“I’d say we should stick close to the main road or we’re likely to get lost.” Quartz suggested.
Applejack nodded, sure the others wouldn’t have a problem with what Quartz suggested either. They weren’t here for an adventure after all.
Walking into town was something of a treat of its own though. Smells of freshly cooked food seemed to waft from every direction and it was pleasing to Applejack to see so many young ponies out playing around, just like in Cross Way. They did get more than a few eyebrows raised in surprise when they walked by, but most ponies just shrugged and continued on with their own business. Visitors might have been an uncommon appearance nowadays but nothing to gawk at.
But there was something nagging at Applejack’s mind as she saw all this. The ponies at the fort were stockpiling weapons and were clearly prepared for battle. But these ponies in town were so happy and carefree, going about their day like it was any other. Did they not know about the fort? Or just not care? This was the main part of the town but Applejack saw no guards and no ponies were giving her foul or suspicious looks. Everything about the fort made it seem like fighting was about to break out but looking around here now Applejack was certain of one thing at least.
This town was not acting like it was on the verge of war.
Her group made it farther up into the town, each level a little bit different. The first up from the ground level had a lot more separate cottages that reminded Applejack a lot of Fluttershy’s cottage. The next was mostly like the first but with one large building covering most of one side, she figured it might’ve been a school since it had a big clock-tower connected to its front. After that was another level with twin parks on each side of the main road and a circle of buildings on the very edge of the level. The final level before the road led to Redwood Manor was the same as the first but none of the buildings went higher than two stories and they all had flat roofs.
Folks who live in Redwood Manor probably wanted to keep a nice view…
It was sort of a shame, she thought as they made it to the top of the hill, this place was really nice looking and she would like to get to know it better. Rarity would probably enjoy it quite a bit too. But after getting sidetracked in Cross Way and still not knowing where the hay Ponyville might be she just didn’t want to stick around.
As they made it to the grounds before the manor Applejack could see that it really was just as huge as she thought from afar. It was only three stories high but it covered probably as much area as the School of Friendship. Her eyes told her the building was made from thick slabs of sturdy oak, painted all red on the outside with the windows framed in white and bordered by dark slats of ebony. The manor was surrounded by a stone wall that probably stretched around the whole top of the hill, although Applejack couldn’t be certain, but the entrance to the manor grounds had no gate of any kind. Like Thistle had said, it was open to anypony.
“Do you think we knock or just let ourselves in?” Applejack asked as they made their way to the intricately carved wooden double-doors of the manor.
“Let’s knock.” Quartz said, walking forwards and rapping his hoof on the door a few times.
“You may enter, the door’s open!” A voice called from inside.
Taking the invitation Applejack pulled the doors handle and stepped in with the others.
The interior was simply designed, the five visitors found themselves at the start of a long hallway with a fancy floral-patterned carpet covering the floor that stretched back into the manor, Applejack could see it ending at a large room with a double staircase going up to the higher levels of the building and other hallways branching off to other parts of the manor.
“You’re not from the town. Who might you be?”
Applejack and the others looked to their left at where the voice had come from to see a rather stuffy looking older stallion standing at a podium beside the door. He had a very light brown coat and a very curly white mane, from the well-tailored uniform he wore Applejack figured he must be the manor’s butler.
“We’re just traveling, I’m Applejack and these are Quartz, Obsidian, Marble and Bedrock.” She said while gesturing to each of them. “We came here cause Thistle from the fort said it was the best place to get help. She said Big Dad Redwood was your leader?”
“Oh I see.” He responded, wrinkling his nose when Applejack said “Big Dad”. “Well Lord Redwood is indeed the leader of Valley Town and is always interested in helping those who come to his doors. There haven’t been any out-of-towners here in some time so I’m sure he’d be happy to see you. Simply go down the main hallway, up the stairs, and follow the signs.”
“Thank you.”
As they walked down the hallway they saw it was lined with portraits of Redwood family ancestors, all of them regal looking deep-red stallions.
“Founders of the town?” Marble thought aloud. “Makes sense I suppose.”
“Founders or leaders they just had to make sure they lived above everyone else, didn’t they?” Bedrock said, one of the rare times he joined their conversation.
Applejack did frown a bit at that, Celestia and Luna lived above everypony else too, it’s true that Applejack didn’t really care for the grandeur that the Redwood family seemed to possess but Celestia was the most humble pony around. She didn’t think just making your living space up high meant anything bad.
Climbing the steps of the stairs they saw a placard that read:
~Lord Redwood’s Public Offices~
With an arrow pointing to the right, leading them down another hallway. This time they passed by a maid, who stood by the side of the wall and bowed as they walked past. After a few more signs and arrows they made it to a golden door… that had a hastily made sign thumb-tacked to it that said “Big Dad Redwood’s Office” written in poorly scribbled pen.
“Hehe.” Applejack chuckled. It made her think of how open Twilight was and how she didn’t want others to treat her different just because she was a princess. “Let’s go in.” She said as she pulled open the door, not knocking this time.
The office, in comparison to the sign, was actually rather fancy. Big paintings of landscapes dotted the walls, beautiful flowers were ensconced in every corner, the floor was a purple velvet carpet, the one desk in the room was impeccably clean and polished and a bronze statue of a rearing pony on a pedestal stood behind it.
And Big Dad Redwood sat behind that desk, smiling at his visitors.
He was the type of pony Rarity would swoon over. Maroon coat with a slick black mane and mustache. He was noticeably older than Applejack but his face was still handsome and chiseled, his wide smile showed off his pearly white teeth.
“Why hello there.” He said as he took some papers off his desk and slid them into a drawer, keeping things clean for his new arrivals. “Why don’t you take a seat? You folks must be from out of town, I know just about everyone in Valley Town.”
There were only two seats in front of the desk so it ended up just being Applejack and Quartz sitting while the others stood behind them.
“Thank you, Mr. Redwood.” Applejack said.
“Please, please,” He said, waving his hooves in front of his body. “My butler may want to keep things formal but you don’t need to call me Mr. or Lord or anything like that, just Redwood or Big Dad Redwood is great.” He smiled, teeth almost shining.
“Fine by me.” Applejack smiled. “Anyways, my name is Applejack. I’m from a town called Ponyville and to put it simply, I’m lost. Been lost for a long while. I met your fort captain Thistle and she said you would be the best bet for directions.”
He rubbed his chin as she told him her story. “I do recognize the name although I’ve never been there myself.”
Applejack immediately brightened up at this. “Really?! Do you know how to get there from here?”
“Of course, you go north from here into the deeper forest, there’s a road leading right out of town, and you head down the western road. It forks right after it crosses the little river that separates us from Mountain Town. That’ll take you right to Ponyville.”
“Whoo-hee!” Applejack yelled, jumping up in her chair. “Finally some good news for once!”
“Glad I could be of help.” Redwood chuckled at her display. “Of course the trip there would take a few days at least, just to tell ya. I wouldn’t recommend leaving right now.”
“We figured we would stay here for a day or so.” Quartz spoke up. “Also, forgive my curiosity but I wanted to ask you about the situation between you and Mountain Town.”
Redwood’s face dropped, obviously this was not a topic he was happy about. “Oh, well, what would you like to know?”
“The fort we went through gave a rather startling picture of things. It looked like the ponies there were ready for war at any moment. But then when we got into town it was the complete opposite.”
“Yes.” Redwood replied. “The fort was actually the idea of our Sheriff, Good Harvest, he’s always been on edge about Mountain Town ever since things started to go bad between us. I was against the fort but he was very firm that we should have a real defense set up. He sent out for any volunteers that felt the same way about Mountain Town and gathered them in the fort to make up his fighting force. Most ponies in Valley Town don’t think of Mountain Town at all, and certainly don’t think we’re about to start fighting.”
“I see.” Quartz looked introspective. “What’s the situation like in Mountain Town?”
“Haven’t got a clue.” Redwood shrugged. “We really have almost no contact with them anymore. Why do you ask?”
Quartz just sighed. “I, and my companions here,” He said, gesturing at the disciples behind him. “Like to consider ourselves something of do-gooders. Sometimes we may stick our necks where they don’t belong but if there’s trouble somewhere we can’t help but want to help.”
Applejack did want to ask if she was going to be included in that but truth be told she was concerned as well, and she was an Element of Harmony, wouldn’t speak too well of her if she just up and left these ponies with their problems while she went home.
Too eager to please…
Applejack sighed as well. “Yeah, I guess I owe you one too for the directions so if you do need help with anything just ask. We could see what’s going on in Mountain Town and all that? If they’re like most of Valley Town maybe we can convince your sheriff that you don’t need the fort and everypony can just settle down.”
“Actually that’s a good idea.” Redwood mused. “They wouldn’t take the word of a pony from Valley Town or anypony sent by me but if some outsiders came to talk to them maybe things could get done. I’d really like if things could return to the old way, for a few reasons...”
He trailed off before resuming, face sadly looking down at his desk.
“Before the drought and everything going bad my son and the daughter of the Mountain Town leader were in love. If we could just start talking again not only could my son finally be with the girl of his dreams but a marriage like that would bring our towns closer together than they ever were. If you could go there and get things started it would go a long way. Maybe you could even convince them to get rid of the dam.”
“Excuse me.” Obsidian interjected. “But if the daughter is in love with your son as well why haven’t you tried doing this before? Why not just have your son go over there? And you said Mountain Town wouldn’t trust anypony sent by you, why?” She stared him down.
“It’s because they’d see it as a power grab by me.” Redwood replied simply. “The old leader of Mountain Town died not two years ago, they still haven’t gotten a real replacement, they’d think I’d just want my son to marry his daughter so I could try and take charge of both towns.”
“That seems awfully paranoid of them.” Quartz raised an eyebrow.
“They already have reason to not like or trust me. I was the one who came up with hoarding our food and charging extra for it after the first bad harvest.” Redwood said with shame in his voice.
Applejack’s eyes shot open and then narrowed in anger, mean frown appearing on her face. “It’s your fault this all happened then? Because you got greedy!” She pointed a hoof accusingly at him.
“It was a mistake!” Redwood pleaded. “We were hurting a bit, I wanted to get as much for Valley Town as I could. Even now we still only have enough food for ourselves thanks to the dam.”
“Sure.” Applejack grunted, sitting back in her seat and folding her hooves.
“I know it doesn’t speak well of me but please, we could still really use your help.” He put his hooves together in a pleading gesture. “I’ll have my son meet up with you, he can write a letter to Miss Pepper, that’s her name.”
Quartz stood up from his chair. “The problems of your towns certainly could’ve been avoided, but we’d be glad to help.” He began walking back out of Redwood’s office with the other disciple’s following him.
Applejack looked at Redwood’s ashamed face and got up as well.
“Hope you’ve given a lot of thought to what you did.”
They were staying in a guest suite in the manor, it was already night out as Obsidian stared out the window. Bedrock was eating a bowl of fruit that had been left for them and Marble and Quartz were attempting to teach Applejack some more Hoof of the Earth.
“You felt the vibration last time, now you need to hold it. Amplify it. It should be instinctual.” Marble said.
“Feel as if the heart beat continues to beat in your hoof, let it bounce around inside you and grow stronger each time.” Quartz added.
“Okay, okay.” Applejack did as she was told, again raising her hoof to her heart to capture the vibrations that came from its beating. She was about to attempt what they told her when a thought came into her head.
“Hey wait a second,” She started. “If I’m using my own body to carry and amplify these tremors isn’t that kind of dangerous? What if I mess up and lose control, couldn’t I break the bones in my leg or something?”
“It’s okay, that almost never happens.” Marble reassured her.
“Oh, well that puts me at ease.” She glared at him.
Quartz stepped in. “Don’t worry, first of all an earth pony's body is naturally resistant to such things and your own heartbeat will be familiar. It flows through your bones and muscles naturally. Unlike the tremor from a foreign Hoof of the Earth user. Only in rare cases, or intentionally, can a pony harm themselves with their own tremor.”
Applejack was not completely reassured but nothing was gonna change until she tried it. Again she felt her heartbeat and followed it, not trying to hold onto it yet but just following along as the vibration went throughout her body, just getting a feel for it. Closing her eyes and flattening her ears she tried to calm herself down. Focusing only on that one single sensation. There was no world outside her body. No other ponies, no sound, the only thing that existed was her heartbeat. The rhythm was steady, the beating uniform, any doctor would tell her she had a perfectly normal heartbeat. And that was good, the vibrations all came at the same pace, all taking the same time to spread through her body and then eventually disappearing.
She realized she had enough of a feel for it. Now she needed to capture that vibration and make it stronger. She let her heart beat a few more times with her hoof pressed up against it, the waves of vibration going up her leg, before pulling her hoof away. Furrowing her brow in concentration she imagined flexing her muscle and bottling all those vibrations in.
It worked.
She felt it all staying with her, it was like there was an energy in her hoof now. The vibrations all bounced off each other, going through her bones and muscles but unlike Applejack feared it caused no harm. Instead it just felt right.
Now make it stronger…
She flexed the muscles in her leg. Picturing all the vibrations like actual visible waves bouncing around harder and harder. The energy in her hoof grew and now she felt a steady tingle all along the foreleg she caught the vibrations in. The more they hit each other the stronger they got, and now it was finally time to release them.
Opening her eyes Applejack looked over at the fruit bowl Bedrock was eating from, a cantaloupe caught her attention. She turned around and bucked the coffee table the bowl was on, her expert bucking skills knocking the cantaloupe into the air in an arc over her head. As it passed above her she glanced up and just barely tapped the edge of her hoof against the cantaloupe while visualizing all the vibrations rushing from her body into the fruit.
The results were rather messy.
“Applejack, I’m very happy that you were able to successfully use Hoof of the Earth.” Quartz said. “But I think you could’ve possibly used it on something a bit less… sticky.” Remains of cantaloupe dripped over his face.
“I was going to eat that...” Bedrock whined, the top half of the cantaloupe skin stuck on his head.
“Uh… my bad? Ehe...” Applejack sheepishly rubbed the back of her had, bits and pieces of cantaloupe stuck all over her fur.
“Still that was quite the showing.” Marble told her. “You really do catch on fast.”
Applejack wondered if that was really all there was to it. When she bucked that coffee table she realized something, she had to do it in just the right way to get the cantaloupe to go where she wanted it to. It was easy for her because she’d spent her whole life bucking apple trees, she could perfectly buck a tree and get every single apple to fall right where she wanted it to in her sleep. And the way applebucking worked was kind of similar to Hoof of the Earth wasn’t it? You had to hit something just right with just the right amount of force to send a perfect little tremor through the tree to get the apples to fall the right way. Did she really have a natural talent for Hoof of the Earth or was it easy for her because of all her years on Sweet Apple Acres?
Well whatever, I should probably clean up.
“Come on y'all, don’t worry about the mess, I’ll get that cleaned up in a jiffy.”
“It’s rather late, we could just let the maid do it tomorrow.” Obsidian said as she flicked a stringy piece of cantaloupe from her hair.
“Nuh-uh, a good pony cleans up after themselves. Keeping busy is keeping good, that’s what I always say! Just let me grab some towels from the wash.”
As Applejack was going to get some things to clean up there was a knock on the door. Wiping the last of the cantaloupe from his face, Quartz went to open it.
Outside was a stallion who looked a bit younger than Applejack, he had a somewhat softer shade of maroon coat than Big Dad Redwood and no mustache. His eyes took in the messy state of the room but instead of questioning them about he just shrugged and entered.
“Hello, I’m Wavy Redwood. As you can probably put together Big Dad Redwood is my father.” He looked all of them over, the cantaloupe was not making this a particularly good first impression. “I… hope being covered in fruit is an unusual experience for you all?”
“Uh yeah, it’s my bad, don’t worry about it.” Applejack said. “Pleasure to meet ya though.” Extending a hoof to him.
“Likewise I guess.” He shook it well enough.
“Your father said you were going to write a letter for… Miss Pepper if I recall?” Quartz asked him.
“That’s right. It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, but-” He suddenly raised his hoof in the air, looking to the ceiling. “I know our love is still strong! There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her, my princess! She certainly still feels the same way about me as well.” He then pulled out a letter and gave it to Applejack. “This letter contains all of my built up feelings over the past few years, it will surely move her heart and this petty disagreement between our towns can be resolved.”
“Okay then.” Applejack said, blandly ignoring him, she had the practice of ignoring overly dramatic ponies thanks to Rarity. She took the letter and placed it under her hat.
“Now that letter is for Pepper’s eyes only, understand!” Wavy said as he stepped right up to Applejack, eyes practically pushing into hers. “It is absolutely private! My personal feelings are not for others to see, okay?”
“Alright, I get it!” Applejack pushed him away from her. “Look, we’re not the types of ponies to pry into your personal life and we’re here to help.”
“Yes, yes. My apologies.” He dusted himself off.
Applejack frowned. “And I would like to be able to clean up and get some sleep. So thanks for coming by but we need to rest before we head off to Mountain Town tomorrow.”
“Fair enough.” At these words he shrugged and began to walk back out the door. “I really hope things go well, for everypony.” Shutting the door and leaving the room quiet after those words.
Applejack thought about the letter she was now carrying, she didn’t think so much would be put on their shoulders in some town they had just wandered into earlier in the day. Getting home, Hoof of the Earth, this quarrel between Valley and Mountain Towns, a mare just can’t have a simple life anymore, can she?
No sense brooding over it all, at least now I can sleep in a bed again. After the cleaning though.
Morning came quickly and the party of five was on their way out of town already, coming back to the redwood forest. It was going to be a long walk all the way to Mountain Town so Applejack wanted to start early. The ponies of Valley Town watched them again as they left, maybe some were wondering just what the outsiders were doing but Applejack figured most wouldn’t give them a second thought. A few more minutes of walking went by before the quiet was interrupted.
“Should we have maybe looked into that sheriff?”
Applejack looked behind herself at Marble after he made his idea known.
“Why? He just thought they needed to be prepared didn’t he?”
“I just think there’s something not right about that fort.” Marble said. “The towns have stayed pretty much the same way for a few years now at least and most of Valley Town was full of happy ponies. Even if they haven’t had much contact with Mountain Town lately could it really be that different from what we saw in Valley Town? Do they really think that Mountain Town might attack them out of the blue?”
“You think the sheriff has something else going on?” Quartz chimed in.
“Either that or he really is just paranoid.” Marble continued on. “When we get back from Mountain Town I think we should go talk with him.”
“Alright, I guess he is somepony we should talk to about all this stuff anyways.” Applejack relented. “But first thing’s first, Mountain Town. Hope there aint anything bad going on but we better be prepared.”
Applejack and the others had finished their walk through the forest, going past the intersection that led south to the fort and north to the farms, and ended up at the walled off river. Like Thistle told them there were a couple gaps in the wall here, one of them went sheer into the river and Applejack assumed it must’ve been the space for where the Mountain Town side drawbridge would come down. On their side the pathway led right up the drawbridge, where two pegasi sat in towers on each side of the bridge. Two big sets of wheels sat on top of the bridge that would let go of or retract the chains when needed.
They were ready to cross when it became readily apparent that the two pegasi meant to work the drawbridge were sleeping.
“I can’t say I’m surprised, no one crosses anymore do they?” Obsidian mused. “In fact I’m more surprised that they’ve kept the bridge operators here at all.”
“Well whether it’s slow work or not they’re here and we need em’.” Applejack said, trotting forward to right under one of the towers. “Hey! Wake Up! You hear me, we need you to lower the drawbridge!”
The two pegasi slowly rose from their sleep, one of them slipping off his chair and the other restlessly flapping their wings and kicking their hooves like they were just in a dream.
“Huh? Who’s down there?” The one who had fallen from his chair asked, in the tower above where Applejack was yelling.
On the other side the pegasus groggily leaned out of his tower, drool on the side of his mouth and eyes unfocused.
“These two are not morning ponies.” Quartz stated flatly.
“We’re trying to get to Mountain Town, can you lower the bridge?” Applejack said up to them.
“Ohhhh.” The one above her replied. “Wow, it’s been a really long time since we’ve had anypony going over. I wonder if the bridge mechanism still works. Hey, Canopy, unlock your side.” He shouted over to his groggy companion before turning around himself and flipping a lever by the wheels on his side.
Canopy wordlessly nodded, yawning he flipped a similar lever and started rubbing his back to get any soreness out.
“Okay, spinning these wheels will lower the bridge, I just hope it still works.” The more awake pegasus said as he and Canopy both began turning the bottom most wheel counterclockwise.
A heavy rumbling and metallic clinking sounded from inside the bridge as more gears grinded together. As they spun the wheels the huge wooden drawbridge creaked and groaned, having been set in one position for too long. But still it began to lower. The big chains supporting it as it went down were a bit rusty but still strong looking to Applejack, a few times things got stuck for a second but eventually the drawbridge lowered fully to the other side.
“Thank you.” Applejack called up and the five ponies crossed over to Mountain Town.
Already things were a bit different. The drawbridge on the Mountain Town side right next to them was completely unstaffed and unlike on Valley Town where the forest was thin before getting much thicker the closer you got to the actual town, here the forest was almost completely gone. Most trees had clearly been cut down with just their stumps remaining, and even then Applejack could see numerous holes where the stumps had been dug up as well. The air was quiet and a low fog hung over the ground that must have rolled in from down the mountains. Obsidian noticed that unlike the other side with its squirrels and birds there were no animals scurrying around. For all intents and purposes crossing the bridge seemed to deliver them to a new country rather than a twin town right across a small river. There was no road or path of any kind, all they had to go on was that at least they could see the mountain where the town was situated.
“Well, no welcoming committee is better than a bad one.” Marble said, trotting ahead of Applejack.
“Guess so.” She said and went after him, the others following, the fog being pushed aside as they walked.
Behind them, when it was clear that they were all over, the two pegasi pulled the drawbridge back up. If they wanted to get back to Valley Town they’d either have to go the long way back to the Y bridge at the main river or find somepony’s at Mountain Town that would work the drawbridge on this side.
The fog got thicker the closer they got to the mountains. Still there was no real path, no signs and no ponies around.
“I hope there’s something that’ll show us where the actual town is.” Obsidian spoke up. “I don’t really feel like getting lost in the mountains.”
“I’m sure there will be something the closer we get. There must be some pathway up and down the mountain.” Quartz answered. “And if it wasn’t for that fort there wouldn’t have been anything at this point in Valley Town either. Although the lack of any sort of road is somewhat odd.”
Things were just so desolate over here. It was strange. It felt closer to walking through the Everfree Forest than Ponyville.
Applejack and the group walked as straight as they possibly could from where they stepped off the bridge, sometime having to wind around uneven terrain but for the most part keeping to where they wanted to go. The mountains got closer and closer but unlike Valley Town there was no obvious sign of civilization. Clearly there was no town built into the front of a mountain like Valley Town was for its hill, else they would’ve seen it already, and there was certainly nothing like Redwood Manor looking down from above.
As they got closer to the foot of the mountain there were even less trees and tree stumps, almost all had been cut down and dug up. Applejack knew this was not a very sustainable practice, whoever was allowing this to happen in Mountain Town was pretty short-sighted, or they just didn’t care. Pepper was the daughter of the old leader, was she in charge now? Or maybe her father had already been doing this.
“This place feels sad.” Applejack didn’t turn when she heard Obsidian talk, just nodded.
“It reminds me of the monastery.” Bedrock said.
“Yes, me too now that I think about it.” Quartz drawled, sighing heavily. “That in itself is quite the sad realization.”
Applejack furrowed her brow, the morose conversation getting to her. “Y'all said something about your monastery before right? And you were the last disciples for some reason? Did something bad happen to you Hoof of the Earth ponies?” Her words seemed to bother them, none could meet her gaze and Obsidian even pulled up the hood on her cloak.
“It’s… a conversation for another time, when we don’t have something else hanging over our heads.” The answer from Quartz was unsatisfying but Applejack didn’t want to pry, he had a point too anyways.
The foot of the mountain had been reached.
And luckily for the ponies a wide pathway had been carved into it, snaking up further into the mountains. There were still no signs or anything but there was only one place to go so up the mountain path they went. They got out of the fog quick enough but the peaks of the mountain and the clouds still blocked out most of the sunlight.
“Good thing we’re in shape.” Obsidian said as they rounded the latest hairpin turn.
“This all makes me wonder if there are more ways to get into the main part of town, this path would take a very long time to travel for any ponies carrying a heavy load.” Marble wondered, looking around at the mountain pass.
Applejack kept herself focused and just trotted along, Wavy’s letter still safely in her hat, she didn’t have high hopes for a town that had secluded itself so much but she wasn’t going to let her apprehensions get the better of her. Fluttershy taught her that a little kindness can go a long way, and while she might not be able to make ponies laugh or throw a party as well as Pinkie Pie she figured if somepony’s needed their spirits brightened she wouldn’t be the worst choice for that.
Big Dad Redwood wanted them to convince Mountain Town to get rid of the dam completely though. She wasn’t sure how something like that would go over. She knew it was the right thing to do, it was just making both towns hurt and harming their relationship, but it was obvious something like that was a sensitive subject and the Mountain Town ponies might not react to it too well. Especially if they learn that Big Dad Redwood himself asked them to do it.
After what felt like the millionth hairpin the path finally leveled out and the party found themselves between the sides of two mountains, the dirt path turning to gravel and going down the valley between them.
“More walking, haven’t done enough of that in my life.” Applejack grinned at Marble’s sarcasm.
The mountain pass was uneventful to say the least, but at least here there were some large birds flying in the sky, their caws being something to break the silence every now and then. The pass curved slightly to the left, going south, and upon rounding a corner they finally spied the entrance to the true Mountain Town.
A large iron wall spanned the width of the valley, it was quite distinct from anything the ponies had seen in Valley Town. There was a gate in its center that was already open, the heavy doors resting inwards. The citizens of Mountain Town obviously weren’t expecting guests but it seems they had no reason to keep their doors closed. Beyond the wall Applejack could hear faint sounds and she saw smoke rising in the distance.
“Uh, I know the gate’s open and all but do you think they’d really appreciate us just walking in?” Marble asked.
“The ponies of Valley Town didn’t mind.” Applejack said back. Although even she knew that things were probably very different between both towns, and Valley Town didn’t even have a wall to keep others out in the first place.
Marble snorted but kept walking with her.
The gravel crunched under their hooves as they went through the gate, the town opening up before them on the other side.
Nestled in-between the mountains was a huge plateau. Applejack had thought Redwood Manor covered a lot of area but the plateau could’ve fit several of those side by side. But there was no more room for something like that left over, it seemed almost every inch of space was covered by buildings. Unlike Valley Town these were made of thick stone and metal. Dozens, hundreds, of chimneys and smokestacks rose up from them but only a few of those seemed to be in use at the moment.
“Huh, I was kind of expecting log cabins or something.” Applejack said to herself more than anypony.
“This is quite the town they’ve built.” Quartz looked out at the plateau. “I suppose we should get moving and hope someone will direct us to Pepper.”
The ponies walked down the gravel path that led into town, like Valley Town there were no guards but as they got to the buildings they noticed a few differences. The town was noisy with the hustle and bustle of working ponies, compared to Valley’s calmer feeling, and if ponies weren’t too busy to notice them they would stare openly at Applejack and the disciples, narrowing their eyes in suspicion with frowns clear on their face.
No, everypony looked upset, it wasn’t just from seeing Applejack and them. They all walked with tired, downtrodden looks or angry frowns from place to place. And there were no children happily playing around either.
“Have you noticed that everyone looks more on the thin side?” Obsidian asked.
Now that she mentioned it, yeah, Applejack did notice. Most ponies looked thin and lanky, like Flim and Flam but not as tall.
“We should ask for directions instead of aimlessly wandering.” Quartz decided to walk into the path of a slow moving stallion and ask him outright, the stallion was surprised but pointed them in the right direction to where they could find Pepper, probably just to get them to leave more than anything.
It was certainly good they had directions now too, the town was like a labyrinth, buildings constructed without rhyme nor reason. The streets ever twisting and turning, some spots of the town had buildings crowding and built on top of each other, blocking out any sunlight from above.
“Have you seen any weapons? Ponies with armor? Anything like the fort?”
Applejack stopped. He was right. Ponies looked sadder and angrier than in Valley Town but there was nothing like the fort, no “military” like Thistle and her soldiers or anything like that.
“I’m almost certain that a good number of the buildings here are forges for ironwork's but I haven’t seen a single sword or helmet on anyone.” Quartz finished. “I don’t think Mountain Town is the threat that the sheriff and Thistle might think it is.”
Applejack nodded and started walking again. Mountain Town was just like the main part of Valley Town, the ponies had no inclination to fight each other. If anything it seemed Mountain Town cared even less about something like that.
After far too many twists and turns through the maze of buildings Applejack and the disciples came to a large stone building built right at the edge of the plateau. On it was a signboard that read “Remember Our Founders!” in bold red paint.
“This is it.” Quartz walked forward, pushing open the unlocked doors of the building with the others following him in. The first floor was a simple affair, in front of them was a desk built into the wall with a large series of shelves to the left of it, a staircase that went up to the second floor balcony on their right. There was another door on the back wall marked “private”, it was the only other way in or out of the room on the first floor and considering how big the building looked from the outside there was likely a lot back there.
“We’re not accepting- oh.” A female secretary began to speak before even looking up at them, but when her eyes found them she suddenly changed tone. “Who are you?”
“Well, I’m Applejack and these are my friends. We, uh, came here to see Pepper?”
The secretary's eyes narrowed. “Why?”
Applejack frowned. “We wanted to talk to her about your relationship with Valley Town. We were just over there and after seeing how things are we wanted to help.” Applejack really hoped they didn’t ask if Big Dad Redwood sent them, she didn’t want to lie and even if she did anypony could probably tell that she was.
The mare blew a part of her mane out of her face and reached under her desk to press a buzzer.
Instantly Applejack and the others could hear a door open up on the floor above them.
“Coming! I’m coming! I heard you, I’ll be right there!” A cheerful mare’s voice bellowed out to them.
They heard a pony scampering down the hallway before she swung around the corner and started practically running down the stairs. She had a light pink coat and a curly red mane with a chili pepper cutie mark. Halfway down the stairs she tripped over her own hooves and tumbled down them in a mess.
“Ow.”
“You alright?” Applejack walked up to her, concerned but also wary of the mare’s over-exuberance. One pony like Pinkie Pie was enough.
“Yes! Fine!” She righted herself and shot to her hooves, she was taller than Applejack but thin enough that she clearly weighed a good bit less. “I know Inky buzzed me down for you, can I help you?” Her smile was wider than a crocodiles.
“Well, we just came in from out of town-”
“Out. Of. Town!” She squealed and shook Applejack’s hooves in her own. “It is so amazing to meet you!” Darting over to Quartz and the others she quickly shook all of their hooves as well. “It has been, like, forever since anypony from out of town came by!”
Coughing she stepped back and bowed. “I am Pepper, currently in charge of Mountain Town, daughter of our former leader Green Vine. How may I help you?”
Applejack remembered that Big Dad Redwood said there was officially no new leader but obviously that was old news. Still, Pepper being in charge of things here didn’t exactly fill her with confidence… well, Twilight kind of made her feel that way too sometimes if she was being honest.
“Uh, so first of all I’m Applejack and these are Quartz, Marble, Bedrock and Obsidian.” She said, gesturing to each of them. “And we came here cause...” She glanced at the secretary, Inky. “Actually, sorry if I’m being rude but can we talk somewhere a little more private?”
“Oh, of course, of course!” Pepper nodded eagerly, even though Inky was frowning at her. “Come right on upstairs!” She beckoned them and danced on up, squealing in delight.
As they followed her up Applejack could hear her squeeing some more and talking to herself.
“This mare’s been having too much sugar lately.” She whispered back to the others, getting Obsidian to giggle.
So up to the second floor and back to Pepper’s office they went, unlike Big Dad Redwood’s pristine and luxurious office this was a mess of crumpled paper, garbage, and notebooks. The wooden floor had no carpeting but was instead cracked and stained, stepping over an ink puddle Applejack spotted an overflowing trashcan in the back and a couch with a ratty looking wool blanket thrown over it. Seemed like this might not just be her office but her room as well.
“Okay!” Pepper said, not bothering to sit at her desk but instead pacing in front of it. “So what do you want to talk about? I hope it’s something exciting!”
Applejack fought to not roll her eyes.
“Yeah… the thing is we had heard that you and Valley Town kind of had a falling out.” Pepper’s face dropped, she nodded. “And we wanted to see if we could help you.”
“Huh? Really?” Pepper asked, surprised. “I mean, I’m happy! But you just decided to come here to help us like that? Out of the goodness in your hearts or something?”
“Well to be honest there’s more to it than that, I’m traveling on my way home and my uh, journey I guess, brought me here. And when me and my friends heard about what had happened and what we could do to help we just thought it was the right thing. It just kind of happened.”
Pepper’s huge cheery smile returned in full force. “Eeeeeeee! That’s amazing! It’s like fate brought you here!”
“Actually, uh, what brought us to you was a letter.” Applejack said as she reached into her hat and pulled out Wavy’s letter, showing it to her. “We’ve been to Valley Town first, I didn’t want to mention it out in the open but I don’t wanna lie to ya, Big Dad Redwood asked if we could help resolve things. And his son Wavy wrote this letter to you.”
“It’s from Wavy!” She screamed and grabbed the letter. “Ahhhhhh! I’ve been waiting soooo long! I just knew we’d be able to talk to each other again!”
Oh boy…
“This is the bestest best day ever! And you all just came here this morning? You must be exhausted! I’ll show you the absolute best Mountain Town has to offer! Have you heard of our mud baths? You have to visit the mud baths! Let’s go!”
In her immense excitement Pepper had completely forgotten to actually read the letter, when Applejack asked her if she was okay with just leaving it on her desk she said something about her heart already knowing the words of love Wavy wrote her. Whatever that meant. Why wasn’t Rarity here to help her with this kind of stuff? Pepper had shuffled Applejack and the disciples out of her office and the building and led them down several streets to a large clay dome. The entrance was underground, stairs were built into the ground that led down to it, simple sheets of cloth hung down from the entryway instead of any actual door. Pepper pushed them aside and led them into the building.
Now Applejack was neck deep in warm mud and she had to admit it felt pretty good. All her stress and soreness evaporated, it was just like a trip to the Ponyville spa. Beside her sat Obsidian and Pepper with the guys being in the bath right next to them.
“Isn’t this just the greatest?” Pepper said, releasing a deep sigh and resting her head against the edge of the bath. “Nothing beats a trip to the mud baths.”
“Mhm, this feels great, Pepper.” Obsidian looked like she was about to fall asleep from how relaxing it was.
“And you don’t have to worry about paying or anything.” Pepper smiled at them. “I want you to see the absolute best our town has to offer! You’ll love it here, and everypony will be super duper happy to see new faces and especially ones that are trying to help us!”
Her optimism was rather pleasant to Applejack but it really didn’t reflect reality so far.
“Are you sure? The ponies we saw didn’t look very happy. Nothing changed when they saw us either.” Applejack asked.
“Ehe, well things have been a little rough but when they get the full story they’ll be suuuuuper happy!” She jumped up a little, spreading her hooves wide and spraying Applejack and Obsidian in the face with some mud. “Oops. Sorry.” Pepper blushed embarressedly.
“I noticed how thin most ponies look, if that’s what you mean by rough.” Applejack frowned as she wiped the mud off her face.
“Yes, we have strict food rationing. There are a lot of personal little farms ponies have in town and there are several small plots of land tucked between the mountains that we use to grow food but we’re still always just barely scraping by.” Pepper sighed. “I wish I could do more.”
“Well...” Applejack almost raised her hoof to rub the back of her head but remembered she was in a mud bath. “If you stopped damming the river, Valley Town would be able to grow a large surplus of crops again and I’m sure they’d be more than happy to start trading with you again. At least Big Dad Redwood really seems to want to, he told us it was his idea to originally try to wring more out of you for the food and that’s why you dammed the river in the first place, but he seemed to really regret that.”
Pepper’s eyes grew sadder as Applejack talked. “It’s not so simple. I really want to get rid of the dam, honestly I don’t care about what Mr. Redwood did at all anymore, I just want the best for our town now. But so many ponies are still angry. They still feel wronged by Valley Town and they won’t accept the dam being taken down.”
“But this just doesn’t make any sense!” Applejack said. “Yeah, what Big Dad Redwood did was wrong but it wasn’t right of you all to dam the river too. Most ponies in Valley Town are just like you all, we’ve been there, they don’t feel anything bad towards ya, they’re just trying to live their lives. If you take down the dam you can really be the first ones to let bygones be bygones and show Valley Town that you want to go back to being friends.”
“I told you I’d like to but I’m not really the pony you need to convince you know.” Pepper said as she used her magic to fluff up her mane, rising from the mud bath. “Let’s get cleaned up, I’ll take you to the dam and the ponies that work on it.”
“So Wavy and I met years ago when I went to Valley Town with my father, there was this huuuge party at Redwood Manor and everypony was there! It was the best night ever! There was food, and music, and dancing, and I got to talk with soooo many interesting ponies. My dad said that they were mostly a bunch of hooligans or something but they were all really nice to me. And so anyways, Wavy was there and he asked me to dance and we danced and it was just so magical! It was like a spark between us! Love at first dance, have you ever heard of something so romantic? He told me how he just knew we were meant for each other and I totally agreed! I knew there was never ever anyway I could ever love somepony as much as him. We were totally destined for each other! You know?”
Pepper had been talking for a long time.
Applejack had stopped listening for a long time.
Marble stared ahead blankly, his mind numb from her endless prattling. Quartz and Bedrock looked the same as always, Obsidian had a plastic smile stuck on her face.
“By the way I was named after a special pepper that only grows in these mountains. Cool right? And I got my cutie mark in farming peppers! That’s just like the most awesome thing isn’t it! My dad thought so, he was so proud the day I got my cutie mark. I ate a whole raw pepper that night, it really hurt my mouth but it was totally worth it.”
The six of them now had been heading down another mountain pass that led away from the plateau. They were traveling south to the main river, for a while stuck between two cliff faces but now they had emerged onto a ridge that overlooked the entire valley. All of Valley Town was visible in the distance, Redwood Manor making a noticeable landmark on top of its hill, even the Y bridge and the small little settlement they had walked through before crossing the river were vaguely visible. The fort though was completely obscured by the trees, a good thing Applejack thought, if the Mountain Town ponies got curious about what that was things might have gotten pretty hairy.
The sun was almost at the horizon, its rays of light coming directly sideways at Applejack and the others.
Turning around the face of the mountain Applejack spied a tunnel ahead, it was well carved and lined with bricks, there was no lighting on its inside but Applejack could see the light of the exit a couple hundred feet down.
“Watch your step a bit. I know some ponies wanted to put torches along the walls in here but nopony has gotten around to it.” Pepper explained. “It’s not too long of a walk though, the dam is pretty much right beyond this. And there are some houses too, some of the workers live right on site. Pretty convenient, huh?”
They were about halfway through the tunnel when Applejack saw Bedrock perk up beside her. He started looking around in all directions before glancing up and keeping his eyes glued on the ceiling.
“Something wrong, Bedrock?” Quartz asked in a whisper so as not to alert Pepper.
“There are ponies right above us. And over on the other side of the mountain heading towards the dam as well. At least a dozen.”
“The workers?” Applejack asked.
“Why wouldn’t they just use the tunnel? And they came from the direction we came but aren’t using the set pathways, whoever these ponies are they’re trying to sneak up on the dam… or us.” Marble said.
“Something’s wrong, but act natural.” Quartz frowned and walked closer towards Pepper, who was humming some song.
“Hi there!” She said as he came up beside her. “Looking forward to seeing the dam? It’s pretty cool!”
“I’m quite excited.” Quartz’s eyes were stony and focused on the exit of the tunnel.
Bedrock turned to Applejack to whisper into her ear. “The ponies have stopped, they’re waiting around the exit to ambush us, get ready.”
When they finally exited the tunnel Applejack was fully able to see the dam. Tucked away a bit into the mountains so it wasn’t visible from downstream, it was a great wall of stone with huge wooden logs supporting it at the sides and bottom and a few metal pipes and grates that allowed the river to flow out at a much smaller volume. Applejack’s party was situated to the right of the dam, the path out of the tunnel branching off in two directions. Heading left would take one up to the dam itself, high fences built along the ridge-line for safety, while to the right were the houses Pepper mentioned. A large portion of the mountainside had been mined out for building room. The cliff-face was low to their right, it did look like ponies could easily climb over it if they didn’t want to use the tunnel or passes Pepper took them through.
“Ta-da! Isn’t it amazing!” Pepper shouted, spreading her hoof out in front of her. “Just look at it all!”
At that moment a number of shadows dropped in front of her, ponies that had leaped from above them.
The fifteen that Applejack saw stayed spread out, all of them earth ponies, they had a rough look to them and they all wore the same black scarves. One of them was carrying a large bag full with something on their back.
Pepper had a nervous smile as she looked at them. “Uh… hi? Who are you?”
The pony in the lead position, a stallion with a pumpkin orange coat, spoke up. “No concern of yours, but you could help us out, Miss Pepper. You’re going to tell all the workers here to stand down and leave the dam. We’re destroying it.”
“Um… what?” Pepper tilted her head and asked sweetly. She was not a pony experienced in dealing with bad guys.
“I’m not here to indulge your curiosity.” The likely leader told her. “Now come with us and do what I asked so we can get this done with as simply and peacefully as possible. Otherwise I am perfectly willing to hurt some ponies to get this done, so what are- whoa!”
Quartz lunged forward at him with lightning speed, swiping at him. But he was able to leap back to safety, the hoof just barely missing him. Some of his comrades came to his side while the others formed a semi-circle around Applejack’s party. The one carrying the bag held back behind them all.
“I hadn’t heard you had gotten yourself some protectors.” The leader said to Pepper as he eyed Quartz. “Could you tell things were getting more dangerous in these towns?”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! What’s going on here? Why do you want to destroy the dam?” Pepper was shaking her head in confusion, completely surprised by the turn of events.
The leader frowned. “This is some set of coincidences, I planned for us to just come here and get rid of the dam today. Only for us to spy the leader of Mountain Town heading there. I thought that was perfect, you could help us finish this even easier. But now as it turns out you were coming here with a completely unaffiliated and unknown group of ponies. And fighters too at that. We didn’t think you would be here at all today. Too many coincidences.”
Applejack furrowed her brow, this was weird. Ponies from out of nowhere who want to destroy the dam? Why? And if what he was saying is true they didn’t have anything to do with Applejack, Pepper or the disciples, they all just happened to run into each other through random chance and timing.
“I can see this isn’t going to be as simple as I hoped. Should’ve just ignored you and gone to the dam.” The leader spat out and backed up as the other disciples formed up around Quartz. “Whatever, if that’s how it has to be then so be it. Everypony, kill these stooges.”
The leader and the pony carrying the bag backed up with three other ponies while the remaining ten formed up in line and faced down Applejack and the disciples. Pepper frantically looked back and forth between the two groups, legs shaking in fear.
For a moment it was just a standoff, neither group attacking.
Applejack was tense, a bead of sweat rolling down her face. These ponies were bad news but she really didn’t want to fight unless she had to.
“Look y'all, I’m sure we-”
Her attempt to talk them down was the trigger as both the enemy ponies and the disciples leaped at each other.
One of them struck Bedrock in the face with a hoof, only for him to nonchalantly smack him aside as if a fly had struck him. Marble’s small frame dodged under two other attackers, he delivered quick strikes to their barrels and Applejack winced as she could hear their forelegs snap, sending the two screaming to the ground.
The leader saw this and nervously licked his lips. Quartz and Obsidian were stuck dueling against other opponents that continuously dodged their attacks after seeing what a single touch from Marble could do, but it was obvious who the superior fighters were and it was just a matter of time before the disciples could take down the whole group.
Applejack heard another scream as Bedrock snapped the leg of a different attacker.
She gritted her teeth and ran forward, trying to run right to the leader. One of his underlings came to meet her, not lunging forward over-confidently like Sandstone but taking a measured stance. Applejack wasn’t sure enough about her skill in Hoof of the Earth to not accidentally kill anypony she used it on, she’d fight the same way she had her whole life.
She ducked under a wide swing but found the other hoof coming right for her face, she tried to backpedal but still got hit on the edge of her snout, the attacker didn’t give her any time to recover as they pushed forward. Darting to the side they kneed Applejack in the flank and when her knees buckled they kicked under her stomach.
But Applejack was tough, she let out a wheeze and acted like she was about to fall over, her attacker struck a hoof out straight at her face that Applejack slipped away from. Pulling her head back so that the enemy’s hoof went less than an inch in front of her face she leaned back forward and bit the pony right on the hoof.
Not finished yet she held down with her teeth and raised the pony in the air, swinging them around like a sack of flour before throwing them back to the ground.
They made a hard “whud” on the ground and Applejack heard them painfully cough as all the air was knocked out of their lungs. This one was down for the count.
The noise of the fighting had seemed to draw the attention of some of the ponies who worked and lived at the dam. Applejack saw several at the top of the dam coming down the pathway and many more that were poking their heads out of the homes to her right. Since Pepper was here some of them might see her and try to help out but Applejack didn’t want anypony else to get in danger.
She turned to the leader and began running towards him, he scowled and kicked his hooves against the ground, kicking up a big dust cloud. Appplejack put on the brakes but still skidded into it, coughing and rubbing at her eyes. When it cleared and she got her vision back she saw that the leader, the bag carrying pony, and two others were running up to the dam.
“Shoot, hey y'all! We gotta go get them!” She yelled to her friends.
Looking back at them she saw that they had made short work of their assailants, the ones fighting Quartz and Obsidian were lying in a heap, Marble left a trail of broken limbs and moaning ponies in his wake and Bedrock had turned his foes into pancakes.
But Bedrock still…
“Hold on.” He said as he walked up to one of the unconscious ponies. “Let me just finish this.” Bedrock raised a hoof to the skull of the pony.
“What are you doing!” Applejack screamed as she ran up to him, knocking away his hoof and putting herself between him and the pony. “Were you gonna kill him or something!?”
“Of course.” Bedrock stated simply.
Applejack stared aghast, she couldn’t tell what the others behind her were thinking but obviously they didn’t have a problem with this if Bedrock was going to just do this without any complaint from them.
“You can’t do that! It’s wrong!”
Bedrock just cocked an eyebrow at her. “What are you talking about? They attacked us. And you heard what their leader said about hurting ponies, they’re bad guys.”
“And we’re good ponies. And good ponies don’t kill! Especially not some helpless fella who’s already out cold!” Applejack stomped her hoof angrily.
“Applejack, please.” Quartz called to her. “I believe we can talk about this later.”
Applejack scowled but she knew he was right, they had to get to the dam. Glaring at Bedrock she ran down the path, Quartz and the others following her.
“Uhh, why are we even stopping them from destroying the dam now?” Marble asked. “That’s basically why we came here.”
“No! If we let these ponies destroy the dam now it wont fix anything, the ponies of Mountain Town will be even angrier! They might even think Valley Town had something to do with it and then they’d march down there and-” Applejack stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing something. “They’d march down there and find Thistle’s fort and all those soldiers waiting for them...”
“Yeah, think about it. If the dam was suddenly destroyed the ponies of Mountain Town would naturally suspect Valley Town did it. They’d fly down there in a rage. But they don’t know about the fort and they have no weapons. Thistle would easily fight them off.”
Quartz nodded. “Yes, and they’d see it as an act of war and take the fight to Mountain Town, possibly even using it as an excuse to take it over completely. I think whoever hired these mercenaries was counting on that sort of reaction, it would also create a lot of panic among the normal ponies in Valley Town and likely change their views on Mountain Town.”
“And I can think of exactly who might have planned this.” Obsidian said.
“The sheriff.” Everyone answered at once.
Applejack gritted her teeth and ran faster, they were almost to where the dam began, the top level of it being wide enough that all five of them could walk across side by side. A metal railing that was twice as high as Applejack rose on the side that faced the valley, another railing half its height was on the side of the artificial lake.
Several hurt and groaning ponies lay on their path, obviously the workers, Applejack was happy to see that none of them looked too bad.
Going through an archway built on the edge of the dam they finally made it to the top side, steel grating now below their hooves. They galloped further along the top of the damn for a second-
“I suggest stopping there.”
Applejack looked forward to see the hired ponies midway on the dam. The big bag that one had been carrying was now sitting on the steel grating, one of the other underlings also sported a black eye. Seems the workers here didn’t let them pass peacefully.
“It’s obvious any fight wont go in our favor.” Their leader said to them. “So you’ve forced me to do this.” He tore the bag apart to reveal its contents, a large metal cylinder with wires attached to some other doohickey on top.
Applejack had no idea what she was looking at. It looked like the kind of gadget Flim and Flam or Twilight would make.
“A bomb.” Quartz ground out.
Applejack looked to her side at him, his eyes were narrowed in hate at the object before him, she had never seen him so angry.
“That’s right. And although I’d really prefer not to, I will detonate it right here and now if you don’t back away. Otherwise I’m willing to give you the opportunity to leave, take the workers and other ponies with you and give us enough space to set the timer and get out of here. Then we’re all out of your mane. You’re all not even from Mountain Town anyways are you? No sense losing your lives over it right?” He inched his hoof closer to the contraption on top of the bomb. “Now make your choice. Leave, or I blow us all up.”
Applejack’s eyes met his. She saw…
“What should we do?” Marble whispered to Quartz.
“I might be able to send a tremor into them from here, but I don’t know if it will incapacitate them all quick enough.” He replied, Obsidian and Bedrock wound up as tight as springs, ready to move at a moment’s notice.
“All four of us could try it at once and-” Marble tried continuing on but was cut off.
“Not necessary.” Applejack said and walked forward. Face expressionless. Staring right at the enemy ponies.
“Did you hear me?!” The pumpkin colored leader yelled at her. “I can flip one switch and blow us all up. Step back!”
Applejack stared right at him, unperturbed.
“Then do it.”
The other mercenaries looked at her like she was insane, jaws dropping wide they nervously shared a glance with each other, sweat starting to pour down their faces. The leader growled and narrowed his eyes at her, hoof reaching to one of the switches.
“Applejack! What are you doing?!” Obsidian yelled at her.
Applejack didn’t want to break her gaze with the leader but she imagined the other disciples were similarly flummoxed and perplexed by what she was doing.
His hoof was right on top of the switch, a single ounce more of pressure would flip it and send them all to the moon. Steel eyes met Applejack’s emerald gaze, the leader not making any signs of fear like his underlings. There was no sweat on his brow, no nervous glancing, his hoof was steady as a rock. Applejack as well was unwavering. Neither of them reacted to anything else around them, they might as well have been on a deserted island. Two ponies and a bomb. One daring the other to flip the switch and blow them both up.
No blinking. No words spoken.
He didn’t sigh, his expression didn’t change, but the leader removed his hoof from the switch and stepped away from the bomb.
The leader and the other three mercenaries allowed themselves to be tied up and taken into custody. Quartz had taken the bomb back through the tunnel they had used to get to the dam to make sure it was far enough away that it couldn’t harm any ponies. The injured workers were being taken care of in one of the houses while the injured and unconscious mercenaries were stuck in a dining hall for the time being, Pepper had sent somepony running back to the plateau to bring more who could help.
Applejack and the others sat outside by the dam, waiting for Quartz to return.
Obsidian was fidgeting, restless. Bedrock was staring off into space and Marble was eyeballing Applejack.
Finally Marble decided to question Applejack.
“How’d you know he was bluffing?”
Applejack looked at the dam for a second, the deep water of the lake behind it and the few pouring streams of water coming out down below. “He asked us if we were willing to die for some place that wasn’t even our home. I was wondering if he was. He didn’t come off as the type of fellow who would die for his job. And honestly? I just kind of saw it in his eyes.”
“Big risk.” Bedrock muttered.
She frowned. “You got something to say?”
“Well you didn’t want me to kill but you had no problem putting all of our lives in danger.”
“That’s cause killing other ponies is wrong!”
“That’s silly, they were our enemies who would've had no problem killing us. There are lots of bad ponies in the world and you need to be prepared to deal with them” He glared down at her.
“Bad ponies? Oh I’ve dealt with a lot of those.” Applejack turned her back to him and walked over to the dam, looking down the valley side where the large river once flowed. “And dangerous beasts and monsters that could tear apart the world, I’m not naive about what’s out there. I know there are dangerous things. But those ponies we fought? They weren’t monsters, bad fellows who made a mistake, but not monsters. I would never kill somepony like them. That’s not what a good pony does. I know that sometimes there’s no choice, sometimes you’ll be facing down some evil monster that you can’t stop or reason with.” Applejack turned back, looking him hard In the face. “But that wasn’t the case here.”
Bedrock saw she wasn’t going to budge and sighed, shaking his head. “Fine, no more killing.”
Obsidian smiled while Marble just shrugged.
“The bomb is taken care of.”
All of them looked back to the tunnel, Quartz was walking out of it, his face back to his normal expressionless mask.
“That’s good. I want to talk with the leader of those ponies now. See if he actually knows anything and who hired him.” Applejack said and began walking to where they were being held. “What did you do with the bomb anyways?” She asked Quartz, looking back over her shoulder.
“I disposed of it, it’s not the first time I’ve dealt with a device like that.” He wouldn’t meet her gaze as he talked, obviously it wasn’t something he liked to think about.
Fair enough. Applejack thought, they didn’t pry into her life so she might as well give them the same respect.
The leader of the mercenaries was tied together with the other three ponies around a large fir tree that grew on the side of the mountain. The slope was easy enough to walk on hoof, it was the start of the pass that the mercenaries had initially used to get to the dam area instead of using the tunnel.
He looked at them plainly, didn’t seem to be angry or afraid, he had allowed them to tie him up and didn’t make any threats or curse at them while it happened.
“So.” Applejack said first thing as she came up to him, the other mercenary tied directly to his left was the one with the black eye who had been carrying the bomb in the first place. “What’s your names?”
The other three let out variations of “Huh?” while the leader just raised an eyebrow. This wasn’t exactly how they expected the interrogation to start.
“Um, I’m Tool Box.” The black eyed pony said, causing the leader to groan and roll his eyes.
“You’re all so unprofessional. Fine, just tell her everything, who cares? I’m Birdseed.” He said.
“I’m Tone Tuner.” The one immediately to Birdseed’s right said.
“Peach Cobbler.” The last one and only mare said.
Applejack smiled. “Good, I’m Applejack. Now I’d really appreciate if you would answer some other questions I had.”
“Oh yes, I’d love to.” Birdseed said sarcastically. “And then we can all be happily thrown in prison. That makes me really want to help you.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Sorry, you may have gotten the better of us but I wont tell you anything. I take my work seriously.”
Not seriously enough to die for it. Applejack knew it was better to not say that to him at this point, instead she just sighed and lifted a hoof in the air.
The 4 mercenaries watched her, wondering what she was doing.
Staring right into Birdseed’s eyes she calmly and slowly brought her hoof back down.
And the instant it hit the dirt a crack shot out towards Birdseed, inches before him the crack spiderwebbed and the ground exploded. Rocks and dirt were shot out into the sky like a landmine had gone off.
“I can do that in your body if you want.” She said through calm, almost bored looking eyes.
Birdseed’s expression was unchanged, but now a single drop of sweat rolled down his cheek.
“I have decided to tell you everything.”
Applejack showed a bigger smile while behind her Marble and Obsidian giggled. “Why thank you. Now I only really have one important question, if you answer it we can even ask Pepper to go easy on y'all. Okay?” She waited for Birdseed to nod before continuing. “So. Who hired you?”
“I never met them. We just got a letter and a bag of money. The letter explained everything about Mountain Town and what we were supposed to do.” Birdseed answered.
“Well who wrote the letter? Did it have a name on it? Sheriff Good Harvest maybe?” Quartz asked him.
Birdseed raised an eyebrow at him. “I didn’t know he was a sheriff but yes, that was the name on the letter.”
“That tears it then.” Applejack smacked her hooves together. “I was right, he hired these ponies for his plan to take over Mountain Town and get the river back at the same time. We need to get back to Valley Town soon and tell Redwood and the others about all this.”
“We should talk to Pepper and the others from the plateau coming too. They need to know the truth of what happened before they get paranoid, and we still need to convince them to get rid of the dam on their own terms.” Obsidian spoke up.
“You’re right, let’s get going.” Applejack turned to walk back to the houses, Pepper was at the dam forepony’s house with some others. Stopping for a second she turned back around and looked at Birdseed. “Oh right, I keep my promises. You’re a bad fellow so I’m certainly not letting you get off the hook all the way but I’ll make sure Pepper and the others don’t do anything drastic to ya.”
Applejack and the others walked into the house, the living room full of ponies, the head of the dam was an older stallion with a bushy brown beard. He looked like he might’ve been an imposing figure once but the food rationing had clearly led to him shedding a few pounds.
Pepper noticed them come in and smiled. She had been shaken by the fighting but was recovering well. Still it seemed like she was tired from having to calm down all the angry dam workers and some of their families that lived with them.
“We all know who did this!” One of the workers shouted. “Valley Town finally got sick of us damming the river!”
“Yeah! We need to fight back, we should go down there and take their food by force!” Another spoke up.
The forepony himself wasn’t saying anything but he did silently nod along. Pepper looked anxious and afraid at what everypony was saying.
Applejack bit her lip, things were going to end badly even though the dam wasn’t destroyed if she and her friends didn’t do something.
“No! You can’t do that!” She shouted to the assembled ponies.
All eyes turned to her.
“Uh, what I mean is...” She rubbed the back of her head, grinning sheepishly. “That’s a really bad idea for a couple reasons.”
“What are you talking about? Who are you anyways?” The forepony asked her, walking up and sticking his hoof in her face.
“This is Applejack.” Pepper came to her defense, and pointed to the disciples. “And this is Quartz, Obsidian, Marble and Bedrock. They came into town just earlier today, they’re the ones who stopped those bad ponies from blowing up our dam.”
“Oh? Well thanks I guess.” He replied gruffly, still not exactly looking all that kind to her. “But you’re no citizen of Mountain Town, so I’d appreciate if you butt out of our conversation now. It’s time to get revenge on those who have wronged us, like we should’ve done long ago instead of just setting up this dam. We won’t let Valley Town get away with something like this anymore.” He moved to turn away from her.
“No, you need to listen to me!” She grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. “We were at Valley Town before coming here, things aren’t like you think they are.”
The ponies looked around at each other, wondering what she was going on about.
“This wasn’t some big attack by Valley Town, it was just one pony.” Applejack tried explaining. “They wanted to make you so angry you’d come attack them because Valley Town built a big fort that has a lot of ponies ready to fight in it, they’ve got weapons and armor and everything and they think you all are going to attack them any day. If you went down there like this they’d be ready for ya and they’d think they were right.”
The forepony’s eyes widened. “When did that all happen? Who’s crazy enough to do something like that?”
“We heard from the mercenary leader that they were hired by sheriff Good Harvest.” She told him.
“I knew Good Harvest.” One of the other dam workers spoke up. “He always didn’t like us even before we dammed the river, and I remember when things started going bad he was always harassing ponies by the rivers edge.”
“Yeah, the sheriff started up the fort too. He’s been planning this for a long time.” Applejack looked out at everypony else in the room. “Most ponies in Valley Town don’t mind you at all, we were just there so we know, they’re just going about their daily lives. They don’t hate you or anything.”
“But the dam...” The forepony started.
“They’re doing fine without it. Believe me.” Applejack went to the back of the room and stood up on a couch so everypony could see and hear her. “They don’t have a surplus of crops that they could have traded with you anymore but they aren’t hurting for food like you, and they all looked a lot happier than the average pony I saw in Mountain Town. This dam, you built it to get back at ponies you thought had wronged you. I understand that. I may not agree with it personally, but yeah I understand where you’re coming from.”
“So what? You stopped those other ponies from blowing it up but now you’re saying we should still get rid of it?” The forepony stomped the ground.
“That’s right.” Applejack stated simply.
“No way! This dam is our pride, it’s our way of saying we wont let those valley ponies push us around!”
“And has it made your lives better at all?”
The forepony stopped, all the others in the room were struck by silence as well. Some of the workers looked at each other sadly, Pepper gazed at everypony, taking it all in.
“To me.” Applejack started in a much gentler tone. “This all looks so foolish. Valley Town was wrong to do what they did but you were wrong to dam up the river. Two wrongs don’t make a right. How much better would things be for you now if you had turned the other cheek and not dammed the river? How much happier would everypony in Mountain Town be if you had just talked things out? I’m not saying you should’ve rolled over and let Big Dad Redwood bully you.” Applejack noticed a few frowns at the mention of that name. “But the way you decided to do things is just wrong, and still keeping it up now when all it’s causing is harm is just dumb!”
She scowled at the ponies before her. Most of them looked almost ashamed but she wasn’t finished yet.
“If you went down there now though, and offered to take down the dam on your own? Say “Hey, no hard feelings” wouldn’t that be so much better? Wouldn’t that show how much stronger and nicer you are in its own way? And I heard that a long time ago you were once all part of the same group, don’t you want to get along again? You can all be kind and be friends, it’s not so hard.”
Applejack looked sadly down at the ponies in the living room. Most refused to meet her gaze, looking away or shutting their eyes. The forepony looked up at her with resignation and sighed.
“I guess… I guess going back to being a miner wouldn’t be so bad.”
Shortly after that the medics and important ponies from the plateau of Mountain Town arrived at the dam. Applejack really wished everypony had already been there when she made her little speech but she managed to still get her point across the second time.
The wounded were tended to and the mercenaries cuffed, Birdseed gave Applejack a single nod as he was led back to whatever prison there was at the plateau. Pepper was ecstatic that things had turned out so well and offered everypony another trip to the mud baths. Applejack would have steadfastly refused, she wanted to deal with the problems of the Twin Towns as soon as possible, but the sun had already lowered over the horizon and now Luna’s moon was the only light in the sky. Most ponies would be asleep, better to make the trip back to Valley Town tomorrow.
Pepper would come with them along with the former dam forepony, who Applejack now knew as Pickaxe, and about a dozen other various ponies from Mountain Town who wanted to tag along. Applejack said she’d talk to Thistle and Big Dad Redwood about sheriff Good Harvest to make sure there weren’t any problems, Thistle seemed like a level-headed mare, Applejack was sure she could talk things out with her. Marble and Obsidian were going to head directly to the sheriff’s office when they got back to Valley Town to bring him under custody as soon as possible.
The dam itself was going to be slowly dismantled. The workers would open up more holes to let the water flow increase at a slow rate to make sure there wasn’t any sudden flooding in the valley down below, over the course of a few days the river would eventually return completely to normal and the dam would be gone.
Morning came quickly.
They had slept in Pepper’s building, all of them filling up one room and haphazardly sleeping across the floor and furniture. Applejack woke them all up before the break of dawn, always an early riser thanks to her farm work.
Now the party of Applejack, the disciples and the Mountain Town ponies walked to the walled river separating the two towns. They had decided to also bring Birdseed with them so he could corroborate their story of Good Harvest planning everything. Pickaxe and one other were going to lower the drawbridge on their side and then they would make their way to the fort. Calmly and slowly so no one would think they were under attack.
“I really really hope this goes well.” Pepper said jovially to Applejack. “It would be super duper great and I’d be able to get back with Wavy and we’d have so much food and everypony would be happy right?”
“Uh, yeah.” Applejack at this point had effectively zoned out Pepper’s ramblings.
Pickaxe leaned in close to her and whispered into her ear. “Believe me, you don’t get used to her.”
The party made its way to the drawbridge uneventfully, Applejack looked out at the rather desolate “forest” that they had traveled through yesterday, she hoped that with everything going back to normal that maybe someday it could start looking as good as it did on the Valley Town side again.
Pickaxe and the other pony worked the drawbridge, it had the same mechanism as the one on Valley Town’s side. Despite its obvious disuse it still worked and the ponies all made their way across it. The operators of the other drawbridge were asleep again and didn’t even notice. Immediately Marble and Obsidian ran ahead, they’d make it to the hill quickly and find the sheriff while Applejack and Pepper took everypony else to the fort.
“Alright y'all, don’t worry none if some of the ponies seem a bit on edge.” Applejack said to the Mountain Towners. “I’ll explain everything to them.”
“What if they attack us on sight?” Pepper asked.
“I’m sure they won’t, they’ll recognize me at least and with all of us just walking down the path out in the open they’ll know we aren’t attacking or anything. Thistle seemed liked a perfectly reasonable gal.”
I really hope.
They made it to the intersection and took the path south to the fort, a short ways in and the large spiked trunks and watchtower became visible. And if they could see the watchtower then it was guaranteed that Thistle could see them.
“They really had this waiting for us?” Pickaxe remarked.
“Yep. That sheriff planned this out for a while.”
“It’s pretty cool looking though.” Pepper said with much more enthusiasm. “I was worried it would be scary, but it’s like a real secret base or something! Isn’t that awesome, wow, I should’ve made something cool like this on the plateau! Ooh, we could’ve mined out some more stone and made a castle!”
Applejack and the others ignored her as she continued on about what kind of castle she’d like to make, they were close to the entrance to the fort and could already make out a line of ponies in their ebony armor waiting for them. Thistle in front.
“Show time.” Quartz said to her.
Even Pepper realized that she should probably quiet down. The mixed party made it to the trench, right before the small wooden bridge over it, before Thistle opened her wings.
“Halt.” She said imposingly. “I know who you are, why have you come here Pepper? And you, outhider ponies, what game are you playing?”
Applejack decided to step out in front, giving her normal winning smile to Thistle. “Howdy Thistle, nice to see you again.” Thistle just stared back at her, clearly not caring about the small pleasantries. “Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Mountain Town is going to get rid of the dam, and they never wanted or were planning to attack you. They just want to be friends again now and get everything back to the way it was.”
Thistle’s eyes went wide and her mouth hung slightly agape. The soldiers behind her blinked in surprise, murmuring between themselves like they didn’t quite believe it.
“Uh, and now for the bad news. You’ve all kind of been manipulated by Good Harvest, this whole fort was just part of a plan of his to provoke war with Mountain Town and take it over. Sorry.” She chuckled weakly and rubbed her neck.
Now Thistle straight up gawked at her. “What?!”
“Yeah, kind of a lot to take in, right?” Pepper spoke up from behind Applejack.
“But, but, that doethint make any sense!” The only soldiers behind Thistle were similarly slack-jawed and bewildered.
“It’s true.” Birdseed spoke this time, shackles still around his forelegs. “I and my mercenary group were hired by this “Good Harvest” to blow up the dam. If you were told by him to make this fort and everything I believe Applejack here has the correct idea about things.”
“But, but...” Thistle tried to come up with something to say. “But he truthted me! That’s what he said, I was supposed to be captain of the fort and gather up all the ponies I knew who didn’t trutht Mountain Town! It was my duty! Ith not a lie!”
Applejack walked forward to put a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
Thistle’s eyes watered. “Is it really true?”
“Yeah, two of my friends are going into town to grab him right now. They’ll be back soon and we can sort all of this out. In the meantime, how about you let us all in and we can get to know each other better? I think it would go a long ways if the ones who are here to protect Valley Town are the first ones to go back to being friends with ponies from Mountain Town.” Applejack smiled at her and gestured to Pepper and all the rest from Mountain Town behind her, they smiled eagerly as well, hoping that the first friendships could be reforged.
Thistle looked at them and then back at her own soldiers, they had a mix of hope, disillusionment and respect written on their faces. Wiping the tears from her eyes she nodded at Applejack.
“Alright, you can come in.”
The soldiers led everypony into their fort, others looking on while some went to spread the word to the rest of the ponies. The Mountain Town ponies looked around inside it, Pepper was all ooh’s and aah’s even though there wasn’t anything particularly impressive inside. Birdseed just lumbered along disinterestedly while Thistle went to a picnic table that had been set up and plopped down on it, hooves stretched over the top and looking like a sulking puppy.
“At this point I almost wish you were about to thurprise attack us.” She said.
“Hehe, you don’t have to worry about that either sugarcube.”
A short while later and Marble and Obsidian came bounding back to the fort. But Good Harvest wasn’t with them, instead…
“Darling!”
“Angel!”
Pepper and Wavy ran to each other and embraced, Wavy spinning her around while she tightly hugged his neck. At the end of the spin the two of them deeply looked into each others eyes and passionately kissed. It was embarrassing enough for Applejack to wince and close her eyes.
For a few minutes after they continued to call each other escalating pet names of “Sapphire” and “Rose” and “Perfection”.
Meanwhile Applejack talked with the disciples.
“What happened? Where’s Good Harvest?”
“According to the deputies at the station, Good Harvest is missing.” Obsidian said.
“Missing? Did he skip town or something after hiring those mercenaries?” Quartz wondered, brow furrowing in puzzlement.
“No, it’s not like that.” Marble started. “He’s been missing for weeks. Nobody knows where he is or what happened to him, we went up to Redwood Manor instead after we heard this and got Wavy. Figured him meeting Pepper would help.”
Applejack frowned. This just wasn’t making sense. She was reminded of what Birdseed had said at the dam yesterday, too many coincidences, something was wrong about all this.
“I’m going to go talk to Thistle for a second.” She said, turning to go have a chat with the sulking mare. Thistle didn’t react to her approach, instead it seemed like she was trying to sleep, but Applejack still had to set some things straight. “Hey Thistle, when did Good Harvest ask you to make the fort anyways?”
She didn’t move her body but her eyes slowly turned to Applejack. “I got a letter a while ago, he told me he needed me to captain the fort he was planning. He knew I didn’t like Mountain Town and what they had done. And the letter a.. a...asked me to gather every volunteer I could who also was apprehenthive.”
“So you never actually met him? You never talked in person about the fort?”
She shook her head. “I’ve known him for a long time, we talked a lot, I thought the letter was offishul business and I went right to it.”
Applejack was about to ask more when Wavy and Pepper, hooves over each others shoulders, came sauntering up.
“Good news! Pepper and I will marry as soon as possible.” Wavy said, giving Pepper a quick kiss on the cheek. “Now that things are going to be better between our towns we don’t have to worry about any backlash. Oh, you don’t know how terrible it is to be separated from your one true love for so long! My dearest Pepper, I promise to never leave your side again.” They looked into each others eyes and affectionately nuzzled.
“I’m happy for ya.” Applejack said, and meant it despite the eccentricities of the pair. “I just wish we could find out what’s going on with the sheriff and just what happened here.”
“Well I think it’s fine that our towns are at least becoming friends again. I too would like to learn sheriff Good Harvest’s situation but really I think there’s something much more pressing for us all to do in celebration of our fixed relationship and Pepper and I’s betrothal.” Wavy winked at her.
“What?”
Applejack learned that night that wine was pretty good.
Wavy brought everypony up to the Redwood Manor for a party and after a few glasses her troubles had melted away. Even Quartz and Bedrock had decided to drink some and partake in the festivities. Wavy and Pepper thought this was the perfect way for everypony to break the ice with each other, and it seemed to be working. Pickaxe was chatting up some of the soldiers, Thistle drunkenly stumbled around the Mountain Town ponies with a big happy grin, and the newly betrothed couple danced and danced.
Thistle suddenly collapsed, completely out, so Obsidian took her to one of the fancy couches in the ballroom.
Applejack sat back. The ponies filled the lavish ballroom. Musicians played from a stage in the corner, waiters handed out food, she supposed this was the kind of wealth that Big Dad Redwood had if his son could organize something like this in a couple hours.
It was nice.
A pretty nice way to end things in the Twin Towns. Tomorrow morning she’d head out with the disciples to home.
The morning after the party Applejack strolled through the ballroom, most ponies were still asleep. Or passed out in the case of Thistle. Wavy and Pepper lay with each other, the goofy grins on their faces were so sincere that they made Applejack smile too. She felt like she didn’t get to know these ponies as much as she got to know Sturdy Wheel and the others in Cross Way, it made her a little bit sad but she had already spent more time here than she wanted to. And getting home was still the most important part. Always would be. And that wine may have been good last night but it still can’t beat a nice mug of Apple family cider.
The disciples had retired to the suite they stayed in previously at some point in the night, the party had simply gotten too loud. And Obsidian didn’t seem like she could hold her liquor. Applejack was going to go back to that room and join them until everypony was ready to go, even if it meant not saying a real goodbye to most of the Twin Towns ponies.
Or at least that was the plan until Big Dad Redwood’s butler found her.
“Ah, Miss Applejack. I’m glad to have found you. Lord Redwood requests your presence, I believe he wishes to thank you for everything.”
Applejack didn’t intend to deal with anything like this, she hoped Redwood didn’t want to give her a reward or anything either, but it’s not like she was ready to go right this instant and it would probably be a little rude if she refused.
“Alright, he in his same office as before?”
“Yes. Do you know the way from here or would you like me to guide you?”
“Thanks for the offer but I’m sure I can find it on my own. I figure you got enough to clean up and take care of with all the ponies in the ballroom.” She smiled and winked at him.
“Yes indeed. Well, as you wish.” He stiffly bowed and allowed her to pass.
The walk through the various hallways allowed Applejack to collect her thoughts. She still wondered about sheriff Good Harvest, if he’d been missing for weeks was he laying low somewhere else until he figured things blew over here? But that doesn’t really make any sense. And when did he hire Birdseed anyways? She should’ve asked him just when they got that letter. Everypony knew the sheriff didn’t like Mountain Town but he really didn’t do a good job of covering his tracks, he was too suspicious, ponies might think he had a hoof in things just because he ordered that fort to be built.
Applejack sighed, there was nothing they could really do about this anymore. It was a dead end. At least the important stuff was taken care of. Wavy was already going to start setting up food deliveries to Mountain Town and the drawbridges would eventually be fully replaced with a large normal bridge. The walls would be torn down completely. Pepper had said a lot of trees needed to be reseeded on their side so that was another job for everypony to take care of.
Applejack knew they could do it together.
She wondered if any Valley Town ponies would travel to Mountain Town purely for a dip in the mud baths. Those were pretty darn relaxing.
Applejack made it to Big Dad Redwood’s office in short time, actually pretty relieved that she didn’t get lost along the way, she chuckled at his handmade sign again and opened up the door. Office was just as posh as ever, this time also decorated with an empty wine bottle on Redwood’s desk. And of course Big Dad Redwood himself was just as dashing as she remembered him, pearly white teeth making a picture-perfect smile.
“Hello Applejack, thanks for coming by this morning.” He said, motioning her to take a seat.
“No problem at all, I’m not one for big goodbyes but I figured I should come since I owe ya for pointing me in the right direction to home.” She smiled at him and took her seat.
“Yes, yes.” He said, grinning widely and smoothing back his hair. “Enjoy the party last night? I too had some drinks of my own.”
“Heh, I can see that. And yeah, your son is a real nice fella. To be honest I thought he was a bit of a weird one at first but he’s got a good heart in him. Same with his new fiancee.”
“Oh yes, Pepper’s a great catch. My soon to be daughter-in-law. And with that our towns will truly become one, just like they should have been from the beginning.” He winked at Applejack.
“I’m real glad we could help you all out. Things were about to explode here, uh, literally.”
Redwood chuckled a bit at that. “Yes, very much so. Speaking of such things did you ever find out about Good Harvest?”
Applejack frowned. “Nope, all we know is he’s been missing for weeks, wherever he is he must’ve written a letter to those mercenaries. I think he also might’ve stolen some money considering how much Birdseed said they got.”
“Mhm, indeed.” Redwood bit his lip like he was trying to hold back laughter, Applejack raised an eyebrow at him but thought nothing of it. “Anything else?”
“Well I thought it was strange that Thistle would start something so crazy after just a letter from him but I guess she really respected and trusted him, she’s a good pony so it’s kind of weird to me honestly. You’d think she’d have a better eye for mentors.” Applejack scratched her head while Big Dad Redwood started to chuckle through clenched teeth. “Uh… is something wrong? You finding this funny?”
“No, no, I’m sorry, please go on.” He shook his hoof to reassure her but held the other over his belly like he was about to double over from laughing.
“Right… Well anyways, I was also thinking about how we just happened to run into those mercenaries at the perfect time. If we were just a day later the dam would’ve been blown up and-”
“Hahahaha!” Big Dad Redwood started guffawing in the middle of her sentence. “I’m-I’m sorry, it’s just too much, it’s just too funny!” He started laughing harder, pounding his hoof on his desk as Applejack watched in bewilderment. “It was me, stupid! It was all me!” He looked up at her, crying from laughing so hard and big mocking smile on his face. “I did it all, not stupid sheriff Good Harvest! Hahahahaha!” A big belly laugh rose from withing him as he laid back on his chair, laughing at Applejack.
“Wait, what? You hired the mercenaries? Is that what you’re saying?!” Applejack stared at him in confusion and anger.
“Pffff!” He sputtered at her. “The mercenaries? They were only one part, like I said, it was all me! I was the one who sent that letter to Thistle. Moron didn’t care that it was just one letter, it had Good Harvest’s name on it and that was good enough for her. Just like I knew it would be. So she starts making that cute little fort like I wanted her to and training up all her new soldiers. Thinking Mountain Town might attack them one day and that her hero has her back. Hah! She was so devoted to making her fort work that she never even bothered going back into town to check up with Good Harvest!”
He started laughing again and Applejack just sat back in shock. Leaning over his desk at her this time he continued on. “Soon enough I had everything ready, another letter with Good Harvest’s name on it along with some money was sent to that Birdseed fellow and they got started on their mission to blow up the dam!”
“But, but… why did?” Applejack’s mind was spinning as she tried to get things straight.
“Why’d I ask you for help? Cause it was just too perfect!” He grinned and pointed his hoof at her face. “Oh sure, the dam was gonna be gone and then I could’ve taken over Mountain Town by force, that was the original plan and I’m glad to know that without your intervention it would’ve gone off without a hitch. But that still would’ve been a fairly troublesome thing, so much fighting, likely a lot of property damage, rather annoying stuff you know? And then lo and behold, a group of self-proclaimed do-gooders wander into my office at just about the same time Birdseed and his group would’ve gotten to Mountain Town. I thought up a better idea right then and there. Get you to resolve things peacefully! No pony knew I was connected to anything so there was no danger! Even if you failed, or if the mercenaries blew up the dam before you accomplished anything, I would still win! But of course with my great luck the best possible outcome happened! The dam is gonna be gone, the towns will start trading again, and my son is giving me a direct link to being in charge of everything, all without any fighting or collateral damage!”
With that he started laughing again, beating his hooves on the desk and making the wine bottle fall over onto the floor.
Applejack slowly took this all in, eyes narrowing and body shaking in anger. “And what about Good Harvest? If he had no part in this at all...”
“Hah, him? Oh he’s just on a rather long… vacation.” The sinister inflection was not lost on Applejack. “He was really the perfect tool. Everypony knew he hated Mountain Town, it’s not difficult to pin things on him.”
“You… you darn...” Applejack was shaking in anger at him. “And you’re just telling me all this now?”
“I was going crazy!” He gave a short laugh. “Everything went so perfectly, my plans better than expected, I just had to tell somepony or I’d go nuts! To think of nopony knowing how I manipulated all this and came out so far ahead? I had to brag! And you’re the perfect pony for it. An outsider, who would believe you over me? No one else knows anything, go on and try to tell them! My stupid son loves me!” He started grinning harder at her. “And even if they did, little miss do-gooder, what would that accomplish? They’d all fly into a rage now that Wavy is about to marry Pepper. Those Mountain Town ponies would think he was in on it. They hate me so much it’d blind em. Mountain Town would go to war with Valley Town and I win again anyways.”
Applejack glared hard at him. Eyes of ice cold anger.
“Well well, if looks could kill. Heh.” He poked her on the nose. “What are you gonna do about it? Nothing! Bet you wish you could kill me.” He said, sitting back smugly in his chair, pearly white teeth shining.
Applejack just sighed, eyeing those perfect teeth of his. “Big Dad, you must really not know what a good pony is cause I don’t wish that at all. In fact, all I wish is that I had a big barrel of apples here right now that we could share. Maybe eating some of those would warm that heart of yours.” She suddenly frowned. “Of course you’d have to settle for applesauce though.”
She reached her hoof forward and tapped him lightly on the shoulder.
Big Dad Redwood raised an eyebrow at her. “What are you-” He stopped as he felt a tingling sensation going from his shoulder up his neck, to his head, and into his teeth. The tremor began increasing as Big Dad Redwood’s eyes went wide and his pupils shrank, and then all his teeth exploded.
“AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
He fell over backwards out of his chair, writhing in agony.
Applejack got up and began to walk out of his office. Stopping briefly, she looked back over her shoulder at him.
“And oh yeah, couple things. First of all maybe if you had been down at the party yourself and mingling with everypony else instead of drinking alone up here you’d see how easy it was for them to become friends again. How close they are and how much they want to fix things. Secondly, I’m a rather honest gal. So even if it hurts I like to tell the truth.” She looked away from him as he groaned and rolled over in pain. Making it to the door she pushed it open. “And just one letter was it? I think I’ll leave just one letter with your son on my way out. Enjoy your towns.”
For two days now Applejack and the disciples had been walking through the forest north from the Twin Towns. Saddlebags full of fruit, not apples sadly, and with a well rested spring in their step. Applejack slid back her hat a little bit to feel the rose that Bouquet gave her still in there and smiled. Her trip was gonna be over soon, she was glad for that but she was also glad for the friends she had made. Despite some problems she could safely say she didn’t regret getting lost.
Not that she was admitting to getting lost.
Not to Big Mac at least.
Or Rainbow Dash.
With any luck Dash would at least not be in town when she got back so she could relax a little and not have to deal with anything from her. Hopefully Rarity wouldn’t see her and start gabbing about how “disheveled” she looked. Pinkie Pie was another she should watch out for, Applejack could picture getting suddenly roped into a spontaneous welcome back party. That’s really not something she wanted to deal with at the moment.
She just wanted to get back to her farm and grab a nice apple. That would be perfect. No one else around, sitting under a tree and eating a nice juicy apple. Maybe taking a good nap afterwards.
Quartz and the others had been mostly quiet the past couple days. They were never the most talkative bunch to begin with but they hadn’t even really given her more tips on Hoof of the Earth or anything either. Obsidian even seemed a bit sad, maybe they thought Applejack would just ditch them when she got back home. Well… she certainly didn’t plan to devote years of her life to Hoof of the Earth or anything but they were her friends now at least and they’d always be welcome at Sweet Apple Acres. They always said they were the “last” disciples too and it didn’t seem like they really had a home of their own. The thought made Applejack frown. She supposed she could throw them a party or let them stay at the farm as long as they wanted. Maybe she should go find Pinkie instead when they got to Ponyville.
Applejack looked around at the forest around her, pines, pines, and more pines. It didn’t look familiar to her at all. Big Dad Redwood said Ponyville was only a couple days down this road so she figured she’d start recognizing things by now. Maybe this forest eventually went into the Everfree or came out somewhere around there?
“Hey y'all.” She called back to Quartz and them. “You been in this area right? What’s around here?”
“Not here specifically.” Quartz replied, also looking around at the trees. “Far to the west at one point but mostly more east, that’s where the monastery is. Or was, more accurately, since it’s practically in ruins now. Also around there are some villages, far north east of here there’s a mountain where some old, crazy, unicorn king once lived. But we’ve only heard about that, never traveled that far.”
“Small villages.” Marble cut in. “Smattered about in the forest east of here, after some low mountains and rocky areas.”
“Well wherever else you’ve been I know you’ll like Ponyville when we get there, it’s just about the nicest town you could think of. I’ll show you around and everything.”
As Applejack sang the praises of Ponyville Quartz and the others shot each other uneasy glances, something Applejack caught out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t know what but those four were definitely hiding something. For the next few minutes as they walked in silence Applejack wondered if she should just call them out on whatever was eating at them or respect their privacy.
They’re worried about going to Ponyville but why? Do they actually know Ponyville in some way?
Applejack continued on, her tail swishing as her green-cloaked companions followed her. Obviously nopony was going to start a conversation now but this evening when they were all settled down she’d try to get them to open up. Applejack licked her lips and reached into her saddlebag, pulling out the last banana she had. Couldn’t compare to an apple but it’d do for now.
She started humming to herself a bit to pass the time, half expecting some monster or something to suddenly come out of nowhere and sidetrack her again. Good thing this wasn’t one of those Daring Do stories Twi and Rainbow Dash liked so much. Hay, maybe after all this though she’d give those a shot too. Dash would flip out if she started reading it… of course though Twilight would then take the time to try and recommend every single book in her library if Applejack showed the slightest interest.
Stupid “Organized Orchards” book…
Applejack yawned and stretched her legs, the forest didn’t seem to be parting anytime soon but at least it was a lot better than climbing a cliff or being baked in the desert.
“Guess you all are used to walking a lot more than this huh?” She said back to them again.
This time Obsidian actually decided to trot up beside her.
“Yep, we’ve been on the road pretty much all our adult lives.” She put on a small smile to assuage Applejack’s concerns but it was pretty shaky. Still she kept up the conversation so their minds wouldn’t wander. “We’ve seen the big ocean to the west, and the lands beyond it, the sea to the south and the big desert before it. It’s crazy how big the world actually is. As foals we were kept in one place the whole time and all we knew were other earth ponies.”
She picked up the pace to head in front of Applejack, a bend in the road coming up, Obsidian wanted to be the first to round it.
“I didn’t have a problem with that or anything though, everyone was nice and that’s how all of us got together.” She smiled back at Applejack, blind eye slightly visible past her long hair. “We should be getting to Ponyville soon right? Maybe it’ll be just around this corner!” She dashed forward, going out to the middle of the road and looking at what was down the way.
Her smile fell.
“Oh.”
Applejack frowned, increasing her pace she lightly ran to Obsidian. “What is it?” She reached the bend and looked at what had bothered Obsidian so much.
~WELCOME TO PONY VILLAS RESORT AND SPA~
~COME RELAX WITH US~
The large sign was suspended over the road by two wooden poles. The welcoming and happy greeting seeming to mock Applejack.
“Ya can’t be serious...”
Applejack forced herself to not enjoy the spa.
After obliterating all the fruit she still carried in her saddlebags in a rage she stomped grumpily down the road and into the resort town of “Pony Villas”. The disciples quietly followed behind her, giving her space and not wishing to possibly set her off again.
Now Applejack sat in a warm bath. Her face looking like it had been born with a frown on it. Obsidian sat in another personal bath next to hers while the stallions were getting massaged a room over. This would normally be a very welcome and relaxing thing for Applejack but the sheer disappointment and annoyance she felt overcame everything.
So instead of being mature about things she decided to be grumpy.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Applejack ignored Obsidian.
“Do you wanna do nothing but sit there all day?”
Applejack submerged herself entirely and came back out, mane out of its usual tie and wetly sticking to her face and body. She stood up and got out of the bath, grabbing a towel and drying herself off. Obsidian followed her, pushing back her long mane so it hung over her neck and shoulders instead of over one side of her face.
“Wanna get a massage? I don’t know about you but I had my eye on that cute blue stallion.”
Now it reminded Applejack of a Rarity spa trip.
Speaking of that, Rarity was probably complaining to Aloe and Lotus Blossom about how many spa dates Applejack had missed every time she went now. Maybe she would try and rope Rainbow Dash into going with her, as soon as she would give up and admit she liked hooficures.
Applejack hadn’t even bothered to ask the staff here if they had any apples or apple juice for refreshments. She was pretty sure she knew what the answer was going to be. She looked over at Obsidian as she shook and dried herself off. Still not in the mood to talk, Applejack didn’t wait for her to finish and went out the door of the spa room. She’d go sulk outside until Quartz and the others were done.
The disciples found her sitting on a big plush cushion in the resort’s lobby. Still frowning and doing a good job of frightening off several other ponies.
“Could you please get her to leave?” One of the administrators of the resort asked them, her violet eyes narrowed in annoyance.
Quartz sighed and walked up to Applejack.
“Applejack, I know you’re upset but enough is enough. Let’s get back on the road.”
“And go where?” She grumbled out.
“I’m sure you’ll find a way home soon, this was just another detour.”
“Hmph.” Applejack blew out a deep breath and pouted.
Quartz frowned and looked back at the other disciples. “Shall we?” He asked them.
Applejack raised an eyebrow as the other three nodded back at him, wondering what was going on.
Quartz turned and looked her deeply in the eyes. His face as impassive as ever. “I wasn’t planning on this since I thought you were close to home, but it’s probably a good thing that it’s come to this. Applejack, would you like to come back to our monastery?”
It was a lot warmer where they were now. The forest that was mostly pines had gotten leafier, hotter, and wetter, not quite a jungle or tropical yet but much more like the Everfree than what Applejack and the disciples had been walking through on their way to Pony Villas. Any real road or path had disappeared long ago and now the five of them trudged through the brush, it was tiring work but all of them were in pretty much the best shape a pony could be in. More than once though a vine had tripped up Applejack, and she had been warned not to go near any brightly colored flowers. Applejack knew that lesson well though.
Night would be upon them soon as well. It was a good thing too since Applejack was really tired of being drenched in sweat from a combination of humidity and the hot sun. But in a thick forest like this it could make things hard to see and predators could come out at night time as well.
Still the ponies went on, through trees, fallen trunks, over streams and rocks and everything in-between. Applejack took off her hat for a second and used it to wipe the sweat from her brow. The disciples had remained quiet ever since they started on their way to their old monastery, even quieter than before. Well Applejack was fine with that since she was still peeved about the whole “Ponyville” mix-up. It was just kind of weird though.
Whatever, let em stay quiet for as long as they want.
She came to a big pool of quicksand but a few hanging vines allowed her to easily swing over it. This was nothing compared to conquering the Everfree or any of Equestria’s crazy swamps. There weren’t even any fire spouts or giant monsters! She spotted more than one bush with some good looking berries but it was more than likely those were poisonous, she could imagine Pinkie or Dash scarfing down a whole bunch without a second thought. She snickered to herself.
If Twilight was here she’d probably have a big journal of what was and wasn’t safe to eat.
The four disciples behind her had shed their green cloaks, leaving them at the spa. Guess they’d just be a hassle around here? Or make em too sweaty when they don’t really need protecting from the sun anymore. It made her think about Quartz’s scars again, something was just wrong with those. How do you get all those tiny little scars? Tumbling through a thorn bush wouldn’t do anything like that. Maybe it was related to Obsidian’s scar and eye.
Applejack frowned, it was rude of her to think about such personal things concerning her friends. Especially when it was something upsetting like those scars. They’d tell her if they wanted to.
Bedrock had been abrupt and quieter around her ever since her little speech about “no killing”. Normally he’d at least quip something but now he treated her like empty space.
Marble was Marble.
Yeah the four of them were her friends but even though Applejack wouldn’t pry into their personal issues she was going to need to have a long talk with them soon. Just the way they were acting didn’t sit right with her. They didn’t mind explaining Hoof of the Earth but wouldn’t tell her why they were the last ponies who knew about it, or what happened to their monastery.
She sighed, she didn’t want to be the one to break the silence but she at least wanted to know how much longer they’d be going through this forest.
“Hey y'all, how much longer until we get to your monastery anyways?” She yelled back at them, Bedrock and Marble not even reacting while Obsidian deferred to Quartz.
“We should get there shortly after nightfall, it isn’t much further now.”
“You said there were some villages around here too?”
“Yes but not on this side of the forest, and no pony would come to our monastery.” Applejack didn’t exactly like Quartz’s cryptic words on that.
“Okay, well exactly why wouldn’t they come to your old monastery?”
An uncomfortable flash of displeasure appeared on Quartz’s face. “It’s something I’d really like to tell you when we get there. So we can all rest. But I promise, we’ll tell you everything. I know you’ve been wondering about some things and we haven’t been very forthcoming.” His lips twisted in frustration, Applejack could tell he was clearly bothered by them not talking to her about something.
“It’s alright...” She trailed off, accepting his words for now.
“This forest has really grown out of control since the time we were foals.” Obsidian butted in, trying to lighten the mood. “We all got lost in here at least once.”
“Hehe, exploring is all part of being young.” Applejack smiled at her, glad that they could at least still kill some time with friendly conversation. “My little sister and her friends would do something crazy every day back in Ponyville. I can’t even remember how many times I had to get them out of trouble.”
The two of them continued on like that, it made the difficult journey through the forest a lot easier. Applejack and Obsidian chatted together and the obstacles in their way were handled without any trouble. Through the canopy of the trees Applejack could see the light getting weaker and weaker until it had almost disappeared completely. If Quartz was right it wouldn’t be much longer before they got to their destination. Applejack put any negative thoughts about that out of her mind, she just wanted to enjoy the friendly chat she was having with Obsidian. Bedrock’s silence and Quartz’s dismay were things that could be dealt with later.
The temperature dropped quickly with the light, almost enough to make Applejack start to shiver despite it being so hot and humid only an hour before. This forest wasn’t one she would want to get lost in. She could tell, even though she couldn’t see it, that the sun had disappeared completely over the horizon. Only the last few licks of light from it making it into the sky, now the moon and stars had become the chief source of illumination.
Chirping crickets and croaking frogs made the night come alive. Swarms of fireflies, the bright eyes of owls.
Pushing through a few more hundred yards of trees Applejack and the disciples reached their destination.
“Well now.” Even in the dark Applejack could appreciate the building before her. They had pushed into a clearing in the trees where the monastery was built. Or to be more accurate, carved. A large orange rock stood out of the forest, flat on top, almost like a mountain that had its peak cut off. At the side of the rock that Applejack faced the entrance to the monastery had been sculpted into the wall, intricate carvings of ponies, swords, the sun, flowers, animals and monsters lined the entrance. A large jutting awning of rock shot out over the entrance, on it two earth ponies clashing their hooves together had been carved. Six large pillars were built on the outside of the monastery, creating a path to the shadowed entrance, although they were cracked and covered in vines and the outer two had fallen over and broken completely. The entrance itself was wide and tall enough for Fluttershy’s bear to walk on in on his hind legs and with arms spread wide. Applejack couldn’t tell how deep it went into the rock, the shadowy nature of the entrance and the night making it impossible to see in more than a few feet.
“Huh, pretty cool looking place ya got.” She told the disciples.
Quartz stepped forward to gaze impassively at the monastery. “It’s… seen better days. Come, let’s go inside.”
Applejack followed him as he walked in, the others joining them. “How long has it been since you were here?”
“Two years was the last time we visited, but Hoof of the Earth and the monastery fell long before that. When we were still young.” Obsidian answered.
Applejack just nodded along, figuring they would give her the full story soon on their own terms. But she wondered how they were going to be able to see anything in here, it was already pitch black and they hadn’t been walking for a minute.
“So how do you see in here? Are there any torches you can light up somewhere?”
“No, no, we use something much more attuned to us.” Quartz said from ahead, although Applejack couldn’t see him at all. “Wait one second and I’ll show you, we’re almost to the hall.”
Applejack did and they continued on in darkness. She had to assume that the hall was the typical meeting place in this monastery.
“Right, we’re here now. Now watch, Applejack.” Quartz’s voice called out to her and then she heard him tap his hoof to the ground, a small vibration going out through the floor.
At first it seemed like nothing was happening but ever so slowly parts of the walls began to glow. A strange bluish-white light, it got brighter and brighter until the whole room was lit up so well there might as well have been a sun in there.
The room was massive, maybe double the size of the royal castle’s throne room, with stone pillars going down the entire length on both sides. At her hooves there was what was once a large carpet extending the length of the room but was so tattered and worn it would knock Rarity unconscious if she saw it. The light came from dozens of circular recesses built into the walls and ceilings, they were so bright now Applejack couldn’t make out just what was generating the light.
“It’s lichen.” Quartz said, not looking at her but instead gazing down the grand hall. “Bioluminescent lichen, it activates through vibrations. A simple Hoof of the Earth technique. We can light up the rest of the monastery as we go on.” He finally turned to her. “However. I’ve put this off long enough, I don’t want to procrastinate any longer.”
Applejack stared back at him. Partially she was worried. It almost felt like he was about to tell her some sort of awful truth but she didn’t believe they were the kinds of ponies to be hiding something that bad from her. Obsidian, Marble and Bedrock gathered behind him, they were all ready to get whatever was eating them off their chests.
“I’ve been worried about telling you all of this because you might be rightfully upset with us after you learn everything.” He said with his eyes looking down at the floor, unwilling to meet her gaze. “But you have more than a right to know, we were just being selfish not telling you everything immediately. And obviously you noticed how guilty we were feeling as we thought we were getting closer to your home.”
“Yeah, yeah I did.” Applejack replied bluntly. Mulling over just what the hay could be such a problem.
“So it’s time.” Quartz said to her. “We’ll tell you the story of Hoof of the Earth, about what happened to us, the monastery, why we’re the last disciples of the art… and the Wings of the Wind.”
“Wings of the what?” Applejack said, cocking her head to one side.
“Wings of the Wind.” Quartz sighed while Marble rolled his eyes. “To put it as simply as possible it is a fighting art developed by pegasi in response to Hoof of the Earth. I’ll explain in greater detail later, first I’d like to tell you about all of us and Hoof of the Earth. I want you to know how important this is to us.”
Applejack nodded. “I understand. I’ll, uh, try not to interrupt again.”
“Thank you, but please, if you have a question that you think is pertinent don’t be afraid to ask. This is a time for you to learn everything.” Quartz smiled lightly and Applejack smiled back. Whatever else, they were still friends.
“So I’ll start from the very beginning, when the four of us were brought into Hoof of the Earth.” Quartz and the others sat down next to each other on the carpet, Obsidian motioned Applejack to sit as well, apparently it would be a long story. “We’re orphans. We came from the same village and orphanage far south from here, I couldn’t tell you the name, we were taught to forget our past lives when the training at the monastery began. Although some things you just can’t forget.”
If anypony tried to get me to forget Sweet Apple Acres they’d have their work cut out for them.
Applejack kept that tangent to herself as Quartz continued. “It was difficult. We were put through grueling strength-training and stuck on strict exercise regiments as foals not even five years old. But I didn’t mind, not truly, I felt like I was doing something. Something that mattered now instead of sitting around messing with other children all day, just hoping that one day some nice pony would take pity on me.” Quartz’s gaze hardened and his words had an angry edge to them, Applejack was about to tell him how she was sorry for him but a simple hoof on his shoulder from Obsidian got him to calm down and he continued on. “The four of us were stuck together, even though if you can believe it we did not like each other. Another thing we kept from the orphanage. But our teachers wanted us to support each other and become teammates. So we could learn together and help each other if one of us was good at something that another wasn’t.”
He paused briefly to catch his breath and looked at the ponies beside him. “We learned Hoof of the Earth slowly, unlike you, it was years before we even began the basic training for it. In that time we had grown stronger and closer. And we knew nothing of the outside world, every last bit of our training took place inside the monastery and the forest. Occasionally a traveling pony would come by, or another from one of the nearby villages would come for some reason. But for the most part it was just us, the other students, and our teachers.”
“When we were ten years old the real training began. Our teachers would forcefully fire tremors through our bodies to blast them “awake” and get them used to Hoof of the Earth. Our bodies were repeatedly broken down and grown back stronger so we could be the best we could possibly be. But I won’t deny that it was a horrific time and an immensely painful practice. Then we learned how to generate our own tremors and use the fighting art on our own.”
Applejack suddenly spoke up. “Uh, sorry but is there any reason you didn’t do that to me?”
“Yes.” Quartz answered simply. “In short we never learned how to do it the same way our teachers did. We never reached that point in the training, as you know we all have great control of our tremors but the finer arts and secrets of Hoof of the Earth are not known to us, they’re lost forever. All we could’ve done to you was send a normal tremor into your body that would just break your bones and muscles and cause more permanent damage instead of allowing them to grow back stronger like our teachers could.”
“Well, thanks then.” Applejack gulped and thought how glad she was that she was able to instinctually throw Quartz’s tremor out of her body back when she first met them.
Quartz nodded. “Yes, but now I’m getting ahead of things. Back to where I was. We had started to officially become disciples of Hoof of the Earth and the next year was spent almost entirely the same way, in agonizing pain. Luckily all four of us made it through that part, thanks to our strong bond that was forged over the past 6 years. There were other students who simply couldn’t handle it.”
Applejack grimaced at that, hoping it wasn’t as bad as she thought.
“We were quickly becoming the prized students of the masters. At thirteen we were fully recognized practitioners of Hoof of the Earth. I thought nothing could touch us, we were just simple earth ponies but we had the power to shatter boulders with a single touch. We all felt powerful. Every now and then we were even allowed to leave the monastery and go out on our own, visiting the villages on the other side of the forest. It was a sign of trust, not only that we could handle ourselves but that we would come back. And we always did. Now it wasn’t about pain or endurance but about what we could do with Hoof of the Earth, how precise our tremors could be, how powerful. It was freedom.”
Quartz paused and closed his eyes, as if preparing himself to say what came next. “Like I said, we felt powerful. But we weren’t. We were still foals who knew nothing about the outside world, not really. It was when we were 15 that things changed. When we truly saw the world outside of our monastery. It was then that we learned of Wings of the Wind.”
Obsidian had begun trembling, she lifted a shaking hoof up to her face and pressed it against her hair covering her blind eye.
“So… some history first.” He continued. “As we told you, Hoof of the Earth was developed by earth ponies in a time of conflict and war as a way to attempt to level the playing field against unicorns and pegasi. It worked well in more ways than just direct combat. Warriors would secretly slip in to unicorn towns and destroy buildings, our users could use the art to carve hideouts in the ground much like this monastery, things like that. It also simply made unicorns and pegasi afraid to even come near earth ponies, for the slightest touch could cripple or kill them. Now with their magic and control of the weather and such, if it ever came to a big direct fight earth ponies still wouldn’t have a chance, but with Hoof of the Earth they fought to their strengths.”
Applejack leaned in, taking all this in stride and quite happy that she got to live in a much more peaceful time. Relatively at least. Good enough that ponies didn’t fight each other like that anymore.
“So it was that pegasi warriors eventually started to develop their own unique fighting art. Pegasi were very prideful and they didn’t like the idea of earth ponies being able to do something like Hoof of the Earth when they had no counterpart of their own. Hoof of the Earth was something only earth ponies could do and it was developed by ponies finding their unique strengths and abilities and turning them into a weapon. The pegasi did the same thing and Wings of the Wind was born.”
“So what exactly is it? It’s something only a pegasus can do?” Applejack fidgeted uncomfortably at seeing how mentioning this subject clearly brought up such bad memories in the four disciples. Obsidian still shook while Marble had an angry frown plastered on his face as he stared at the ground. Quartz and Bedrock’s eyes were sharp and focused, they normally being so calm and collected it was a surprise for her to see them like this from a simple story.
“Using their unique gifts as a pegasus they are able to collect and manipulate wind around their wings.”
“And?” Applejack tilted her head. “Is that all?” She scratched her head in puzzlement.
“I assure you it is much more dangerous and powerful than you think.” Quartz raised his hoof to his face to point out his scars. “These were a small gift from Wings of the Wind. A pegasus using it can have the wind around their wings turn razor sharp, they can cut through anything with them. Stone, steel, anything. Being wind it’s practically invisible and a skilled user can direct it outwards much like we can with our tremors. Some can create powerful cyclones with their bodies too to cause greater destruction.”
“For years and generations the practitioners of Hoof of the Earth and Wings of the Wind fought each other. It wasn’t until the three tribes found peace that the rivalry began to lessen. Even then it was still many years before the fighting between the two arts stopped completely. Both were very prideful and wanted to prove the superiority of one over the other. So even when the wars were over and the unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies were friends our two groups had a long way to go.”
“It sounds like it stopped being about survival and helping earth ponies for you.” Applejack cut in. “Y'all wanted to prove yourselves.”
“Quite so.” Quartz nodded. “Hoof of the Earth users wanted to show they were better and stronger than the ponies who once pushed them around. Wings of the Wind users wanted to keep their feeling of superiority.”
“And everyone else got on with their lives.” Marble snarked.
“Anyways.” Quartz started again as Obsidian nudged Marble to keep him quiet. “Eventually our two disciplines did start to develop a better relationship. A couple more peaceful masters on each side who didn’t want a pointless conflict to continue laid the groundwork for the rivalry to become a friendship. Still a long time would go on before anyone could call our relationship a “good” one but eventually Hoof of the Earth and Wings of the Wind became friends. They started to celebrate each others strengths and abilities, the two arts came to respect one another. Still their sheer differences kept them from ever becoming too close, and their nature made it impossible for one to really learn anything from the other fighting art. This era of mutual respect and distance went on for hundreds of years. It was at the end of this time that we were brought into Hoof of the Earth.”
“You see there was something we didn’t know, something our teachers hadn’t told us. That centuries ago it was ordained that every ten years the two arts would come together in a friendly celebration. To celebrate the lasting peace between two former violent rivals.”
“Uh, I take it that something went wrong at yours.” Applejack said, unpleasant thoughts swimming in her head.
“That’s putting it lightly.” Bedrock answered, snorting.
“Yes. So to start with the four of us were going to be central figures in the celebration.” Quartz continued. “This time the celebration was held here at our monastery, the previous one was at the Wings of the Wind monastery, none of us ever learned just where their monastery was though. So when the visiting masters and students of Wings of the Wind came it was initially quite an amazing experience, the four of us had never even seen a pegasi before at that point in our lives. Our masters greeted each other, it was all smiles and bows. Although we had briefly been taught the history of our two arts to prepare for the celebration we never would’ve believed that we were once vicious rivals.”
“Things started with a ceremonial demonstration of our abilities. We shattered boulders and carved sculpture from them, the pegasi would do the same only with cutting instead of our tremors. Stuff like that. The younger students on both sides who had never seen the others were all in awe, ourselves included. We talked and made friends with the Wings of the Wind students who were our age.” Quartz paused while glancing at Obsidian. “Most of them at least. Obsidian, would you like to take over?”
She inhaled deeply, still shaking slightly. Bringing her hooves to her chest she took a few more breaths and steadied herself. “Yes. I’ll be fine.”
“There was one particular student of Wings of the Wind, named Night Storm.” Obsidian now told the story, Applejack listening to her with rapt attention. “He and I were meant to partake in the last performance of the celebration. A match. Not any true fight though, this was meant to showcase how students of the two arts fought without actually using Hoof of the Earth or Wings of the Wind. It was more of a show than anything. Or at least it was supposed to be.”
Obsidian had begun to shake again, but she focused herself and continued on. “Night Storm seemed friendly enough, he was all smiles and seemed to enjoy the other performances during the celebration the same as any other pony. The masters of Wings of the Wind had introduced him as their star pupil, so initially I was ecstatic that my teachers had chosen me to participate in the ceremonial match with him.”
Obsidian was trembling with each word and this time Applejack did come up and gave her her hoof in support. “What happened?”
Swallowing, she continued. “The masters called for the match to commence, I took a single step and the next thing I knew I couldn’t see anything out of my right eye and I was falling to the ground.”
Marble closed his eyes and shook in anger.
“I heard screaming, in horror, in anger.” Obsidian looked Applejack directly in the eyes. “And I felt something warm pouring down my face. I brought a hoof up to my eye, wondering why I couldn’t see anything out of it, and then he walked up to me.” She grit her teeth, tears welling up. “I still remember his face, that same smile as always, like he didn’t have a care in the world. And I remember what he said to me- “Sorry, I saw something strong and I just had to destroy it.”. And that was it.”
Quartz took over again as Obsidian quieted down, wrapping her hooves around her shoulders. “When our teachers saw what had happened some of them rushed out to attack Night Storm, naturally the Wings of the Wind masters went to his defense, even though they as well were horrified and disgusted at what he had just done.”
“Fighting almost broke out. Marble, Bedrock and I of course also went to attack Night Storm but our own teachers held us back. It took some fierce groveling and apologizing, and a promise of severe punishment, but the Wings of the Wind masters were able to pacify our leaders. And Obsidian’s wound was luckily not fatal, if it had been I can’t even imagine the fight that would have broken out right then and there.” Quartz’s eyes drifted around the room, as if he was trying to recall something from long ago. “While they were leading themselves away Night Storm looked over at me, when our eyes met he just smirked and chuckled. And it wasn’t for several more years that we saw him again.”
“I’m really sorry about what happened to ya, Obsidian.” Applejack said to her. “And all of you, having to deal with that fella.”
“If only that was the end of it.” Quartz said solemnly. “After that our lives more or less returned to normal, although it took Obsidian a long time to regain her confidence and learn how to fight effectively with only one eye. We started to go on more trips outside of the monastery, lending our services to others, getting practical experience with Hoof of the Earth. I enjoyed helping ponies, especially after seeing what happened to Obsidian and the danger of what a bad pony could do with such power, we all became our “do-gooder” selves during this time.”
“Glad to hear you didn’t just go clawing for revenge or anything.” Applejack gave them a sad smile.
“Oh we definitely wanted revenge, we just knew there was nothing we could do about it.” Quartz got up and began pacing back and forth. “Now comes the bad part. When Night Storm returned to the monastery. Alone.”
“Alone? Wouldn’t he be worried after what he did?”
“He’s not the type to get worried, for good reason.” Marble interjected.
“Yes, it was a normal day for us.” Quartz said. “We were all off doing our own thing, I was in the forest. And he just came down and landed right in front of me. He must have seen me from the sky. Needless to say I was rather shocked, of course I recognized him but I just never thought I’d see him again like that. He had that same smug smile plastered on his face.” Quartz growled angrily at the memory. “I held back my rage enough to ask him what he was doing here. He said he had finally gotten bored of his masters and killed them.”
“What! He did what?!” Applejack yelled, jumping to her hooves.
“My reaction was the same as yours. He said he learned all there was to know about Wings of the Wind and he wanted to prove his strength. So he killed the masters and other students of Wings of the Wind, all of them. All he cared about was being the best and proving it.” Quartz and the others had all started to shake with rage as he relayed the story to Applejack. “And so… now he came to us, to prove his superiority over the art of Hoof of the Earth as well.”
“So he...” Applejack didn’t want to finish her question, too horrified at what she knew was coming.
“The first thing he did was attack me, that’s how I got these scars. He left me alive though.” Quartz brought his hoof to his face to feel the uncountable scars there, his face must’ve felt so much harder and rougher than a normal one. “He remembered me too and wanted to simply humiliate me. Then he went inside the monastery… and that was the end of Hoof of the Earth. Every other student and master besides the four of us were killed.”
“Bedrock and I weren’t there at the time, he might’ve killed us too if we were.” Marble said, chewing at his wispy mane while Bedrock’s brow furrowed in anger.
“I was in the monastery.” Obsidian told Applejack through closed eyes. “He saw me too but said he was doing something different today and didn’t have the time to deal with me. He just made me watch.”
“After he was finished he told Obsidian that I was still out in the forest, he said if any others were alive that was fine too. He wanted word spread about what he did, something we most assuredly did not do.” Quartz took up the role of speaker again. “He left and Obsidian and I waited for Marble and Bedrock to return. And from there we took up our new lives, there was nothing else we could do. We didn’t know where to find him and even if we did he would probably just defeat us. The monastery had been wrecked, the masters dead, our teachers and comrades, Hoof of the Earth was finished.”
“I’m, I’m so sorry...” Applejack could offer nothing else but simple platitudes, she could feel her eyes watering from their story.
“I wouldn’t say that just yet.” Quartz said sadly, looking at Applejack with an unreadable expression. “Now… now we’ll get to why I said you might be upset with us after you learned everything.” Quartz took a breath and continued. “At first we just needed to get back on our hooves, we would go to some of the nearby villages and help out, do whatever odd job was needed, lend our aid and talents. For a time it was peaceful.”
“And then he came back.” Marble stomped a hoof on the floor in frustration.
“He came back and attacked us again, but not only us. He attacked the villages and killed some of the ponies who tried defending their homes. He destroyed buildings and farms, whatever he felt like. Again he defeated us, the four of us couldn’t do anything, and he told us that he was looking for things to fight but got bored so he came back to find us. He told us that he wanted to ruin everything we did, destroy what we cared about, because he found it fun. And he’d keep letting us live because of that.”
“Soon after that we weren’t exactly welcome around the villages anymore, we left and started journeying across the world, helping who we could and hoping Night Storm wouldn’t suddenly swoop down to destroy everything. Sometimes our hopes were dashed. That’s why we don’t stay in one place for too long, he’s always been able to find us. He’s made it his personal mission in life to ruin ours. We think he ran out of tough opponents to fight after eliminating Wings of the Wind and Hoof of the Earth.”
Obsidian sat up and walked towards Applejack, tearfully looking at her. “This is what we regret doing to you. Because you’ve traveled with us and because we’ve taught you Hoof of the Earth there’s now a target on your back.”
“I’m sorry.” Quartz said as he walked up side by side with Obsidian, Marble and Bedrock forming up behind him. “We were selfish and we kept this all from you. We… initially we were content to let Hoof of the Earth die with us, and we didn’t want to bring any other ponies into this. But when we met you… your innate ability. We had to teach you.”
Applejack looked between the four of them, mouth opening and closing before her eyes narrowed. “This… this is why you all looked so guilty when you thought we were about to get to Ponyville. Cause you knew he would find you and me and you thought he’d end up attacking my home.”
Quartz nodded. “Yes.”
“A target on my back.” The thought seemed to fully hit Applejack. “I, I have a family you know! You kept all this from me even though you knew the danger, even though you knew it would mean a maniac coming after me!” She shouted at them, her sympathy for them replaced by anger. “You lied to me.”
They at least had the decency to look ashamed.
“We’d like to keep training you, if you want.” Quartz said, reaching a hoof out to her. “I hope it never has to happen but you may need it to fight Night Storm.”
Applejack swatted his hoof away.
“I… I just can’t believe you’d be so selfish. You didn’t even think about me or the consequences. I have a little sister, now she might as well be in danger too for all I know. As if I wasn’t worried enough about her with being gone so long.” Applejack looked down at the ground, dejected. “You know I thought of you as my friends? I trusted you even when I thought you were hiding something, I figured it was something personal that was eating you up. I didn’t think it was this.”
The four disciples didn’t know what to do, they could just stand there in shame, sobered by Applejack’s words.
“I can’t even look at you right now.” Applejack tilted her hat over her head and walked past them, further into the great hall. “I’ll find a room for myself.”
It was late in the night. All they could do was watch her go and hope they could fix things between them. For they knew Night Storm would find them again soon, he would find out about Applejack, and she needed to be ready.
It was difficult enough for her to fall asleep in the first place with her dealing with everything her “friends” had just told her. Add that to the lack of any sort of bed or furniture to sleep on and Applejack tossed and turned for hours on a ratty carpet over a hard stone floor. Eventually sheer exhaustion won out and she fell asleep.
When she woke up she had no idea what time it was, the lichen in the walls still faintly glowed but there were no windows to the outside inside the large cavern of the monastery. This far inside it could be any time of the day and it would be impossible to tell. Her internal clock was telling her it was sometime around late morning though, definitely later than a farm gal would normally wake up. Applejack yawned and got up off the floor, stretching a bit she tried to think of how she wanted to handle the day.
She didn’t have the energy to sigh.
Slowly she started to pick her hooves up, one lumbering after the other as she left her makeshift room and started to look for the disciples. This was still their home and they allowed her to stay here at least.
Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten so mad after what they’ve been through… but they still knew what they were doing, they didn’t tell me anything even with it being so dangerous…
Applejack didn’t plan on being a freeloader or staying here for too long. Again she’d have to get on the road at some point and try to find her way back to Ponyville. But if that crazy pegasus was after her she wondered if that was such a wise idea, surely Twilight or Starlight could deal with him but she didn’t want to risk any sort of danger. Even the thought of her putting Apple Bloom or one of her friends in harms way by accident was unthinkable. The off-chance that something could happen, unlikely as it was, kept gnawing at Applejack.
Night Storm couldn’t really know about me yet could he? Not unless he followed Quartz and thems trail to the Twin Towns or something…
Applejack blanched. She really hoped that wasn’t the case.
Her hooves carried her through a series of stone hallways, if there weren’t such recognizable cuts and cracks in the walls she could’ve easily gotten lost but she remembered well enough from last night how to get back to the great hall. Of course it was unlikely that the disciples were there at the moment. Maybe they had their old rooms somewhere, or a mess hall or something. Applejack decided it was best not to go wandering around and instead wait for them to find her so in the end she decided to simply walk back to the great hall.
She ended up pacing back and forth when she got there, restless. Walking from one end of the room to the other and counting the pillars. Waiting for somepony else to come in. Applejack wasn’t sure what she wold say or even how she’d react when she first saw them. She’d try and keep it civil.
Just gotta take a page out of Fluttershy’s book.
A few more minutes of pacing and Applejack heard the cluttering of hooves on the stone floor.
“I see you’re already awake.”
“Hello Quartz.” Applejack said, not turning to the voice. There was a moment of silence and then she heard him sigh behind her.
“You have a right to be angry. I don’t blame you for your reaction or how you’re feeling now, but at the same time we don’t really have this luxury. Even if you don’t want to accept our offer of training right now that’s fine, I’d just like to take you to the villages on the other side of the forest. We don’t really have any food here.”
And right on time Applejack’s traitorous stomach rumbled. Definitely loud enough for Quartz to hear.
Applejack rolled her eyes at her body’s betrayal and sighed. “Fine. I don’t mind.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m not… I don’t hate you or anything. I’m just a little upset.” Still speaking with her back turned to him, Applejack let her slumped body-language tell him all he needed to know.
“We’re sorry, all of us. I… I’m not going to try to make any excuses.” She could hear the genuine sadness in his voice, if she was looking at him she was certain she’d see it in those deep eyes of his too.
“It’s alright. I’ve had plenty of arguments with friends, and I’ve known a lot of bad ponies. You’re-” Applejack sighed deeply again and closed her emerald eyes before finishing. “You’re not bad ponies, sometimes good ponies just make bad decisions.”
The two of them walked side by side on a path that was made through the forest on the other side of the large rock that the monastery was built into. Former path would be more accurate though, it was overgrown with vines and weeds and animals trampling through it had left it uneven and dug out. So far neither of them had spoken since leaving the monastery. The morning sun had made the forest hot and humid again, the buzzing of insects was an ever-present background noise. Feeling some sweat coalesce at her brow and having no idea how far it was to the first village, Applejack decided she might as well speak up to pass the time.
“So what about the others? They even know we left?”
“I talked with them last night, I didn’t want you to feel swarmed by us. Being inside the monastery brings back bad memories for Obsidian as well, it’s better if she takes the time to relax and calm herself.” Quartz spoke with a small frown, his normally impassive voice and face tinged with the smallest amount of sadness. Anypony who hadn’t traveled with him like Applejack had wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Applejack opened her mouth to offer her condolences for Obsidian but closed it just as quickly. She didn’t really know what to say anymore.
“Uh, so how much longer?” Ended up being the only thing she got out.
“Hm, not very. These villages you should know are very small, the smallest thing you could even call a settlement. I hope they’re doing alright since the last time I saw them.”
Less than an hour more of walking and they had made it to the first village, they probably would’ve made even better time if the path had been better taken care of. Quartz wasn’t lying either, it was small. The village was built at the edge of the forest and upon seeing that Applejack realized that the forest was on higher ground than the land around it, the village sat on top of a hill overseeing a walled-in valley with a small river going downhill and into it. The valley itself looked to be entirely covered in a thick jungle. The houses of the village were either made of sticks or built right into the trees themselves. It reminded Applejack a lot of the Kirin’s village.
There couldn’t be more than a hundred ponies living here. I don’t see any farms or anything, maybe they just forage from the trees?
As the two of them came into the village they were quickly spotted by the ponies that lived there. Some looked on in confusion wondering who these new ponies were while a few spoke in hushed whispers to each other. A group of foals that had been kicking around a ball stopped and looked on in awe, apparently this place might have been so out of the way that Applejack and Quartz could’ve been the first outside ponies they’d ever seen.
“So, uh, do you think some of em recognize you?” Applejack whispered to him.
“Most definitely. My face isn’t easy to forget. I’m hoping things have cooled off but they might still hold some old grudges. It was only a few years ago that they lost family to Night Storm.”
“I’ll speak up for you I suppose. If it comes down to it.” Applejack looked around as they walked further into the town, coming to a circular area bordered on one side by the river and the other the forest. A sundial was built in the center.
More ponies were milling about, going in and out of their small hovels.
“So what are we looking for anyways?” Applejack asked Quartz, it seemed like they had just been wandering aimlessly through the village.
“I was looking for the village head to ask for food but I don’t see him.” Quartz as well was looking around the small village. There weren’t many places that a pony could hide here.
“So you and your friends are back?”
Applejack and Quartz turned around at the voice, a heavyset earth pony stallion looking at them. He had a gray-green coat and a short black mane and beard. His eyes were not welcoming but not exactly angry either. Obviously he wasn’t happy to see Quartz but he didn’t seem to have the intention of starting anything either. She and Quartz were merely unwelcome guests.
“Tree Bark was it? Where’s-” Quartz started before being cut off.
“Passed away, peacefully at least.” Was the brisk answer.
“Sorry to hear that.”
“Old business. So what brings you back here? You know ponies aren’t going to be happy to see you. Especially if your friend isn’t far behind.” Tree Bark’s eyes narrowed at them.
Quartz’s face hardened a bit as well. “Even sarcastically I’d prefer you not calling him that. We just wanted some food, we’re back at the monastery for a bit.”
Tree Bark stood still for a minute, keeping his eyes on Quartz as if he was trying to see if Quartz would get tired of waiting around and just leave on his own. Applejack was about ready to speak up and ask herself when Tree Bark finally answered. “Alright, we never hurt for food around here. I don’t want to be spiteful to you crazy ponies, even if you’ve brought us nothing but trouble.” He walked past them and motioned for them to follow.
Nothing but trouble? Quartz said they helped out a lot around these villages before things went bad. Applejack frowned to herself at the thought. Mad as she was at Quartz she didn’t like anypony being treated unfairly.
The two of them still followed along after Tree Bark, getting more than a few looks from other ponies as they did.
“I was thinking of going to the other two villages today if we didn’t find any food here.” Quartz told her as they walked. “Both of them are down in that jungle below, but I guess visiting them can come another day. I’d rather us just take this food back to the others for now.”
Applejack nodded. Tree Bark led them to the end of the circular area where a large rectangular hut was situated, the doorway covered by a cloth flap.
“You can take what you need. If anypony bothers you just tell me.” He told them as he pulled open the flap.
Applejack and Quartz walked by him into their storage room. As they entered Tree Bark raised an eyebrow at Applejack.
“Who are you anyways? I don’t remember you.”
“Oh, pardon me. My name’s Applejack, I’m not from around here. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier.” She grinned, a light blush coloring her cheeks.
Tree Bark just looked at her and shrugged. “Well whatever, if you’re traveling with this guy I guess you know what you’re getting into. Just be careful, trouble follows him.” As Applejack and Quartz started looking through the crates of food piled high in the chamber he let go of the flap and walked off, the sound of his hooves hitting the ground growing lighter.
Applejack took a glance at the doorway and their villager friend walking away from it.
Trouble follows me too, wish it didn’t.
The two of them got busy scrounging up all the fruits and vegetables they figured the five of them would need for the next few days. There were a lot of tomatoes especially. Naturally Applejack wished they could have gotten some apples but she didn’t have any expectations anymore about being able to find one in these parts. And of course she was right to have no expectations. Oranges, blueberries, bananas, but no apples. Grumbling to herself, she fit as much as she could in one of the burlap sacks that had been lying in the storage room. Quartz figured it was fine to use them and they’d bring them back anyways.
Pushing the flap out of the way the two of them exited the hut and began to go back on their way out of the village when something in the corner of her eye caught Applejack’s attention.
She hadn’t seen it before when they were going in cause she was focusing on Tree Bark but now she could see that there was something across the river. She stopped and squinted at it, trying to make out what it was.
Sticks in the ground?
There were numerous sticks placed into the ground, as she looked harder she noticed that some of the sticks had ribbons tied to them, or a hat placed on them, or some other item.
Oh…
Applejack continued to stop and stare until Quartz noticed she wasn’t coming with him. Looking back he saw her eyes glued across the river and followed her gaze. Quartz frowned and closed his eyes, not wanting to interrupt Applejack from whatever was going through her mind.
Applejack’s eyes didn’t move even as she knew Quartz was waiting for her, and that there were likely other ponies in this small village that had spied her and were staring. She thought about them, the little fillies and colts she had seen playing earlier, Tree Bark, all of the villagers who while unhappy to see them here didn’t give them any trouble. Letting them go about in peace.
“Hey Quartz.” Her face and hooves stayed frozen even as her mouth moved. “That offer to train me, I’ll take you up on it.”
Applejack stood before the elm tree. Silent and still the both of them. Her eyes fixated on the thousands of leaves on the tree. She closed them and focused on the beating of her heart, the only sound coming from her. Her mind was free of thought. There were no worries, no reservations, and no doubts. Applejack opened her eyes again and placed a hoof on the trunk of the great elm tree that loomed over her, far larger than one of her apple trees.
The tree made the slightest of trembles and then instantly all of the leaves exploded off their branches and crumbled to bits.
“Wow, most students would have trouble with that even after years”
Applejack turned to Bedrock, grinning. “Well most students aren’t the best applebucker in Equestria!”
“I don’t know what that is but alright.” He just shrugged and started walking away. “It’s almost unfair that you can do that after one morning of practice.”
“Eheh, sorry, I don’t mean to brag or anything.” Applejack smiled guiltily and rubbed the back of her neck, walking along after him.
“We were all proud of our abilities too when we were younger. It’s just we stopped being proud after, well, you know.” Bedrock rubbed his nose and inhaled deeply, sounding like he was stuffed up. “Anyways if you wanna keep doing this that’s fine but I have some special training for you once night falls too, if you want.”
“Sure, sounds great.” Applejack looked above the tree line to the horizon, it would still be hours before night. “I’ll keep on working on this while it’s still light out then. Obsidian was going to show me how to carve objects with my tremors.”
Bedrock nodded. “Good precision exercise. You should probably go find her, she needs something to keep herself occupied too.” Bedrock kept on going deeper into the forest, for who knows what reason, but Applejack took off back to the monastery’s entrance. Obsidian said she would be somewhere in there.
The forest around the monastery made for the perfect place to strengthen her ability in Hoof of the Earth. Countless stones to pulverize, trees like the elm to practice more advanced techniques on, a constant stream of sounds that forced Applejack to focus harder on the beating of her heart and grabbing and focusing the vibrating power from it. Taking all the leaves off that tree also reminded her of how she destroyed Big Dad Redwood’s teeth, when she did that it was almost pure instinct. She knew what she wanted to do and her tremor moved perfectly from her body into him. Now she knew she could reliably do something like that whenever she wanted, and after practicing it all morning she could do it even bigger and better.
Quartz had pretty much left her to her own devices. With her having the basics already down he said it would be better for a natural prodigy to discover and strengthen their own abilities. That didn’t stop the others from wanting to teach her a few things that Applejack wouldn’t really think of on her own. Like some of the more unique skills they had or were good at.
While trotting back to the monastery Applejack stopped for a second to do some spur-of-the-moment practice.
There were two trees in front of her, their trunks maybe about ten feet apart from each other. Applejack wondered if she had enough control at this point to send a tremor from one tree into the ground and then into the other tree to explode its leaves just like she did earlier.
“Alright, let’s do this.” Applejack clapped her hooves together and went over to the nearest tree. Taking a steady breath and clearing her mind she focused on her heart beat. Again it might as well have been the only sound or movement to her now. With one sharp beat she captured the tremor from it in her hoof.
Smiling she pressed her hoof into the tree’s trunk and let her Hoof of the Earth technique out.
The tremor caused the trunk to shake as it passed down into the ground, Applejack could feel it practically in her bones as it traveled through the dirt towards the other tree. Her control and directing were perfect, the tremor easily made it up and into the other tree. Now she just had to see if it would have the desired effect.
The other tree trembled and then shook with ever greater force as Applejack’s smile got smaller and smaller before the limbs and trunk of the tree burst outwards like a bomb was planted inside it. A branch was shot towards her, making her duck out of the way before it impaled itself into the other tree’s trunk behind her. Looking up at it nervously Applejack glanced at the devastated remains of the other tree.
Applejack spat on the ground in frustration and frowned. “Fiddlesticks. Guess I still need some work.”
She took a slower time getting back to the monastery after that. Admiring the forest and the animals inside it. She always appreciated the critters around Sweet Apple Acres, aside from those darn Vampire Fruit Bats, and of course the farm animals themselves.
Hope Apple Bloom or Big Mac is taking care of Winona for that matter…
Coming out of the forest Applejack walked past the old dilapidated pillars and went into the long, dark, doorway that led further into the monastery. There wasn’t any of that glowy lichen stuff or whatever it was here, which Applejack thought was kind of dumb. Did that mean the only way in or out of the monastery was perpetually dark? Still, she could see a light at the end of the hallway where it opened up into the big hall. She hoped Obsidian was close by since she still hardly knew the layout of the monastery at all.
Getting into the hall, with all its huge pillars and lichen-filled recesses, Applejack could tell very quickly from the sheer silence that it was empty. She didn’t notice the last time she was in this room but each of her hooves left an echo to travel across the room as she walked further in.
Instead of possibly getting herself lost Applejack decided to try and just call out for Obsidian. “Obsidian? You in here?” She yelled through the hall, the sound reverberating on the stone walls and traveling down the numerous hallways.
“I’m coming! Hold on!”
“Well that was easy.” Applejack sat down and waited for her to come. Even though she was still upset with the disciples, angry even, she knew Quartz was right about them not having the time for such luxuries. And she still felt really bad for all of them, especially Obsidian. It would be good to push all that personal stuff out of her head and focus just on her training with the four of them.
If Night Storm truly was never far behind them it really might be any day now that he found his way back to the monastery.
Applejack heard the thumping of Obsidian’s hooves against ratty carpet and turned to see her coming down the same hallway that Applejack’s “room” was. Applejack raised an eyebrow at the large sack Obsidian was carrying on her back. The sparkling-white-maned mare came up to Applejack and smiled before dropping the sack on the center of the large carpet. It made a heavy thud and Applejack could only take one guess as to what was in there.
“Rocks?”
“Yep! Here, look at this.” Obsidian cheerfully upended the bag and dumped all the rocks onto the carpet, they were all about the size of a buckball with a couple a bit smaller. She held her hoof above one of them and then quickly tapped it, the rock shook slightly for a second before hundreds of cracks spider-webbed across its surface. Bits and pieces of the rock began to crumble away until only a small object was left.
“Is that?” Applejack asked, partially in awe of what Obsidian just made.
“Mhm.” Obsidian held up the small pony sculpture she had just made from the rock, it fitting neatly in her hoof. It wasn’t particularly artistic or detailed but being able to make a pony statue from a rock with Hoof of the Earth impressed Applejack to no limit.
“Okay, now you can try. I can always get more rocks too but I don’t want to stop until you can make a perfect pony!” Obsidian happily hefted a rock to her.
“Uh, alright, might take more than one or two tries though.” Applejack took the rock from her and placed it on the ground, trying to think how she’d do this.
“Um, and by the way, Applejack.”
“Huh?” Applejack looked up at Obsidian, who was looking at her with a troubled expression. “What’s the matter?”
“I just wanted to thank you, for still sticking around us and everything. I wouldn’t blame you if you were madder, or just left.” She pawed at the ground bashfully. With her hair and the way she was acting it was like Applejack was looking at Fluttershy.
Applejack didn’t respond to her immediately, she kept her hoof rocking back and forth on the stone, fixing her emerald eyes on it and trying to imagine carving out a pony sculpture. “I’m… still real upset with ya.” She finally answered. Obsidian’s lip trembled and she sadly closed her eye. “But.” Obsidian perked up again as Applejack continued. “I know what you’ve been through, and honestly there are bigger things to worry about now. I can keep civil with y'all until this whole business is taken care of.”
Obsidian looked like she wanted to say something but hesitated. After a moment she simply nodded and Applejack got back to focusing on turning a rock into a sculpture.
This was a little bit different, not like applebucking at all. She had the tremor in her hoof and was trying to picture what she wanted in her mind but she had no idea how to get it to work right.
Less thinking more doing.
With that last thought Applejack pushed the tremor into the rock, shaping and directing it as best she could.
It crumbled to pieces much quicker and far less uniformly than when Obsidian did it, eventually leaving behind a jagged pyramid like piece of rock at the center. Not the desired result.
Applejack looked up at Obsidian who just grinned back at her and nervously chuckled.
With a sigh Applejack grabbed another rock. “This could take a while.”
After several hours with Obsidian the sun had finally fallen over the horizon. Applejack had wandered out of the monastery and back into the forest looking for Bedrock, having no idea where he was and with the lack of light she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to find him. Luckily he seemed to have been waiting for her and was close to the entrance of the monastery, whatever special sort of training he had for Applejack was something he wanted to get started on quick. The two now stood in a small clearing in the forest, trees and rocks dotting the perimeter. The stars and the moon gave them just enough light to see each other, with the heavy chirping of crickets blocking out most other sounds.
“So why night?” Applejack asked him, only a little tired from the busy day she’d already had.
“What I’m going to teach you is about sensing things you can’t see, but starting you out in total darkness is a bit much. Like this you can still see vague shapes and objects.” Bedrock moved to the tree line of the clearing, becoming a blurry shadow to Applejack. “Now stay where you are. You’re going to feel a slight vibration in the ground.”
Applejack did as she was told and a moment later she felt that small tremor beneath her hooves.
“I just sent that out, I know exactly where you are and can perfectly make out what you look like with that.”
“What do you mean?” She questioned him, her face scrunching up in confusion.
“How do you think I knew about that sand worm back then? Or those hired mercenaries? I constantly send out subtle tremors from my body, when they impact something I get a feel for that object. What it is. Where it is. What it looks like. If there’s something unusual around, like that sand worm, I can tell.” Applejack couldn’t see his expression but he seemed to be pretty proud of his talent. “Normally the tremors are so small and weak that they’re totally imperceptible and they can’t be used to damage an opponent, the one I just sent out I made sure you would feel.”
“Alright, so you want me to learn this too?”
“It would be pretty useful, if there’s anything on or in the ground you’ll know about it. Nothing can sneak up on or surprise you. Well unless there’s some kind of magic involved I guess. Or if they’re flying too.” Bedrock reluctantly let that last part out. “You can also learn to do the opposite, but it’s harder. If you can train yourself to feel the vibrations coming from other moving things it means you don’t have to constantly send out tremors of your own, but at the same time that wouldn’t tell you about things that are still or hidden. I never learned how to tell somethings location or identity from its own vibrations reaching me. That part of my training was cut short.”
Applejack took it all in, she was pretty sure this was the most she had ever heard Bedrock speak. She wasn’t sure how well she’d be able to do what he did, unlike the other Hoof of the Earth techniques she couldn’t think of any way this related to applebucking. Even the sculpting was “simpler” in its own way.
“Well hay, I’m ready to try it.”
She saw the vague shadow of Bedrock nod. “Good. Now you should be able to see the outline of this tree next to me, I want you to try sending a tremor to it and tell me exactly what it looks like. Down to every last scratch in the wood.”
Oh boy.
Applejack squared herself and stilled her breathing. Again, there was nothing to do but to do it.
A few hours later she would turn in for the night a happy mare.
She had thought the forest up above was almost but not quite like a jungle. She would now like to go back and tell her past self that the difference between the two is very, very, big. The leafy plants and trees crowded around her even more than being deep in the Everfree and the humidity was nearly unbearable. Bright and fragrant flowers assaulted her eyes and nose every step of the way. The jungle that covered the boxed in valley she had seen from that village yesterday was a fortress of greenery. The ground was muddy and difficult to move through and hanging vines and ferns buffeted her wherever she went. The only positive was the abundance of fruit… although still no apples, she had to make do with coconuts, mangoes, bananas and whatever else caught her eye.
Quartz wanted her to visit the other two villages that were somewhere deep in this jungle, finding them herself was supposed to be some survival training or something. She wondered if there were any monsters in here like there were in the Everfree.
“Maybe Dash would be jealous of me right now, feels like I’m on a Daring Do adventure or something. Didn’t see any ancient looking temples or anything from up above though.”
Marble also wanted her to bring him back some kiwis but she hadn’t seen any of those yet. Guess they must be his favorite. Well maybe he’d have to make do with something else just like she did.
Applejack still had no real idea where she was going, she tried following the river for a while but the terrain around it became impassable so she had to go a different direction until she could find a way forward. Now she was who knows where still trying to make it back to the river. The villages most likely built themselves along it, unless it branched out into smaller streams and the ponies decided to live around one of those.
Wanted to get there and get out before the middle of the day but now it’s gonna be hot as can be soon. Like I haven’t sweated enough already.
Applejack looked up through the thick cover of plants and leaves, Celestia’s sun rising higher by the minute. The sun didn’t need to hit her directly for things to get hot. Like this it was like she was in a big green oven.
“Just never can make things easy for me can you?” Applejack shook her head, sweat spraying off her in every direction.
Guess Quartz must still want to have a good relationship with these villages though. Probably just wants things to go back to the way they were before Night Storm ruined everything for them.
Applejack figured that the jungle villages would probably have a better reaction to her if she was alone too. Quartz also probably knew that and didn’t want to bother them while Night Storm was still a danger. Like this Applejack could just pop in and introduce herself and then head on back. Easy peasy lickety-split. She didn’t even have to tell em that she was learning Hoof of the Earth or any of that stuff either.
Jumping over a fallen tree, Applejack landed in a muddy pool of water. “Aw hay!” Her legs ended up covered in mud almost up to her knees and her hat got sprayed by a jet of the muddy water too. “Need to look before I leap.”
“Um, hi.”
Applejack looked up, startled. Before her was an earth pony mare holding a wicker basket and wearing a long tan frock. She looked at Applejack with big surprised purple eyes.
“Oh, uh, how ya doing?” Applejack replied not so coolly, a drop of mud falling off the brim of her hat.
“Are you from Brooksville?” The mare asked, tilting her head at Applejack.
She didn’t know if that was the name of one of the villages in here or maybe the one up top that she had already been to with Quartz. Why didn’t anypony tell her what the names of any of these villages were?
Still Applejack shook her head at the mare. “No, no, I’m from far away, just passing through really. Just an explorer, eheh.” Applejack wondered if strangers could tell she wasn’t being totally honest as easily as her friends.
“Right...” The somewhat fearful look of the mare and the way she slowly backed up were a good answer.
“Okay, okay!” Applejack held up her hooves to show she didn’t mean any harm. “Look, I’m not here for anything bad. But uh, I’m friends with the Hoof of the Earth ponies, you know them right?”
“Oh.” The mare’s eyes turned downcast and she stared down at the ground. “Yes, we know them. And the other one.” She whispered quietly.
“Yeah, I heard about him too.” Applejack sympathetically looked at the mare before the wet feeling around her legs reminded her of her situation. Looking at herself she realized just how muddy and dirty she was. “Um, do you mind if I come back to your village? I promise I’m a friend and I’d really like to clean up a little bit.”
She got an uncomfortable look on her face like Applejack was really putting her on the spot but she relented in the end. “It’s alright, you can follow me.” She turned and started walking through the thick bushes and grass, she looked back over her shoulder at Applejack. “Just don’t bring any trouble with you, please.”
It felt good to towel herself off and shed that layer of grime and mud. The mare had led her back to her small village, they called it Deep Green. She and the other ponies there lived in grass and mud huts. It was a bit surprising to Applejack, even Zecora’s hut in the Everfree was more luxurious. But at least they were all kind and welcoming enough to her, even though some were a bit worried to have any association with Hoof of the Earth around. The village elders had simply given her a nod as she explained who she was and why she was here, not the best meeting she could hope for but not the worst. In the end she was led to a stand alone hut that the mare who found her apparently lived in.
Her “guide”, who she learned was named Tropic Twist, came by to see if she was done cleaning up.
“How are you? Clean yet?”
“Yep! Thank ya very much.” Applejack placed the towel in a basket meant for dirty clothes. “Shame I’m just gonna get all sweaty again soon.”
“Why’d you come out here anyways?” Tropic asked her, Applejack could tell she still didn’t fully trust her.
“I was just asked to meet up with you, my… friends want to have a good relationship with all your villages again. They really regret all the trouble you’ve been through.”
Tropic’s eyes moved around the room, looking anywhere but Applejack. “They were nice ponies… but it’s hard to let things go. I know they didn’t mean for it but thinking about them just brings back bad memories. I’m sorry.”
“You really don’t need to apologize, least of all to me.” Applejack put a knowing hoof on her shoulder.
“Maybe you’ll have better luck in Dry Den. I can show you the way there, they live in underground hovels near the far side of the jungle from Brooksville.”
“The far side of the jungle?” Applejack thought about it for a second, it would likely take her at least another hour to get there, and who knows how long she’d stay or if anything else might come up. And then considering the time it would take to get all the way back to the monastery from there…
“I might have to reconsider for today and head there tomorrow. As long as I know right where it is so I don’t get lost in here or anything again.” She told Tropic.
Tropic Twist shrugged. “Alright, we have some maps of the jungle if you want one?”
Now Applejack’s face lit up. “Yeah, that’d be great!” With a map she could probably find the best way along or over the river too. “And you know I’ll be sure to stop by here tomorrow either on my way there or back. Just to say hello again.” Applejack winked at her.
It actually got a small smile from Tropic Twist. “I’ll go get you your map.”
Applejack smiled as she went to leave before a sudden thought came to her. “Oh! Hang on a second!”
Tropic Twist turned back to look at her in surprise. “What is it?”
“Do you happen to have any kiwis?”
She had her saddlebag full of kiwis and a map of the jungle as she lumbered back up the hill that led down into the jungle. Making this trip twice in one day was exhausting even for a mare in as good of shape as Applejack. She certainly had her pride as an earth pony but she still couldn’t help but think how easy wings would make things sometimes.
Hm, that’s another thing I aint admitting to Rainbow Dash.
Applejack had also been lucky enough on her return trip through the jungle to only fall into a mud puddle twice. At least this time she was near the river and it was nothing a quick dip couldn’t fix.
Going back through the village she now knew as “Brooksville” Applejack waved happily to the ponies there. A couple of younger fillies and colts waved back at her but most ponies just shied away. Better than last time. Tomorrow she should probably stay here for a bit longer too, maybe there was something she could help them out with. A little kindness and generosity always went a long way.
“Heh.” Applejack smiled to herself as she reached the forest. She didn’t know how long she’d be staying around here now but it could be a while, she wasn’t leading any nutjob to Ponyville. But honestly she was a little scared about what would happen if he finally did show up. She was confident in herself, and she’d always stand up and protect others, but she wasn’t Twilight or Starlight or even a glory hound like Rainbow Dash.
They’re teaching me all this stuff but am I really a fighter? A real fighter? Applejack wondered what it would be like fighting somepony like Night Storm instead of just some thug like Sandstone or teaching a sleazebag like Big Dad Redwood a lesson.
And not paying attention to where she was going she promptly tripped over a rock and fell right on her face.
“Ow!” Applejack laid there, rubbing her red nose. A few of the kiwis had tumbled out so she had to fetch those. “Marble better be thankful… he gets his kiwis but are there any apples around? Nope. Didn’t even bother asking Tropic Twist about em, I can’t stomach this anymore.” Applejack grumbled to herself. Forget everything else, she just really wanted an apple right now.
She was making good time back to the monastery, by now she recognized the forest pretty well and she even saw a few of the trees she had been practicing on yesterday. Looked like it was just an hour or two until evening, maybe she’d spend her night making something as a thank you for Tropic Twist. She didn’t have an oven or anything for food but maybe she’d like a pony statue? Either way it would probably be nice to get something together for Dry Den too and make a good first impression. Maybe she could grab some of the peaches from the forest up here for them. Tropic Twist… Applejack owed her so something with a little more thought put into it would be nice.
Pushing her way through the thinning trees Applejack could see the side of the rock where the entrance to the monastery was.
Applejack sighed, hoping the others were doing their own things and maybe she could just rest. “You’re my friends but I don’t forgive ya just yet, not all the way at least.”
Coming out of the forest she-
Applejack stopped cold as if struck.
There on the ground lay Quartz, Obsidian, Marble and Bedrock between the pillars leading to the monastery’s entrance.
“Hey!” Applejack ran to them, eyes wide and heart pounding. “Quartz! Obsidian!” She stopped right over Quartz’s prone form, he was breathing but unconscious, a quick look told her the others were in the same state. “Thank Celestia...” Applejack wasn’t sure how injured any of them were, did she try to carry them inside? Should they even be moved at all? Maybe it would be better to go back to Brooksville and bring somepony to help.
“Don’t worry, I’ll-”
“Excuse me, miss.”
Applejack went cold. She slowly turned her head to the voice that spoke from above her.
A pegasus hovered in place above one of the pillars, wings gently flapping as he lowered himself down to stand atop it. His coat a pale blue, brown mane styled in a buzz-cut, coal black eyes and a whirlwind cutie mark. He wore a dark blue crushed velvet jacket with bronze buttons and yellow epaulettes on the shoulders. To Applejack it looked like the kind of posh fancy thing some noble in Canterlot would wear, or maybe some formal military uniform. Hay, how would she know, this was Rarity’s expertise not hers.
And he was smiling at her.
And even though Quartz and the others had never described what he looked like Applejack knew exactly who she was looking at.
Applejack fixed him with a hard stare. She didn’t want to give anything away. How did he learn her name anyways? Was he just messing with her now? And he was still just smiling down at her, perfectly content to wait for her answer.
“Who’s asking?” She finally replied, brow furrowed at him in grim determination.
His smile got wider and he took a moment to ruffle his feathers. “Oh, just any other pegasus. You see those four ponies down there are old friends of mine. I like to pay them a visit every now and then, but this time before visiting them I had heard they made a new friend. And I simply have to find her. After all I even just more recently learned that my old friends happened to be training her in a silly old earth pony fighting art. But you probably know nothing about that.”
Applejack gulped. Oh yeah, he knew.
Night Storm scratched under his chin while he continued to smirk down at her. “You seemed to be awfully concerned about these four, and if I’m not mistaken you said the names Quartz and Obsidian as well. I suppose you know them?”
She didn’t answer, instead tensing up her body and preparing for anything.
“You don’t have to worry about them though, I would never kill them. They’re just far too much fun to mess with.” He suddenly spread his wings as wide as they could go. “You on the other hand, Miss Applejack, you’re just a fun new little thing for me to defeat.”
Applejack glared at him. “You-”
“Oh don’t be angry at me.” He cut her off. “Be angry at your friends, I might not have bothered with you at all if I didn’t know about them teaching you Hoof of the Earth. I’m so lucky I found a nice foraging pony from Brooksville before I came back to the monastery. Quartz probably never would’ve told me the truth about you. Heh.” He chuckled lightly to himself.
She bristled at knowing that he was already back to terrorizing the poor ponies around here, she hoped that whoever it was he found was okay, even if he did tell him about her being taught Hoof of the Earth.
“You... I don’t get you! They told me about you and everything but why do you have to keep hurting other ponies! Isn’t it enough that you’ve proven yourself stronger than Quartz and them?! Why do you have to hurt ponies who can’t even fight back against you! Answer me!” Applejack yelled at him, thrusting her hoof at him and nearly shaking in anger.
Night Storm stopped smiling for a second, tilting his head and looking down at her. Meeting her strong emerald eyes with his dark ones.
“Heh.”
His grin returned as he jumped off the pillar, keeping his wings out to slowly glide down to the ground.
“It’s not enough to be the best. It does give me immense pleasure to know I’m superior to Hoof of the Earth and my former Wings of the Wind brethren, but it’s not enough. Everypony must know I’m the best. Everypony must know they can do nothing to me. I am the strongest and I can do whatever I want to anypony else. That’s it.”
Applejack practically growled at him, her hooves digging into the dirt beneath her feet as she gave him a glare that would make an Ursa Major run off in fear. “You’re horrible.”
“I can afford to be, I’m strong.” He simply smiled back at her, meeting her glare with confident eyes.
“I don’t care how strong you are or how long you’ve been learning this stuff or fighting other ponies, there’s no way I’d let somepony as awful as you continue tormenting all these good folk! I’m putting an end to this.” She reached up to push her hat back, trying to calm down her beating heart so it was easier to grasp a tremor.
“Oh please try it, I want a challenge for once.” He licked his lips at her. And then just as suddenly flicked one of his wings in her direction. It was like a nearly invisible claw of air coming at her, Applejack’s eyes widened and she jumped to the side just in time, the claw of air tearing through her saddlebag and shredding the map and kiwis inside of it. The tattered remains of the bag fell from her side to the ground as Applejack quickly slid backwards from Night Storm, putting some distance between the two of them.
“Hey hey, good job, most ponies can’t even see that.”
Sweat already began to form at Applejack’s brow, realizing how close she had come to biting it right there and then. And the dull throb from her body after her quick movements reminded her of something else. She was tired. The whole day was spent dragging herself through a hot jungle, up and down a big hill, constantly on uneven ground and very uncomfortable. She’d been doing that since dawn, at first there was an adrenaline rush when she saw Quartz and confronted Night Storm but now that she was still and thinking she realized that she was on the brink of exhaustion.
Applejack let out a haggard breath but at the same time sent a tremor through the ground, Night Storm was walking, the tremor would reach him and end the fight right then.
Or it could’ve if he didn’t promptly flap his wings and fly up off the ground, hovering only a few inches off it but totally untouchable to Hoof of the Earth.
“Sorry, but I can tell pretty easily when you’re sending a silly tremor through the ground.” He just grinned smugly at her, rising up higher. “You should know that something like that wont work. And you’re never gonna be able to hit me. Now let’s see how you deal with me getting a little serious.” As he flapped his wings Applejack could see the wind forming and blowing around them, streams of air snaking across his feathers. “I hope you’re fast on your hooves, I truly pity you earth ponies for not being able to know the joy of flying, to feel the wind under your wings.” His wings fully extended outwards, even though he wasn’t flapping them anymore he was still hovering in the air, the wind itself was holding him up now. “Are you prepared? It’s coming.”
With a single twitch of his wings a barrage of scythes and blades of wind shot towards Applejack. She had to strain her body to the limit to avoid them, ducking under one that bisected a tree behind her, jumping to the side of another that left a deep gash in the ground. She saw two blades, the light of the sun reflecting of the manipulated wind, coming down at her in the perfect trajectory to scissor her head.
There was no time to think, Applejack acted purely on instinct. She slammed a hoof into the ground in front of her, letting out a tremor in one huge burst, the ground exploded under her and she was rocketed backwards with enough speed to just barely save herself from the wind blades. She landed on her back and continued to painfully slide across the dirt for a few feet before stopping. She was breathing heavily and her body was telling her it didn’t want to move but she was still alive.
“Hey, that was pretty good.”
She looked up to see Night Storm still hovering in the sky above her, a faint shimmering around him showing he was still ready to fight. His wings were held unmoving at his sides, like he didn’t need to even use them to fly. It was more like he was walking on air.
“You’re more fun to fight than the others, I’ve gotten too used to them.” He chuckled at her.
Applejack shakily got to her hooves, wishing she wasn’t showing any weakness to him but unable to do anything about it.
Night Storm frowned as he saw her shaky movements. “Already tired? What were you doing all day before you came here?”
“None… of your… business.” Applejack stubbornly replied.
He stared down at her, unimpressed. He seemed to think for a second before the wind swirling around him disappeared, the currents in the air returning to normal. “What’s the point if you aren’t at your best? Go take a night to rest.” His smirk returned in full force. “Enjoy my mercy. But I should let you know that it would be very bad for all the pathetic ponies living around here if you were to suddenly run off.”
Night Storm started to flap his wings like a normal pegasus needed to do to fly, going up high above the pillars and tree line. “Tomorrow morning, meet me above the monastery on top of this little mountain. I’ll be looking forward to crushing another Hoof of the Earth disciple. You should take the time to say goodbye to your friends. Heh.”
With a great flap of his wings he shot upwards, quickly becoming just a speck in the sky, a whirlwind was left behind as he flew away.
Applejack watched him until he was gone completely, almost out of breath she looked over to the knocked out forms of Quartz and the others. Her body protested as she wobbled towards them. Now she didn’t even think she could carry one of them.
“I need to get some help.”
Applejack paced back and forth in one of Brooksville’s hollowed out trees, the sun had passed down below the horizon but she was getting no closer to being calm enough to sleep. Quartz, Obsidian, Marble and Bedrock lay in their own cots in the living room. What had passed for the villages doctor had given them a look over and it seems they would be okay as long as they just rested for a few days.
“You doing alright?”
Applejack turned to see Tree Bark entering the room from the entryway. A concerned but hardened look on his face.
“Yeah, yeah I’m alright. I really can’t thank you enough for helping us out.”
“No need for that, I wish we could stay out of it but we aren’t the types of ponies that would just leave an injured pony out there on their own. Besides, that pegasus already attacked one of us earlier today.”
Applejack winced. “Right, he mentioned something like that. Will he be okay?”
Tree Bark sighed. “He’ll live. It’s just… nopony should have to go through this. Not over and over.”
“I’m-” Applejack hesitated for a second. “Well, with any luck I’ll be able to finish things with him.”
Tree Bark looked at her in surprise. “Why? What’s it to ya? You’re not even from around here are you, how long have you even known these ponies anyways?”
“It’s not just about that. I can’t let him keep doing what he’s done to all of you. And he said that if I left he’d take it out on you.” Applejack shook her head. “No way am I letting that happen.”
Tree Bark looked at her with that same distant expression he used for her and Quartz when they first came to Brooksville. “You don’t have to worry about us.” Applejack was confused and wanted to ask what he meant but Tree Bark stepped over her sleeping friends and went to a closet at the back of the living room. “We’re through letting him push us around, this was the last straw. We won’t let him hurt us anymore, not without a fight.” He opened up the closet and reached in, pulling out a spear. “I’ve made my decision, so has the rest of the village. Doesn’t matter what you do, we’re going after him too.”
Applejack’s jaw dropped in shock. This was crazy. “You can’t! You’ll be-”
“Slaughtered?” He finished for her. “Maybe. Probably. But we’d rather go down fighting to save ourselves than just keep rolling over.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “I figured you would feel the same.”
Applejack opened her mouth but nothing came out. She struggled to formulate some sort of response to him. But he was right after all. Applejack knew what she would do if she was in the same situation.
“Thought so.” He dryly chuckled at her. “You need to get some rest now. I guess we’re all going out sometime tomorrow.” Tree Bark took his spear and walked through another doorway adjacent to the closet, Applejack hadn’t really explored the treehouse but she figured he must’ve had a bedroom back there.
She didn’t really know what to make of this situation now. She wanted to help these ponies, and she didn’t want to put them in danger by running away. But now they were going to fight no matter what she did. Fight and get…
Applejack shuddered. “No way.”
They don’t know where he is though, I didn’t tell them where he was waiting for me tomorrow morning. I can take care of Night Storm on my own before they get in any danger but I’ve gotta get back to the mountain tomorrow before any of them see me.
“I’ll get some rest Tree Bark, just not here.” She spoke to herself, walking through the living room on her way to leaving the treehouse. She’d find somewhere comfortable outside in the forest and right at the break of dawn she could go back to the monastery.
“Applejack.”
The weak voice cut through the quiet living room like a knife.
She stopped and turned around, there on the floor Quartz was looking at her through barely opened eyes, not even able to fully lift up his head.
“Quartz, you should be resting, just get back to bed and-”
“I’m sorry.”
Applejack just stood there, sadly looking down at him. “I already told you you don’t need to apologize.”
He groaned and tried to open his eyes to get a better look at her. “Don’t go, just leave, leave before he can find you again. It’s… you can’t do anything to help. Go back to your family and take care of them.”
The room was quiet for a second.
“Heh.” A small giggle escape Applejack. “Hehehe...” the giggling grew until it was almost full blown laughter as Quartz watched dumbfounded. “Quartz...” She finally said, calming herself down. “That’s not the kind of pony I am.” She stood up tall and proud. “I want to say thank you, after meeting Night Storm I don’t blame you for not telling me everything. And now I want to stop him, I’d want to stop him even if you had never trained me or told me anything. Quartz, I’m going to fight him tomorrow. But win or lose I won’t be coming back here. You’re right, I do need to go back home. I like the few ponies I’ve really met here, and I like you, but this place isn’t my home. I’ve been away for too long and I can’t spend more of my life learning Hoof of the Earth when I’m never going to be fully devoted to it. I know you’ll be able to fix your friendships with these villages just fine too. Cause you’re good ponies.” She winked at him. “This’ll be goodbye for now, when the others wake up say goodbye to them for me please. You’re all my friends. Sorry for being kind of a coward and making this my goodbye, but I feel it’ll be easier for all of us. And hey, you just remember that if you ever find yourselves in the neighborhood of Ponyville that you’re always welcome at Sweet Apple Acres.”
Quartz didn’t respond vocally, simply looked up at her with those captivating deep eyes as he breathed laboriously and gave the slightest of nods. She smiled at him and took one last glance at Obsidian, Marble and Bedrock before turning back to head out of the treehouse. Tomorrow was the day.
He had said to meet her on top of the flat mountain, easier said than done, there was no path or ramp or stairs to get up the side of it so she just had to climb. Good thing Applejack had experience with that. She was well rested after leaving Brooksville last night, finding a nice quiet place in the woods. Her body certainly wasn’t at a hundred percent but she wasn’t aching and tired either. The hot sun was just reaching over the horizon, signifying it as the earliest time possible for a pony to call it morning. A part of her kind of wished he wouldn’t be up there. A part of her kind of wished this was just a bad dream and she’d wake up in her bed to the smell of apples outside. The rest of her knew that she had a fight to finish.
Applejack had made it up the side of the mountain and dragged herself onto the flat summit. The orange rock of the mountain nearly matched her coat color, as she lay prone on it she wondered if anything could even see her if they were looking down from above.
That was all a moot point though considering Night Storm was just standing at the center of the summit.
Applejack stood up, taking a second to look at him before walking to confront him. He didn’t move or say anything to her but she could see even from this distance that he had that same smile on his face. The sun coming in sideways at them made their shadows cast long westwards over the orange rock. Her hooves reverberating deeply with each step, the urge to try another tremor on him while he was standing there was strong but she knew it would be pointless just like before.
“So we’re both here.” She said out to him while she walked closer.
“I’m glad you came.” He finally acknowledged her presence. “Cowards are fun to kill too but I was hoping for a challenge today.” His smile grew wider at seeing Applejack frown.
Applejack kept frowning as she came to a stop a dozen or so feet away from him. “You know, I was actually hoping I could just talk to you and maybe convince you to stop being bad. That’s not really my area of expertise but I have some friends who are really good at it so maybe it rubbed off on me a little. But then you just open your mouth and it makes me think there’s no point in trying to talk to you.”
“I agree.”
Her eyes widened as in a flash he flicked his wings at her, the tiniest of wind blades slicing at her head from them. She rolled to the side to avoid them, a slight breeze going past her head.
“Haha, I’m glad you’re still spry.” He opened his wings and took to the air, allowing the wind to gather around him. “Talk is for the weak, let’s hurry up and do this.”
Applejack got up but felt a slight weight fall from her head, looking to the ground she saw the rose Bouquet had given her fall from her hat, the flower cut to pieces. Her eyes narrowed and she angrily looked up at Night Storm.
“That was a gift.”
“Oh, sorry, if I knew you cared about it so much I would’ve cut it sooner. Maybe I’ll do the same to your dumb hat next time.” The wind gathered completely around his wings, forming a second phantom pair of wings over them. He bared his teeth at her and dove with great speed, coming right at her.
He was diving fast. But it wasn’t as fast as Rainbow Dash could fly.
Applejack slammed down a hoof and made a tremor explode the ground in front of her, sending dozens of rocks up into the air at Night Storm. He didn’t hesitate at all, his wings lashed out and cut any rocks that were coming his way. Even though the way he was moving them should have caused him to crash to the ground it was like he controlled the wind entirely, like she had seen yesterday he didn’t seem to need to use his wings like a normal pegasus for flight.
At this point Applejack really wished she actually knew how Wings of the Wind worked.
When Night Storm got lower to the ground he turned sideways, one long wing covered in razor wind pointed towards the ground, its tip gouging a huge scar in the rock as he flew towards her.
Applejack knew that all she needed was the tiniest of touches to win this fight, but he had to know that too. She still braced herself for him, not making to dodge out of the way like he probably expected her to. The wind around his wing would likely cut off her hoof if she tried to touch it so she’d have to aim somewhere else.
But as he got closer to her he suddenly turned upwards, doing a sideways flip in the air and flicking his wing forward at her. The wind that was previously around it shot towards Applejack with an ear-splitting screech. Now she had to dodge and it was almost right in front of her face, it was like time slowed down as she exhaled, her forelegs left the ground and she went sideways. Standing on her back legs she sucked in her gut and pulled back her head, the blade of wind going right past her eyes, just the slightest grain of sands distance from her chin. She had no time to think about it as she heard another screech, out of the corner of her eye the blade of wind that was on his other wing was shooting towards her, aimed right at her stomach.
Ducking forwards would just get her head taken off, instead Applejack bent over backwards, her hooves hitting the ground behind her head and making her body a bridge. She heard her back crack from the unusual position she put her body in, she just wasn’t as flexible as some other mares. The blade of wind went right over her belly, taking a few high-standing hairs with it, as it finished traveling over her she pushed off the ground with her hind-legs and rolled over, coming back up on all fours and keeping a tight watch on Night Storm, hovering just in front of her.
“That’s pretty good, a lot of ponies can’t even see the wind.” He said mockingly. “But you should realize by now that you can’t do anything to me.”
More wind gathered around him. Talons of cold biting wind came from his wings, like the talons of a vicious griffon that wanted to tear Applejack apart. Night Storm flew at her again, lashing out with his wings and new weapons at her, driving Applejack back as she could only dodge his attacks. There was no way for her to fight or retaliate like this. It was practically like a boxing match where all she could do was avoid the other pony’s hooves.
And through it all he kept smiling. Wings poking and swiping at her, the deadly wind coming less than inches from cutting into her body every time.
But as she saw that smile on his face Applejack realized something. Despite him putting her completely on the defensive he wasn’t enjoying this, his smirk had gotten smaller, his mouth thinner, he wanted to hit her already. He may have said he wanted a good fight but he was impatient. He wanted to prove his superiority and defeat her already. That was the real prize. His attacks became more frantic and less precise, they were faster but wilder and not as calculated. She could easily see where his wings and the deadly wind from them would go. She could outlast him like this, there was no way he had the stamina that she did.
Rainbow Dash is faster and Twilight is smarter and more patient. I can beat him.
Night Storm angrily flapped his wings hard and flew backwards a bit after seeing he was getting nowhere. He still smirked confidently at her but his eyes were on fire. “You’re an annoying bug, earth pony.”
Applejack didn’t respond. Didn’t rise to any provocations or insults. She needed to focus, just like when she was first learning Hoof of the Earth. Block out everything else.
Night Storm grunted and crossed his wings over his chest, wind started to gather around them until they looked like two tornadoes coming out of his sides. Snapping his wings back out the whirlwinds came to life, leaving his wings and traveling across the ground independently as two huge columns of spiraling blades. They tore up the ground wherever they went, first circling Night Storm before expanding outwards, Applejack kept her eyes on them as they passed behind her. The tornadoes now created a circle around the both of them, constantly rotating around the two ponies. The wind from then blew about her mane and tail and kicked up a steady cloud of dust.
“You won’t just be able to keep running around now.”
Night Storm advanced on her again, those huge phantom blades of wind appearing on his wings again as he flew in low at her. Whether it was a feint or straightforward attack Applejack wouldn’t be caught by surprise again.
It turned out to be straightforward as he again threw the wind at her, this time both blades at once, one on top of the other. The first blade was too low to the ground for her to duck under and too wide for her to dodge to the side. The second one was place just high enough where she couldn’t jump between them but if she jumped over them both she’d be a sitting duck in the air for any other attacks from him. All this time in the instant the wind blades were coming at her she could hear the screaming of the tornadoes as they spiraled around the two fighting ponies.
Applejack acted fast, she dove down low while striking the ground with her hooves and sending a strong tremor out. The rock cracked and erupted beneath and in front of her, orange pebbles and dust shot up and when it cleared the smallest of holes had been built by Applejack. Lunging forward and pressing down as much as she could the wind blades passed harmlessly above her, not even taking any hair off her tail.
She instantly got back up, and just in time too as Night Storm was coming at her again with his deadly wind talons. He swipes across her chest as she jumps back, but this time Applejack isn’t just defending. When her back hooves hit the ground she sends a tremor out behind him, causing the ground to burst and pour a wave of rocks and dust over his back while he continues to try and strike her. The sudden attack from behind surprises him and Applejack takes the opportunity to charge in with her hoof going right for his chest.
But Night Storm’s reflexes are too good. With a panicked flap of his wings he dodges back from Applejack, putting himself in the air and out of her reach and looking at her with a surprised anger.
The tornadoes continue around them but their orbit starts to get smaller and smaller, pushing Applejack and Night Storm towards each other. He initially wanted this so she couldn’t keep running away and avoiding him but now he wasn’t so sure if he wanted to get that close. Applejack could see his confidence was shaken a little by her almost managing to hit him.
This pony has ego to spare, he must be mad now. Applejack thought to herself and wondered if she could really rile him up.
“What’s the matter, scared?” She smirked at him, tipping her hat back.
Night Storm growled down at her, the two tornadoes shook violently and sped up their rotations, whipping Applejack’s mane across her face.
“The little worm thinks she can talk back?” He started to grin at her. “I just haven’t been taking this seriously. You weren’t a real student of Hoof of the Earth so I thought I could just mess around and have fun. Instead of using a serious attack I just made these tornadoes to box you in. Do you want me to attack seriously?”
“I’d say yes if I didn’t think you were just blowing hot air at me.” Applejack said as she yawned, not showing any sign of worry.
“Well then, you get your wish.” Night Storm flexed his wings and the two tornadoes began to slow down and dissipate. “A true test of who’s better.” The wind from the tornadoes flowed back to Night Storm, coalescing around his whole body. “I’ll show you Wings of the Wind, Applejack.” The raging winds flew in a current over his wings, legs, and body. It would be dangerous if she got to close to any part of his body now but it didn’t look as powerful as if he had just gathered the wind along his wings. And the wind was still constantly flowing, it didn’t protect every little spot at once.
She knew she could get a strike in if he came at her.
“I can tell what you’re thinking. But this isn’t all.” Night Storm smiled and started to spin in midair, going end over end like he was doing a corkscrew, faster and faster until he was just a huge wind drill floating above her. “Farewell, Applejack!” She heard him scream as he flew towards her with tremendous speed, the drill attack centered right on her head.
“Uh oh.”
Applejack jumped out of the way as Night Storm barreled into the ground, cutting through the rock of the mountain like tissue paper. She turned around to see him turning after her again, apparently he had no problem seeing her even spinning like that. The wind drill came at her half buried in the rock but not impeded by it in the slightest. When Applejack sent a tremor out in front of herself to shoot more shards of rock at him and maybe even get a tremor directly inside him he simply flew up a little to avoid them, the rocks passing harmlessly underneath him. It was unlikely they would’ve done anything to him with that whirlwind around him anyways.
Night Storm continued chasing after her like a tornado homing in on her location. Applejack doubted he could keep doing this for that long but he was fast and big enough to get on her if she wasn’t careful. And she was getting tired too.
“Is running all you can do?!” Night Storm’s scream reverberated through the air, distorted by the spinning air around him.
Applejack grit her teeth as Night Storm’s corkscrew continued pushing her across the mountain, trying to exhaust or catch her before he had to stop. Unfortunately because she was paying so much attention to avoiding him she didn’t notice that she was being backed up to the edge of the mountain until it was almost too late.
“Woah!” Applejack yelped as she almost stumbled right over the side, barely catching herself.
Night Storm was coming straight at her and now there was nowhere to go.
But up.
Right before the great drill hit her Applejack stomped her hooves on the ground, firing a tremor directly beneath her and causing the rock and edge of the mountain to explode upwards. Jumping with it Applejack vaulted over Night Storm while the cloud of dust and rocks temporarily made him lose vision of her, he continued flying forward for a second before stopping while she landed behind him and ran back to the center of the summit.
Night Storm stopped spinning around to catch his breath and turned to her, glaring at the mare that’s continued to survive against him.
Applejack met his eyes with her own fierce look. She wasn’t sure if she could pull something like that off again, and he’d probably be ready for it. What did she do now?
“If I had known you’d be so annoying I wouldn’t have let you live.” Night Storm said to her as he floated closer. “But fine. Like I said, talk is for the weak.” He began spinning again, going back into his corkscrew and creating the whirlwind around himself. “This will be the final pass!” With that final yell he shot towards Applejack like an arrow.
She could probably keep dodging, she could probably keep shooting rocks and dust at him, she could probably do something to stall things out even more. Or she could try and end things too. Applejack squared herself against him, facing his attack without any sign of running. It was a risk, she might die, but she would go down swinging.
Nothing to do but to do it.
“RAAAHHH!” With an animalistic yell Applejack leaped forward. Her strong earth pony hooves aimed at the vortex of Night Storm. This was it.
Applejack and Night Storm clashed. The two ponies, both disciples of an ancient fighting art, made their best attack at one another. Night Storm flew in spinning like a tornado while Applejack jumped at him with a simple straightforward punch. The wind blew fiercely against Applejack, her hat flapping, her mane and tail whipping about, but she kept on course. The drill that was Night Storm was right in front of her face, he would plow right through her. Applejack turned in midair to avoid simply hitting him head-on but still reached her hoof out to try and strike him.
The clash was over in an instant. The two ponies flew by each other with the window of opportunity for the both of them closing faster than a lightning bolt would take to hit the ground. Applejack bounced off the ground, hard, but jumped up to her hooves and skidded to a stop, turning to face Night Storm.
Night Storm stopped spinning, the wind around him disappeared and he floated to the ground, landing with his wings unfurled he turned around as well to face Applejack.
A lock of hair from her mane fell to the ground and the smallest of cuts opened up on Applejack’s cheek.
Night Storm was unharmed.
But he frowned at her, still standing there before him. “Very well, I’ll finish this on the next pass.” He raised his wings in preparation for another attack. The wind gathering slowly beneath him.
Applejack, however, merely shook her head at his statement. “No, you were right, that was the final pass.” She raised her hoof in front of her face, looking at it and the small cut on it briefly before returning her eyes to him. “You didn’t feel it? I touched your wing.”
Night Storm smirked. “Nice bluff, but that’s impossib-” He stopped as he felt a tingling sensation in his wings, Night Storm’s cold black eyes grew wider as the vibration grew stronger and his wings began to shake. “No! Wait!”
There was a sickening pop and crunch as the tremor peaked and every muscle, tendon and bone in his wings snapped. Applejack even flinched and recoiled when she heard it. Night Storm’s wings fell limp at his sides like a puppet that had its strings cut and he howled in agony and fear.
“MY WIIIIIIIIIINGS!”
She could see the shocked and horrified look on his face as he tried to flap his wings, but they didn’t even budge, there wasn’t even a slight twitch. His days of flying and using Wings of the Wind were over.
Applejack sighed and started to walk towards him. “That’s it then. You lose.”
His face snapped to her, his eyes darting around in fear. “You… you took my wings from me.” Night Storm’s legs trembled so badly Applejack wouldn’t have been surprised if he collapsed right then and there. He wasn’t as angry as she expected, fear and surprise had overwritten everything else.
“I did.” She replied evenly to him, her face blank as she continued to walk towards him.
Night Storm looked like he wanted to back up, to get away from the pony who crippled him, but his trembling legs kept him glued in place. His mouth opened and closed but no sound came out aside from a low whimper. Applejack was only a few steps away from him now. Night Storm screwed his eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable as her hoofsteps grew louder.
It never came.
Night Storm opened his eyes to see Applejack walking past him, making for the edge of the summit.
“W-What are you doing?!” He exclaimed in surprise.
She looked over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s it look like? I’m leaving. Got no business with you anymore.”
“You’re not going to kill me?” His jaw hung open, the tips of his limp wings dragged across the ground.
“Why? You can’t fight or even fly anymore, I’m not the type to kill a pony like this. You should be thankful I guess.” Applejack made it to the edge, looking for a good way to climb down.
“Thankful? Thankful!?” Night Storm yelled at her back, though the base fear still in him kept his hooves from moving to confront her. “What you’ve done to me is torture, living like this is worse than death!”
At that Applejack spun around, eyes narrowed and intense anger written plain on her face, pointing her hoof at his chest.
“No it aint! You only think that because you’ve spent your whole life doing nothing but hurting others! Well now you’re gonna have to live. I aint some vicious killer like you. You’re just gonna have to learn to deal with it.” Applejack frowned and turned back around, leaving Night Storm there to sputter and even start to cry a bit. As she was settling to climb back down the cliff her two hairbands snapped, letting her mane and tail flow free while she groaned. “Great, where am I gonna find some of those out here?”
Applejack shimmied off the edge of the cliff, slowly finding a safe purchase so she could carefully climb down one hoof at a time. She gave one last look to Night Storm to see him helplessly shaking his wings with his hooves, trying to get any sort of response out of them. “Hey you!” She called out to him, getting his crying face to snap to her in attention. “By the way, while I might not kill you there’s a big mob out looking for ya by now, and I don’t think they have the same reservations as me. You should probably get out of here pretty fast.”
Not waiting for any response from him or to even see the reaction on his face Applejack fully lowered herself over the edge of the cliff and began the slow descent.
Night Storm and Wings of the Wind would never hurt anypony again.
It was noon now, Applejack stood well past the monastery of Hoof of the Earth. The forest had let up a bit in this area, making it much easier to move through. It was too bad about her saddlebag and other items but all in all she felt things had turned out pretty well. The hair falling about her neck and shoulders was a bit uncomfortable and not something she was used to though. She yawned and took a great big stretch, trying to get all the kinks out of her body. Already the day had been long enough and it was barely halfway done. And she should probably get a lot more walking done today.
To her right, to the east through the trees, Applejack knew the boxed in valley was there. The village of Deep Green where Tropic Twist lived, that nice but standoffish mare that Applejack only got to meet once. That Applejack still owed for the map. There was also Dry Den, the other village that Applejack never ended up going to. She wondered what it was like.
The ponies of Brooksville and her four friends already lay behind her as well. She could go back to see them. A part of her wanted to. It was also bothering her that she was leaving without doing anything for Tropic Twist. A part of her wanted to go to Deep Green to fix that.
She really should give a proper goodbye to Quartz, Obsidian, Marble and Bedrock, even though at this point she didn’t really owe them one. It would just be the nice thing to do. A part of her wanted to hang out with them some more, put all the bad things behind them and celebrate. Brooksville probably had some alcohol lying around somewhere. A part of her wanted to stay longer and get to know them all better, get to relax and have fun too. And maybe even practice her Hoof of the Earth more.
There was certainly adventure there if she went back. For all she knew another grand event would open up for her the moment she set foot in Dry Den, or Quartz would find something that his “Do-gooder” nature wouldn’t let him leave alone. And then Applejack would be swept up in it all and some more craziness would happen.
A part of her wanted that. The rest of her knew she needed to head back home already.
It was time to get back on the road home, even if it meant leaving like this with so much unsaid and undone. Applejack was curious about Dry Den, she wanted to pay back Tropic Twist, she wanted to say goodbye to her friends, but overriding all of that she wanted to get home. Applejack walked away from the boxed in valley, heading back west. Too much time had been spent around here and if she didn’t take this opportunity to leave now it would just be all the more difficult in the future. It was time to get back to her farm, her family, her friends, and her apples. After all this and all this time without one she really, really, wanted an apple.
She could hear the rushing water of the river long before she saw it. The wide dirt road she had been traveling on for the past two days led her through forests and over hills and now from what her ears told her to a river. Her journey had been slow and uneventful recently, it was back to quiet times alone just like how it was before she stumbled into Cross Way. That seemed like ages ago to her now. Her mane and tail still fell down loosely without any ties or bands to hold the ends together. She had tried using a few bendy twigs to make a tie but they always broke or popped out of place after a couple minutes so she figured she might as well just keep it natural for a while.
When she got to the river the water was much calmer than she had thought. The noise of it coming from just slightly upstream where a number of rocks sat in the middle of the river, causing the water to lap up against them. Still it seemed a fairly deep river, and murky, Applejack couldn’t really make out the bottom or if there was anything swimming in it. The width was a bit much too, she figured almost 200 feet across. Water was probably mighty cold so swimming really didn’t appeal to her right now.
It’s a good thing that the road led right to a bridge that spanned the river.
A simple but effective wooden bridge, wide enough for a carriage to cross, went over the water. The planks and boards were thick and well-weathered. Applejack could tell the craftsmanship was good, it made her think of all the work she needed to do around the farm once she got back. Building a new chicken coop would take the better part of a day. That was alright by her, keeping busy is keeping good, and she had a lot of fun when the family rebuilt the barn back at the reunion.
Besides the bridge itself there was a stand up next to it with a stallion lazily sitting on a bench in the shade beneath it. Applejack wondered what that was about but as she walked closer to the bridge she saw that a piece of rope had been strung from one side to the other, as if saying the bridge was closed off.
“Uhh… pardon me mister, but is there something wrong with the bridge?” Applejack raised an eyebrow at the rope, from what she could see the bridge looked completely fine.
“Nope. You just have to pay the toll before you can cross.”
Applejack’s eyebrows both shot up to her hair. “What? A toll just for walking across this bridge? Are you kidding me right now?”
The stallion, with his tan coat and greyish mane, stood up and fixed her with an apathetic stare. “My bridge, my rules. Pay up or shove off.” He smirked at her through gross yellow teeth.
Applejack sputtered. “What in tarnation is with you?!” Rarity would be grossly offended at such rudeness.
“What you talking about? I built the bridge, it’s only right that I collect some money for letting ponies cross over to the other side, huh? What else would you want me to do?” He indignantly replied.
“Uh, how about letting ponies pass out of the kindness of your heart?” Applejack glowered at him.
It was silent for a second.
And then all the birds in the nearby trees flew off as the Bridgekeeper raucously laughed in Applejack’s face.
“Oh… oh stop! Please, you’re gonna make me bust a gut!” The stallion was doubled over, holding his stomach while he laughed at Applejack.
Applejack at this point really wanted to just ignore him and go over the bridge anyways. But if he really did build the bridge it was his property and she didn’t have the right to just use it without his permission. Curse her respectful nature.
She groaned and shook her head. “Okay, look, I don’t have any money. Can’t you just let me pass. Please?”
He eyed her for a second. “Well how about handing over your hat? I like it.”
Applejack gasped and reached a hoof up to hold her hat down. “No way! My hat aint for sale!”
The Bridgekeeper cleared his nose and then hocked a big loogie onto the ground. “Well that’s just too bad for you then. Now if you want I got a real hankering for some peaches, there’s a little orchard up the river a bit from here. If you’d be willing to grab me some I could let you pass.”
Applejack smiled and wiped her hoof across her brow. “Woo, glad we could come to an agreement. Alright then, I’ll go grab you some of those peaches.”
She made to go walk off when he opened his mouth again. “Oh right, I forgot to mention that they won’t be ripe for another month or so, so you’re gonna have to wait a bit.” The rude and greedy stallion started snickering at her.
“Grrr.” Applejack glared and growled at him. “I’ve had it with you! You think you can just bully some pony around like this cause you made that bridge? Well not me, thank you very much but I’ll just swim across!” Applejack walked to the edge of the river and dipped one of her hooves in to test how cold the water was.
“Oh yeah, yeah, go swimming all you want.” The Bridgekeeper called out to her in a faux-polite tone. “Just be sure to say hi to the biteacuda’s for me when you do.”
Applejack stopped. Taking her hoof out of the water she turned back to him with a frown.
“Are there really biteacuda’s in this river or are you just messing with me?”
The stallion shrugged. “Who knows? Why don’t you go find out if you don’t wanna use my bridge so badly.” He started chuckling at her again.
Applejack stared flatly at him, eyes half closed with a complete “lack of cares left to give” look on her face.
“Look pal, I’m really not in the mood for something like this. I’ve been through a lot of stuff that I really would’ve preferred to avoid recently. I don’t like dealing with this kind of craziness and I just want to get home. So tell me, are there or are there not biteacuda’s in the river?” Applejack asked with full exasperation.
The Bridgekeeper’s eyes were smiling as he replied. “Could be, just cause I haven’t seen any doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”
At this point Applejack was a little bit tired.
She rubbed her eyes with her hoof and walked up to the Bridgekeeper. “Well bud, I just thought of a great way to find out if there are any in there or not.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “Oh? And how’s that?”
Moments later he was screaming his head off as Applejack tossed him a good twenty feet over her head and right into the river. He made quite the splash. Smiling, Applejack trotted back over to the river’s edge and looked out at him as he flailed around in the water.
“Well? Any biteacuda’s in there?”
The Bridgekeeper kept flailing about like a fish out of water… Applejack realized the irony of that though. He seemed a bit too panicked to answer her question.
“Help! Help me, I can’t swim!” He was kicking his hooves about fiercely, trying to float and not get swept away.
Applejack’s hoof hit her face in annoyance. “Really now?” She rolled her eyes and jumped in after him, shuddering at the sudden sensation of the cold water. Swimming over to him she grabbed her hooves around his body and tugged, pulling him back to the side of the river. “Stop struggling already ya numskull!” An accidental elbow to the face later and Applejack had them both pulled out of the cold river.
He was breathing quite heavily as Applejack rubbed her sore nose and shook the water off her body. She took a glance at the bridge and then back to him.
“So can’t swim huh?”
“Uh… no.”
“Did you really build that bridge?”
“Um, I made the little stand and bench I use. Eheh...” He nervously rubbed the back of his neck.
To his surprise, Applejack smiled when he said that.
“Oh, that’s really good then. I was gonna feel kind of bad but if you can just rebuild it it’s not a problem.”
“What do you-” He didn’t get to say “mean” as Applejack turned and bucked him hard enough to send him flying back into the meager stand he had built. Obliterating the small structure and causing it to collapse around him.
“Woo-wee! Now I’m feeling a lot better. Like a monkey in a crate of bananas.” Applejack jumped up a few times and stretched her limbs before prancing happily onto the bridge. “Now you be good and all you hear?” She called back to the Bridgekeeper, although she wasn’t sure if he was coherent enough to hear her. “Ya see how much better things would be if you were nice to ponies?”
Finishing up her trek across the bridge Applejack took a big breath of air to enjoy her conquest of one more obstacle. As silly as it may have been. She gave herself another shake to get any remaining water off her and started walking down the road on the other side of the bridge now. The day was still young, maybe she’d find someplace to sleep or at least get some new hairbands.
Applejack ran through the hedge maze at full speed, the walls seeming to close in around her, she couldn’t remember just how many hours she’d been trapped in here already but she wanted out. As she looked up the walls were so high that they blocked out her view of the sun, the sky itself being only a tiny slit. Coming to an intersection Applejack ran right, then left, then right again. At no point did it seem like she was getting any closer to an exit. Her hooves echoed loudly off the walls of the hedge maze, it didn’t make any sense but it still happened. Where was she even going now? Her sense of direction was completely shot from all the twists and turns, at first she had tried to keep track of if she was still going west, east, etc. but over time as she had gotten more frantic it became impossible for her to remember where she was going. For all Applejack knew she could be right by the way she came in, just going in circles in a corner of the maze. Or the exit could even be just through the wall to her right, so impossible to get to it might as well have been miles away. Applejack had tried pushing her way through the hedges but they were completely impassable. So thick and strong she might as well have been trying to force her way through a concrete wall. As Applejack turned another corner she heard a rumbling noise and looked over her shoulder to see the path she just came through be blocked off by a new hedge springing up.
It was about the tenth time she had seen that happen.
This place is driving me nuts. One magic hedge maze was more than enough for me.
Trying to climb out didn’t work either. The tops of the hedges seemed to perpetually remain the same distance away no matter how high up she went. Every now and then she’d come to a wider space with multiple branching paths, or a tunnel, a ways back she had even came out into a clearing that had a nice gazebo built into it. Whatever else this hedge maze was it was truly massive.
And really wearing out my patience.
Applejack slowed down a bit, realizing there was no point in running at full speed anymore. Despite her paranoia there wasn’t really anything happening to the hedge maze, it never harmed her and as far as she knew nothing was chasing her or even lived in here to begin with. Looking up she saw the sky to be much darker now, it was almost night. Maybe a good nights rest would make her journey easy tomorrow morning. On the other hoof though she didn’t really want to fall asleep in a creepy hedge maze like this.
“Ugh, I just wish I could tell if there was at least someway out of here. Having somepony else to talk to would be nice too. Geez.”
Applejack leaned against one of the hedges. For a pony that liked things simple and straightforward it was kind of ironic for her to be stuck in a situation like this. Or just annoying. She decided to pick up her hooves and continue on for a little bit longer at least, hopefully she could find another one of those gazebos and sleep in it for the night if she couldn’t just find the exit.
I bet Pinkie Pie would just be having a blast in here, and Twilght would want to study it.
As Applejack walked on she could faintly here a rumbling every now and then, the maze shifting most likely, each time it just made her sigh in frustration. Maybe the maze was completely random? Or maybe it changed depending on where she went in it?
Applejack came to a four way intersection and deciding to change things up a bit she spun around and counted to ten and walked down the way she was pointing. She was pretty sure it ended up being a left.
Going down that path for a bit the hedges started to arch together overhead, creating a total tunnel. It should’ve been totally dark but through some magic or other means unknown to Applejack there was enough light that she could see the blooming flowers all across the tunnels walls. Roses, lilies, lilacs, tulips, marigolds, petunias, and who knew what else. Roseluck and… the other two flower ponies whose name’s Applejack couldn’t remember would love this.
“Wow.” She said to herself as she admired the pretty scenery. “Almost makes it worth getting stuck in here.”
Even in this situation Applejack refused to use the word “lost”.
The tunnel ended shortly and Applejack came out into a scene that, despite all the other weirdness she had been part of, she never expected to see.
A cafe. A simple coffee house stood in the biggest clearing of the maze Applejack had come across yet. It had no sign above its doors but it looked just like one of the cafes Applejack would see in Ponyville, there was even an outdoor area with some white tables and chairs with umbrellas, all surrounded by a little picket fence and lined with flower boxes and planters. It may not have been home but the smell of coffee wafting from it made it just as inviting as Sugarcube Corner.
And there were five ponies sitting at one of the tables looking at her.
“Uh, hi?” Applejack said, cautiously waving at them.
The five ponies, all of them earth ponies like her, looked pretty surprised to see her, and then huge smiles broke out on their faces and they left their table and came happily trotting over to Applejack. Who was only just a little bit weirded out by this.
“Hi, it’s great to see a new face!” The lead pony, a light-brown stallion with a black mane and spool of thread cutie mark, said as he came up to her and eagerly shook her hoof. “I’m Thread Count, welcome to our nice little oasis.”
“Pleased to meet you, name’s Applejack.” Applejack returned the hoofshake with an uneasy smile. How long had these ponies been in here?
“And I am Effervescence!” A red mare wearing heavy eye-shadow and with her pink and purple mane done in a tight pigtail announced. She even posed a bit while she greeted Applejack, sticking her hoof into the air and one of her back legs out behind her, batting her curled eyelashes.
I found Rarity. Applejack thought to herself as she also noticed Effervescence’s perfume bottle cutie mark.
“My name is Lozenge.” A glasses wearing stallion with a pill cutie mark told her, his coat was a pale yellow and he had no hair on his head.
“I’m Shiny Porcelain.” A mare with a lilac colored coat just like Starlight’s told her. She had the widest smile of the bunch and what looked to Applejack like a doll cutie mark. Her green mane was pulled back in a long ponytail that just about hit the ground.
“I’m Flour Press. And that’s flour as in baking, not the plant, you know?” The last pony, an aquamarine mare with a short white mane and a bag of flour cutie mark told her.
“Right...” Applejack looked over them all, they did seem genuinely happy to meet her. “Uh, how long have y'all been in here for?”
They talked between themselves for a second. “Hm.” Thread Count answered her. “It’s kind of hard to say, it’s easy to lose track of the days in here, even though this is a big open area if you look up the hedges still curve at the top so you can barely see the sky. But we’ve all been here for a few months at least.”
“What!” Applejack was shocked. “You’ve all been lost in here for that long?!”
“Oh no, no.” Lozenge said. “We were only lost for a couple days. Then we gave up and just started living here.”
Applejack sputtered at the absurdity of it all. She kept trying to form a coherent sentence as the others continued.
“It was a bit off-putting at first.” Flour Press spoke up. “I mean, we all have families after all. But it’s pretty nice in here. There’s plenty of food you know? Lots of fruit trees and such. The cafe has some bedrooms on the second floor if you ever want to sleep someplace a bit more comfortable. Oh, and the maze rearranges itself so you can always find your way back here.”
“Are y'all nuts?!” Applejack finally managed to get out.
They looked between themselves for a second.
“I dunno, maybe?” Thread Count replied.
“It’s not like we never tried to get out or anything.” Effervescence started. “But we could never find an exit, so we made the best of a bad situation and now we’re quite enjoying ourselves.” She tossed her braid over her shoulder. “There aren’t any worries or troubles in the maze.”
“Okay, well if that all works for you then fine. But me? I’m getting out of here.” Applejack turned away, walking towards one of the various pathways that led out of the big clearing.
“That’s alright, it was nice to meet you.” Thread Count said afterwards. “We wish you well, no hard feelings if you end up right back here either.”
“Thanks.” Applejack said over her shoulder before suddenly thinking about something and coming to a stop. “Uh… by the way, you said there are lots of fruit trees here. Would that include any apple trees?”
The five weird ponies talked between themselves for a second.
“Sorry, not sure what those are?” Thread Count again answered for them.
Applejack hung her head low and sighed. “Figures.” She took off walking again, even though the cafe would’ve definitely made a nice place to sleep for the night she just didn’t want to be around it and those ponies who seemed so happy to just give up and live here in the maze. Heading down the nearest path she could see where it split off in two directions ahead.
Applejack grumbled incoherently, ignoring the ponies greeting her and walking to a table outside the cafe. Her eyes had deep bags under them that she futilely tried to rub away with her hooves before putting her head down on the table and resting.
“Guess she didn’t sleep well.” Shiny Porcelain whispered to Lozenge, who nodded in agreement.
The door to the cafe was kicked open as Flour Press came out, holding a big tray of pastries on her back. “I’ve got tarts!”
The other four maze ponies crowded around her, taking a tart or two from the tray and chowing down on them. It seemed to be their morning routine. Flour Press brought the tray over to Applejack, trying to get her up with the smell.
“Oh Applejack, I know you must be upset but don’t these strawberry tarts just smell delicious?~”
Immediately Applejack’s head shot up, eyes bloodshot and pupils mere pinpricks, causing Flour Press and the others to jump back in surprise.
“Strawberry? Strawberry?” Applejack repeated.
“Umm, are you allergic?” Lozenge asked nervously.
Applejack grabbed her face with her hooves and pulled on her cheeks. “I can’t, I can’t deal with this anymore. This is too much, give me monsters or evil ponies to fight. Anything’s better than this, is the world just playing some sort of joke on me right now?” Applejack continued to mumble to herself while the others watched on.
“Maybe she’d prefer a cherry pie?” Flour wondered.
“I could knit her a scarf to go with her hat.” Thread Count suggested.
“Perhaps we should’ve held a party last night?” Effervescence asked her friends. “I did say a while ago that for the next pony who comes in we should have a party, really make them feel welcome and all?” Again she tossed her mane back in a display of faux-regality.
“Oh yeah, I kind of remember you saying that. Applejack left pretty quick though and I don’t think she would’ve really stayed for a party either.” Shiny Porcelain replied.
“Please, of course she would’ve stayed, it would’ve been rude had she not. Every pony must obey the doctrine of hospitality.”
“But wouldn’t that just make her feel obligated to come to the party so she wouldn’t hurt our feelings or be rude? If that’s the case then I’d rather we didn’t force a party on her. What’s the point of throwing a pony a party that they don’t really want?” Thread Count said to Effervescence.
“Oh please!” She replied indignantly. “What’s the point? The point is that a party is a standard social function. It is an event you have to celebrate things, the point of a party is the party itself! There is never not a reason to throw a perfectly good party.”
“Could y'all!-” Applejack suddenly shouted but stopped and quieted down as all eyes turned to her. “Uh, just quiet down a bit? I’m a little bit on edge.”
The five ponies shuffled about anxiously. They didn’t want to upset their new guest but not talking was obviously a foreign concept to them. Flour Press mouthed that they should play charades together until Applejack was feeling better. But Lozenge vehemently shook his head against that idea, remembering the last time they had played charades and the foul mood it had left them all in. Effervescence decided that if she couldn’t let the others know how fabulous and regal she was by telling them then she’d do it by showing them and began to strike a number of poses. No one was really watching her though. Shiny Porcelain just cleaned down the tray Flour had been using with a rag while Thread Count rubbed his chin absentmindedly.
As Applejack watched this scene unfold her desire to leave increased greatly. But too tired to do anything right now she just groaned and slammed her head on the table.
“And that is how I became the number one mare of the town!” Effervescence finished telling her life story to Applejack, who had not asked to be told her life story. It had only taken a few hours and one break for tea.
Applejack wondered how much of what she was just told was actually true. She had claimed to have gotten the love and admiration of everypony in town for creating a new brand of perfume but Applejack had the sneaking suspicion that her cutie mark was for the selling and application of perfume and not for inventing new types. Effervescence just didn’t come off as the type of mare who could actually do something like that.
“Uh huh, that was a great story.” She blandly replied to the ecstatic red mare.
Thread Count came up to her, playfully poking her in the side with his elbow. “Don’t let her get to you none, we’ve all heard that story at least ten times now.” He winked at her and invited her to come sit down inside the cafe instead of just lazing around outside.
“Really now! Must you all be so rude and dismissive of me? I was, and still am of course, a lady that should be praised and adored!”
Applejack and Thread Count didn’t bother responding as they both went inside for a seat.
“So I guess you’re pretty bothered with not being able to find a way out.” Thread count said as they sat in a booth.
“Ya think?”
“Hehe, sorry. But really it’s pretty nice in here.”
Applejack just raised an eyebrow at him. “Honestly I think there might be something in the water for y’all to just accept being stuck in a giant magic hedge maze so easily.”
Thread Count shrugged. “Friends, food, fun, what’s not to like?” He stopped for a second, scratching his head. “Admittedly, I kind of miss my family but I’m sure they’re doing fine without me. Hey, if you ever do get out of here and come across a town called Apricot Rails would you say hi to them for me?”
Applejack put her hoof to her face and slowly dragged it down, pulling at her eyelids in annoyance. “Fine.”
“That’s the spirit! Now come on, Lozenge has a deck of cards, I’ll gather everypony together and we can play some Poker! You just sit here and relax, have some food. There should be plenty of fruits and vegetables and left over cookies in the kitchen.” Thread Count got up and left the cafe, leaving Applejack to sit there and sulk.
Twilight or Starlight could find a way out of here. Hm, Starlight might just try to set the whole place on fire actually...
Thread Count shortly came back in with the others, Applejack got up from her booth and the six of them sat at a bigger round table in the center of the cafe. She didn’t want to be here but the other ponies were just being so positive and friendly that she figured she should humor them at least a bit. And Flour offered her free food, even if Applejack didn’t eat any of the, ugh, strawberry tarts it was still a nice gesture.
The game of Poker went on for a while, all of them were terrible, Applejack couldn’t bluff to save her life. The five maze ponies always going off on some tangent or relating to her their life story. Apparently Lozenge just fell down a hill and rolled right into the maze. Shiny Porcelain went for a walk in the countryside one day and thought exploring a hedge maze would be cool. Flour Press just woke up here one morning, she thinks her sisters were playing a prank on her. Effervescence claimed that she intentionally came in to conquer the maze but got bored and gave up. And Thread Count said he wandered in on accident on the way back home from a visit to his cousin.
None of them had a problem with any of this.
“Okay, I take back what I said earlier. I think you were all a bit weird even before ya got stuck in here.” Applejack said, frowning at the absurdity of them and this whole situation.
Shiny Porcelain chewed on her hoof a bit. “Hm, maybe. My dad usually had to give me a map whenever he sent me on an errand in town. I got lost in our neighbors backyard once too, don’t know how that happened.”
“My sisters probably got tired of me hogging the oven.” Flour Press whined, stretching out on the table. “But I’m a baker! And it wasn’t my fault that the house caught on fire that one time.”
“When I went skiing once I fell into a lake. I think we’re just unlucky ponies.” Lozenge shrugged.
Applejack put her cards down, tired of Poker even with the straight she had just gotten. She sighed and rubbed her temples. “I’ve had my fair share of bad luck in recent days too, but I’m not stopping here. This place is nice, I’ll give it that, and you’re all nice too but I’ve got a family and friends and my home to get back to.” She kicked back her chair and stood up. “Is there anything you can think of that might help me find my way out of here?”
The five ponies seemed to think for a bit, sharing glances and remembering anecdotes from the time they still attempted to leave the maze.
Finally Thread Count just shrugged with a sorry frown on his face. “Sorry, but this place is magic. We don’t understand it at all.”
“Ughhh.” Applejack groaned loudly. “I’m coming real close to just setting this place on fire.”
“Oh no no, believe us, you really don’t want to do that. Learned that the hard way.” Thread Count told her while the others nodded along.
Applejack wasn’t done yet. “Well what about a rope? If we could get a long enough rope and maybe tie it down here, I could take it with me to make sure I don’t start going in circles or anything?”
“I don’t know if we have a rope like that, and I think it would break whenever a new hedge pops up around it.” Flour Press said.
“Right, right.” Applejack chewed on her lip as she tried to think of a way out. The small circle of sky she could see above her was still blue, if only they had a pegasus or unicorn with them. She wished there was some straightforward answer to find. “Look, I’m sorry if I’m being a bother to ya, I know this isn’t something you really care about but if you would help me I’d really appreciate it.” She pleaded to the other five.
The five of them just smiled back at her, as pleasant and polite as always.
“Of course.” Thread Count replied. “What do you want us to do?”
Applejack looked around the clearing, pacing around the cafe for the umpteenth time while the others patiently watched her. She looked down the dark tunnel she came in through, then at the various other paths leading deeper into the hedge maze from where the clearing was. If there was a way in this maze then there had to be a way out even if it wasn’t always open. Maybe if she could just get to the edge of the maze an exit would open up? But then how would she know if she was by the edge in the first place? The hedges are too tall and she can’t see or hear anything through them. Her patience was really being tried now and no matter how hard she racked her brain she just couldn’t figure out this darn maze.
Finally Applejack stopped walking and just groaned. “Thinking isn’t getting me anywhere. This whole place just makes no darn sense at all.” She looked over the five other ponies waiting for her. “Alright, I thought I’d be able to come up with something by now but I haven’t. So instead we’re just doing the simplest thing I can think of.”
“Fine by me, I just want to be able to stretch my hooves after all this standing around.” Effervescence said.
“Okay, so not counting that tunnel I came through there are four paths leading out of here. We’re all gonna go down them at the same time. Even if the maze changes shape, if all of us are running around it at once maybe we can outrun it? Maybe it won’t be able to keep up with six ponies going through it at the same time?”
Thread Count thought about it for a second. “Maybe, usually we’re not in a hurry when we’re going through the maze. And it was only ever one of us who was new at a time. But what would all this accomplish anyways?”
“I’m thinking that maybe it wouldn’t have enough time to shift the exit around if one of us actually got close to it.” Applejack answered. “I know we have no way to contact each other or anything once we’re in the maze but if I could just learn there is an exit it’d really help my mood.”
“And if we don’t find an exit or anything we’ll naturally end up back here later today.” Flour Press said. “That’s just how the maze works, I see no harm with us wandering around for a while.” She happily trotted up to Applejack. “So we going now?”
“Yeah, if you’re all fine with it?”
“I don’t mind.” Shiny Porcelain said.
“Me neither, sounds fun anyways.” Lozenge said.
“Yes, a nice change of pace.” Thread Count finished up for them while Effervescence nodded.
“Good, everypony choose a path. I guess some of us will go in pairs at the start since there are only four but then we can split up at the first intersection.” Applejack led them to the paths leading out of the clearing. She and Thread Count going down one, Lozenge and Effervescence on their own while Shiny Porcelain and Flour Press also paired up.
“Ooh, ooh!” Flour Press suddenly started hooting excitedly. “If we can’t find the exit this is still a great opportunity to play tag! We haven’t played tag in the maze in ages!”
“You’re right!” Effervescence responded to her, eyes lighting up. “It’s been so long, and a game of tag would be the perfect consolation prize if we can’t find a way out.”
Applejack smacked her hoof to her face and shook her head. She would say something if she didn’t already know by now how pointless it was to task them to take things seriously. Instead she just walked with Thread Count down their path while the others went down theirs. If Applejack didn’t know any better she’d think this was all a big gag by Discord.
“I hope we find a way out for your sake, even though it was nice to see a new face.” Thread Count said from beside her.
“Yeah, you’re all real nice but I just can’t stay here.” Applejack walked around with him for a bit, there had been several twists and turns already but no actual branches in the path yet. Above them the slit of sky was clouded over, she couldn’t tell what time of day it was at all.
“Sometimes I just go wandering through the hedges to clear my head. It’s quite relaxing.” Thread Count tried to make some light conversation. “Do you ever take long walks through nature? You’re a farmer correct? I bet you have a lovely farm that’s just great to stroll through.” He started humming cheerfully. “Ah, this lovely walk and the thought of a charming family farm is touching my heart. It’s making me get into a certain mood!”
Applejack raised an eyebrow at him, concern written on her face. “A certain mood?”
“Yes! And it’s the perfect mood to fix your mood! Because even before I came here to this hedge maze what always got me feeling better when I was blue was… singing!” He shouted and raised his hooves above his head, twirling around in front of Applejack.
She just gawked at him with her jaw on the ground.
“Now my singing didn’t exactly make me the most popular pony in my village but that didn’t bother me! So join me Applejack, let’s sing to our heart’s content and make all those negative feelings fly away!”
Thread Count ran in front of her, beaming smile on his face, and took a deep breath.
“Well-”
Applejack quickly stepped forward and covered his mouth with her hoof. “No! Please, no! No singing, I just… just no.” She said with her still bloodshot eyes and exasperated face. “Can’t, just can’t deal with singing right now, okay?”
Thread Count nodded and Applejack removed her hoof.
“I think it would really be just what the doctor ordered though.”
“Leave that decision to me.”
Applejack walked with him for a short while longer until they hit a small round clearing with five branching pathways. Not exactly what Applejack wanted to see but nothing she could do about it, they each chose one path and went their separate ways. The peace and quiet was rather refreshing. The dirt on the ground and the green hedges looked the same as anywhere else, she had no idea if this was a path she had been on before or not. Still no sound reached her from anywhere else in the maze, she might as well have been completely alone.
If there was something like an evil monster chasing us through here I might actually prefer that.
No such luck though. It was just Applejack and her thoughts until she either found an exit or came across one of her new… “friends”.
“Wouldn’t be half-surprised if they had already started playing tag or hide-and-seek or whatever.” She mumbled to herself.
Applejack came into a small clearing with a pond and fancy white bench sitting beside it. Shrugging, she decided to rest her hooves for a second and sit down. No fish or anything in the pond, just a bunch of lily pads and mossy rocks. She could see her frazzled reflection and unkempt appearance on the waters surface. Rarity already had enough complaints about her lack of care towards her personal appearance but if she saw Applejack now she’d explode. In any other situation Applejack would be able to enjoy herself here. But more than Cross Way, the Twin Towns, or dealing with Night Storm, Applejack was just darn frustrated being stuck in this maze.
I don’t feel I deserve to be put through these situations. This is a Rainbow Dash or Starlight kind of thing…
Putting aside spiteful thoughts, Applejack got up and went down the only other pathway that led out of this clearing.
It ended up leading to a dead end after turning into itself but as Applejack backtracked through it a new path in the hedge maze opened up to her. Strands of hair from her mane kept falling around in uncomfortable spots, she wished she could’ve found a replacement hairband. Thinking about it she realized that Thread Count could likely make her some new ones. She’d have to ask him the next time she saw him, if she saw him.
Applejack sighed suddenly. “I miss Apple Bloom.”
Dragging her hooves further she came out into a much larger open pathway with numerous other paths on all sides of her. There were also white wooden arches covered in vines and blooming flowers built down the main path. She heard some giggling and turned to see Flour Press chasing Shiny Porcelain from one hedge to another.
“Come back here!”
“Nah nah, nah nah, gotta catch me first!”
Applejack rolled her eyes, she figured as much. She didn’t really feel angry at them though. How could she get mad at ponies that could turn any sort of situation into fun?
Lozenge then came running out of a path in front of her, being chased by Effervescence. “Curse this game! A lady should not have to run like this!” Her words didn’t match the big smile on her face though. Thread Count also came down a path to Applejack’s left, spotting her he waved hello and started to walk over.
Soon enough Flour Press and Shiny Porcelain also found their way back to the big area, this time they saw Applejack and stopped chasing each other, blushing in embarrassment they came over to sit down. Effervescence and Lozenge also came back from another hedge to join them.
“Um… we really were looking for a way out for a while.” Flour Press said, pushing her hooves together nervously. “It’s just that when I met up with Shiny we got to talking and one thing just sort of led to another and well… you know.”
“You don’t need to apologize none.” Applejack said, just giving the ponies a friendly smile. “I mean this is pretty much your home, I’m the one imposing on y’all.”
“I still feel a bit bad. When we first got stuck in here we all wanted to find a way out but not so much as you do.” Shiny Porcelain said.
“Gave up pretty quick too.” Lozenge threw his two bits in.
Applejack looked around her, seeing that she was bringing down the mood of this group of abnormally happy and friendly ponies. “Aw shucks, you all really don’t need to worry none about me.” She got up and walked over to the nearest hedge, tapping on it a few times. “I don’t know how long I may be stuck in here but I couldn’t have asked for a better group of ponies to be stuck with.”
There was a slight rumbling and the hedge behind her opened up… to the outside. Applejack looked at it, blinking at the outside world that she had seen for the first time in about two days. A perfectly normal road heading into the mountains was just a few dozen feet away.
“Huh.” Thread Count said. “Well would you look at that.”
Applejack stared at the walls of the hedge maze for a second before turning back to the other ponies. “You know, there’s a lot I’d like to say but I don’t feel like looking a gift horse in the mouth either. Y’all wanna leave with me?”
The five maze ponies looked among themselves yet again.
“Naw, we’re good.” Thread Count answered for them. “It was nice meeting you.”
“Yep. Bye bye, Applejack.” Flour Press waved at her.
“Hope things go well for you out there.” Lozenge said.
“Be sure to tell everypony you meet about the wondrous Effervescence!” She asked, while posing like a model again.
“Just be sure to keep positive.” Shiny Porcelain reassured her.
Applejack walked through the hedge while waving goodbye to them, a weird group but honestly not much weirder than her own friends now that she thought about it. Shortly after she walked out the hedge maze rumbled again and closed up. She made a note to herself to not walk into any more suspicious hedge mazes. It was time to get back on the road that hopefully would take her closer to home.
And of course it was only then that Applejack realized she had again forgotten to ask Thread Count to make her some new hairbands.
Applejack saw palm trees in the distance. It was kind of a strange sight, she didn’t think she was near such a tropical area. The big trees stretched tall but she was confident enough in her bucking skills that she could get a coconut without having to climb up one if she wanted. Coming out of the mountain pass she had been traveling through was nice, instead of the cold mountain air that traveled in-between the peaks there was a warm breeze coming from the direction she was heading now.
The weather in these here parts is just crazy.
As she trotted towards the palm trees and other tropical plants the ground started turning from dirt to a white sand, almost like she was on a beach. Applejack was sure there was no ocean or even lake around though, there was no wind coming from a large body of water or any sound of crashing waves.
“Where even am I now?”
Applejack rubbed her head for a second but figured there was nothing to be gained from standing around thinking. With a shrug she walked through the sand, closer to the foliage she noticed that a lot of it was pineapple bushes, that’d be a sweet treat if she felt like nabbing one. Still couldn’t compare to a real apple but it was better than nothing.
She pushed herself through some of the tropical plants that grew right up out of the sand, it was really like she had somehow just walked onto a tropical island.
“This is getting ridiculous.” Walking under the shade of a palm tree Applejack looked up at it, the thing was at least fifty feet tall and there were many others that looked even twice as tall as it. If she did buck one she’d better get out of the way of any falling coconuts. If she could place a rock in the right spot though she could probably get the coconut to crack itself.
Applejack cracked her back and continued on. Pushing a bush’s big leaves out of the way she saw a sign right in front of her.
REST STOP AHEAD
Applejack was surprised to say the least.
“Really? Do enough ponies even come through here?” Her face was twisted up in confusion but she decided to let it pass. If there was a place to rest it’s not like that would be a bad thing or anything. Applejack was getting good at letting things go. Too many weird things, too few explanations. Might as well treat everything as inexplicable as Pinkie Pie and just relax about it.
The sign had no arrow on it or any directions so Applejack just walked past it and figured the rest stop must be straight behind.
Now that she thought about it she had had pretty bad luck with signs on this little journey of hers.
It was only a short walk through a grove of pineapple bushes later that Applejack spied a building she assumed was the rest stop. Well, building was stretching it. This was more like a hut. The thing was put together with grass, twigs, mud and big palm tree fronds for a roof. Just sitting in the middle of a big circle of white sand, surrounded by the palm trees and other bushes. It actually did look like it would be a nice resting spot, it was secluded, cozy, and had that natural “Do-It-Yourself” appeal that Applejack liked. Rustic wasn’t quite the word she was thinking of. Traditional? Well, whatever.
There was another sign set up next to the hut that read “The Other Side”. Of what? Applejack was flummoxed as she looked at it.
“Should I even bother?” She said out loud to herself.
“Bother with what?”
Applejack jumped, startled at the sudden voice from behind her. She didn’t hear anypony walking though the sand.
Swiftly turning to face the voice Applejack saw a peach colored unicorn mare with a wild lime-green mane and a swirly stardust cutie mark. Maybe Twilight would have a more scientific name for that but swirly stardust was what came to Applejack’s mind.
“Oops, sorry for startling you.” The mare said with an apologetic smile. “My name’s Starburst. I work here.”
“Uh, yeah, no problem. Pleasure to meet ya, Miss Starburst, my name’s Applejack.” She puffed some errant hair out of her eyes and put her hoof forwards to shake. “So you work here? What do you do?”
Starburst eagerly took Applejack’s hoof. “Yes! I am the Booth Operator of this rest stop. I keep things clean and greet ponies who come through.” She said proudly, closing her eyes and holding a hoof over her chest.
“Riiight.” Applejack resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Do many ponies come through here? I mean, it seems like a pretty out of the way place.”
“Oh I see somepony every now and then. I’d say once a month on average. I say hello and answer any questions they might have, I also make some excellent fruit juice if I may say so. Pineapple coconut lemon mango mix! It’s delicious!” Her grin stretched from ear to ear as she leaned in at Applejack. “Want some?”
Applejack stepped back to put some space between the two of them. “Uh, no thanks but I do have a question for you now.” Starburst perked up at Applejack. “You seem to know a lot about fruits so I was wondering if you maybe had any apples or knew where I could find some?” Starburst could see the incredibly hopeful and cautiously optimistic expression on Applejack’s face.
It was a shame she had no idea what apples were.
“I’m sorry, but apples? Do you mean like pineapples? I have plenty of pineapples.”
Applejack tilted her head back and groaned at the sky, eyes screwed shut in frustration. “Ughhhh!” She looked back down at Starburst with annoyance written plain on her face. “No, not pineapples. Apples apples! The fruit I’m even named after for Celestias’s sake!”
“Ohhhh, I’m sorry, when you introduced yourself I thought your name was short for Pineapplejack.” She said innocently.
Applejack sputtered and grabbed her head, trying not to just freak out. “Wha… but… that’s… no!” She grabbed Starburst by the shoulders. “My name aint short for anything, it’s Applejack! Just Applejack!” She let Starburst go and pointed at her flank and the cutie mark she was so proud of. “Apples, apples, apples!”
Starburst stepped back, raising her hooves defensively. “Okay, okay, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Applejack rubbed her temples to calm down a bit. She sighed and took a deep breath before talking again. “Sorry, I’ve just… been through a lot recently.” She made to sit down in the sand before another thought struck her. “Hey, so you have some information about the area then right? You said you answered questions ponies had didn’t you?”
Starburst nodded. “Mhm. I’m not some travel guide or anything though so I don’t know how helpful I’ll be.”
“Fair enough.” Applejack stuck some of her mane up under her hat to keep the rogue strands out of her eyes. “Have you ever heard of a town called Ponyville and do you know where it is?”
The unicorn’s eyes traveled to their corners and she chewed on her tongue, she was searching her brain for any mention of a town called Ponyville. Finally she stopped and gave a regretful frown to Applejack. “I’m sorry, the name just isn’t ringing any bells.”
Used to this by now Applejack didn’t sigh or let it get to her. She placed a friendly hoof on Starburst’s shoulder and just shook her head. “Don’t worry nothing about it.” Applejack looked back over her shoulder at the sign next to the hut. “But uh, can ya tell me about what’s off in that direction then?”
“Oh, well, on the other side I’ve heard there have been quite a few forest fires up north lately. Don’t know what that’s about. And if you keep going a bit further that direction you’ll eventually come to the mountain that an old crazy unicorn king once lived in centuries ago.” She answered happily.
That was a lot to take in for Applejack. “Okay, woah, slow down a bit. First off what do you mean ‘the other side’? Other side of what? What does that sign over there mean?”
Starburst tilted her head at Applejack in confusion. “What do you mean? It’s the other side. This is one side and then past that sign is the other side.”
Applejack could almost hear her own brain shorting out.
“But… what side of… huh?” Applejack’s mouth hung agape as she also tilted her head to match Starburst.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand your question.” Starburst pleadingly held up her hooves, face scrunched up in confusion.
This time Applejack did sigh and tried to rub the exhaustion out of her eyes. “Alright, never mind all that then. You mentioned a unicorn king right? I think I heard somepony mention that to me before.”
Starburst was happy to switch topics and she smiled warmly at Applejack. “Oh yes, a few centuries ago there was a unicorn king who lived in a mountain a bit northeast of here. He was a mean tyrant that nopony liked. I hear from some ponies coming through here from that way that his ghost is still there, terrorizing the ponies who live around the mountain. Spooky right?” She said excitedly with a face that didn’t seem to think it was spooky at all.
“Uhuh. Well I’ll just head northwest if I can avoid it then.” Applejack replied. “And forest fires too? Hope ponies can keep that under control.”
“Yes it’s only very recently that I’ve heard about that. In fact just a week or so ago I was able to see the smoke from one of them. I’m sorry to say that if you’re going to the other side you might not be able to avoid traveling through the area they’ve been happening.”
“Well that’s alright, I’ve been through worse than forest fires.” Applejack replied confidently, although still not happy that she might have to deal with something like that. “Anyways thanks for your help. I had best get moving.” She started walking away from the exuberant unicorn.
“Alright! Well I’m glad you stopped by, are you sure you don’t want any of my fruit juice?” Starburst waved wildly at her as she left.
“No thanks, I’m sure it’s great but I’m holding out for apples. Bye bye, take care now!” Applejack also waved back at her as she passed the sign by the hut, taking her first steps to the other side. She doubted the sign was actually important but at least she wasn’t going to demolish this one. Just one more weird thing for her to get by on this little walk home.
Applejack backed up, she steadied her hooves and took a deep breath, making sure to adjust her hat so it wouldn’t fall off when she made her jump. Nodding, Applejack ran forward, quickly approaching the edge of the chasm. Right as her hooves hit the edge she jumped with all her strength, stretching her body as best she could to make it to the other side. Her hooves luckily found purchase on the hard ground and Applejack skidded to a stop, trying to keep herself from tumbling over with all her momentum. Looking back at the chasm she jumped over Applejack gave herself a smirk.
“Yee-haw! Aint no problem for a mare like me!”
She’d been walking through the mountains all morning now. It wasn’t so bad though, no more trouble than when they had all climbed that mountain outside of Ponyville that that dragon had made home for a bit. Kind of boring though, sometimes she had to jump from rock to rock or climb a small cliff face but besides that it was a quiet road through the mountains. If she was Fluttershy she could at least talk to the few birds she had seen.
Her mane and coat were covered in dirt after she had taken a short spill down a hill earlier. Didn’t do her appearance any favors but she didn’t mind much about that, already hadn’t been looking too hot for a while.
The wind was starting to pick up something fierce though so it would be nice if she could get down these mountains and out of the darn wind tunnel formed in the mountain’s valleys. At least the climate wasn’t bad enough for there to be snow. Trudging through that would be a real pain, she could live with the wind compared to that.
The path she was on now started to spiral around one of the mountains, from what Applejack could tell this should be just about the end of the mountains, once she was on the other side she could descend down to whatever was at the foot of the mountain. Forest? Desert? Who knows, she’d have to wait and see.
“What in tarnation?”
The mountain path led down to a flat plateau coming out the side of the mountain, a long and steep but also smooth slope from the top of the plateau went to the land below it in the direction away from the rest of the mountains. Right where Applejack wanted to go.
What had her so surprised was all the ponies around.
Hundreds of ponies crowded around the slope, up and down it with most of them gathered at the plateau, there were even stands made on the far side of the slope for ponies to sit in. She wasn’t sure what the hay was going on but she was gonna find out whether she wanted to or not. Applejack shook herself out of her surprise and continued her walk down the path. It probably wouldn’t take too long for the ponies down there to see her, if they even paid her any mind at all.
Getting down there Applejack started realizing what was going on. She saw concession stands set up along the plateau, many different groups of ponies wearing uniforms, and she noticed that a big white line had been painted at the top of the slope from one end to the other. But what really tipped her off were the carts.
Wooden race carts, eight of them, each group of uniformed ponies seemed to have their own. They were tending and inspecting every inch of them. Applejack saw that each cart was numbered on its side from one to eight.
It’s a derby, like our own Applewood Derby, they’re racing these carts downhill. Applejack looked at the slope they’d be going down, this race would be a lot more serious than the derby she was used to. Up here on the plateau they were still a good one or two thousand feet above ground level. And this slope was steep.
Taking a look across the way at the stands Applejack saw that most ponies were clearly not wearing any uniforms, they were just fans coming here to watch. Must be a real popular event.
“Wow, well I really got here at a fun time.” Applejack said to herself as she walked through the crowd, looking around at the ponies working on their carts. She walked past a group wearing rainbow colored uniforms that matched the paint job on their cart and another that wore black uniforms with lightning bolts cutting across them. “Heh, really going all out aren’t they?”
There were a few fan ponies taking pictures or slurping on drinks that Applejack walked past, a lot of them wearing the colors of their favorite teams too. She was thinking of making her way to the stands and maybe taking a little rest, depending on when the race started she might actually watch it. Walking down the rest of the mountain right now wasn’t the most appealing thing to her, maybe she could ask the next pony she ran into when the race would start.
As her stomach loudly grumbled she also figured some food would be nice.
But when she turned to walk over to one of the concession stands a gray filly that had been running full speed plowed right into Applejack. Naturally Applejack was strong enough to not be knocked over or harmed or anything like that but the filly wasn’t so lucky. She tumbled backwards with a loud “Oomph!” and the box she was carrying went flying with all the little things in it spilling out onto the ground.
“Ugh! Ow, I’m so sorry!” The little filly picked herself up, shaking her head. “Sorry, sorry!” She repeated to Applejack, but not even looking at her as she frantically tried to gather up all the things she dropped. “Oh this is bad, this is so bad!”
Applejack noticed that the box had a bunch of first-aid supplies in it, gauze, bandages, you name it.
“No need to apologize, here let me help you with that.” Applejack got the box for the filly and helped her fill it back up, while doing this, Applejack saw that the filly was wearing a green uniform with pink flowers printed on it. She must be part of one of the teams.. The filly bowed her head profusely to Applejack over and over in thanks.
“Thank you so much ma’am, I’m sorry for running into you! I’ve gotta go now, bye!” She ran off at full speed again, Applejack could hear her muttering “This is so bad” to herself again and again.
“Huh.” Applejack just shrugged. “Am I old enough to be called ma’am?”
Shaking her head at the thought Applejack started walking over to the nearest concession stand. It had a big sign on it with pictures of hay burgers and fries. Yummy.
“Howdy partner.” She said to the big stallion behind the counter. “What do ya got here for me?”
The big stallion’s face opened up in a salespony’s smile. “Well I’m glad you asked! We make the best hay burgers around, but that’s not all, not even close! We’ve got hay fries, hay sandwiches, hay pies, hay wraps, hay tacos, and hay on the cob! What’ll you be having, sister?”
Applejack’s stomach rumbled again as he listed off his wares. She licked her lips hungrily but there was a tiny problem with all of this. “Uh, well, I’m kind of a little short on cash at the moment. Is there anything I can get for… well, free?” She sheepishly smiled at him.
His expression surprisingly stayed the same. “Oh, well why didn’t you say so!” He said as positively as ever. “I’ve got just the thing for you!”
He reached his hoof under the counter as if rummaging for something and pulled it back up, reaching it out to Applejack.
And only holding empty air.
“It’s nothing! Now get out of here and make way for real customers.” He snorted at her, eyes narrowed and annoyed at her for wasting his time.
“I don’t think you had to be that rude about it.” Applejack frowned and turned away.
It was unlikely that any of the other food vendors would give her food for free so she went back to walking to the other side of the plateau where the stands for ponies to watch the race were. Most of the non-race related ponies seemed to be thinning out and going to the stands as well, she only saw a few still straggling around the carts, teams, and food. She also saw a few ponies in referee uniforms inspecting the carts and setting some of them up along the starting line.
“Are you gonna be okay? Do you think you can still drive?”
Applejack’s ears perked up at the familiar voice. Looking to her right she saw a group of ponies wearing the same green and flowery uniform that that little filly was wearing. They were crowded around a cart that had all kinds of flowers painted on it, but Applejack could see their faces concerned and unhappy about something.
Her curiosity getting the better of her, Applejack decided to walk over and see what was going on.
Walking over to the circle of uniformed ponies Applejack saw one in the center being tended to by the gray filly that had run into her. He had a darker gray coat than the filly and had a sling around one of his forelegs. Applejack saw him try to move it slightly but wince.
“What do we do?” One of the mares next to Applejack said to a pony standing next to her. “Root’s the only one who can drive this course.”
“I don’t know, this is a disaster!”
Applejack’s good nature was also now about to get the better of her.
“Did something happen with your leg?” She walked up and asked the gray stallion, the other ponies in the group looking at her with bemusement. Probably wondering what this random stranger was doing. And really, what was she doing? This was just the kind of situation she shouldn’t get herself involved with, she had her own journey to get done with. But seeing someone in trouble like this, ughhhhh.
The filly looked up at her with a shine in her eyes, recognizing the pony she ran into. The stallion, her father and the pony named Root Applejack was sure enough to bet the farm on, also looked at her but with much more confusion on his face.
“Uh, yeah. I was going to be driving our cart today for the race but one of the crates with our teams uniforms fell right on my leg. No one else can drive the cart like me and the race is too important to forfeit.”
“Well I know this might sound crazy.” Applejack started as she rubbed the back of her neck. “But I could drive the cart.”
The circle of ponies around her gasped and shouted cries of indignation while the filly’s father just looked at her incredulously.
“Can you even? And who are you and why are you even offering that in the first place?”
“My name’s Applejack, actually your daughter here ran into me earlier and then I heard a commotion over here and well, that’s that.” She shrugged.
“And you’re just offering to race for me out of the kindness of your heart?” He looked pretty suspecting of her.
“I think that’s the only reason a pony should need for doing something.” Applejack gave him a big sincere smile… and then blushed deeply as her stomach rumbled. “Um, you can just ignore that. And besides I need to go downhill anyways.”
The filly started poking her dad in the side. “Dad, dad, she’s a nice pony, she helped me pick all this stuff up after I ran into her.”
“I guess.” He looked Applejack up and down. “But can you drive a cart at all?”
“Are you kidding me? You’re looking at a veteran of the Ponyville Applewood Derby, I know more than a thing or two about cart racing.” She said proudly, puffing out her chest. The incident at the most recent Applewood Derby was obviously not worth mentioning.
The other ponies were all muttering to each other, a bit uncertain about the events transpiring.
“I haven’t heard about that but honestly we’re out of options.” He looked down at his daughter. “Squeaky, go get my gear for miss Applejack here.” The filly saluted and ran around the cart to rummage around in a box. Root then turned back to Applejack. “Hope you can handle yourself.”
Squeaky came back around with goggles and gloves for Applejack. She put em on and climbed into the cart, the other ponies on the team started to push her to the starting line. Their cart would be the last one to get into position, Applejack saw they’d be right next to the rainbow team she had seen earlier. Figuring she should remember what number she was, Applejack peeked over the side to see the number 7 on her cart. There were blocks set up at the starting line to keep the carts there that would be removed once the race began, the referee’s had already begun milling about, getting ready for the race to begin.
One of the ponies on Root and Squeaky’s team was sweating a bit, she seemed awfully worried about letting Applejack race their cart.
“I don’t know about this...”
“Don’t worry none, ma’am. I promise I’ll do a great job.” Applejack told her with completely baseless confidence.
Root came up to the side of her cart while a referee with a checkered flag walked to the center of the slope. “Good luck, I hope you’re as good as you think. Just to let you know they added some more pits and rings of fire as obstacles this year.”
Applejack’s pupils shrank. “Wait, what? What did you just say?”
She didn’t get the chance to ask more about that as Root stepped away from the cart and the checkered flag was waved. The blocks keeping the carts in place were yanked away and the eight racers went speeding downhill. Applejack’s derby had begun.
The flower painted cart raced down the hill at breakneck speed. It was a lot faster than any carriage ride Applejack had been on, in fact, going down like this with the wind buffeting her face must be closer to how Rainbow Dash feels when she’s flying. The cart actually controlled real smoothly, that was good, it was well made and the wheels looked brand new. Root and Squeaky’s team must’ve put a lot of hard work into making this thing. Applejack had no problem keeping it straight as she went downhill, even with how steep it was and the crazy speed she was going at.
The howling of the wind as it flew past her ears was even able to drown out the roaring of the crowd. Applejack was still mostly keeping her eyes on the road but she could see out the corner of her eye that the stands were filled with ponies and they descended the entire downhill slope of the mountain. At the bottom of the mountain, that was rapidly approaching now, even more ponies were gathered around. There were more ponies that had come to watch this race than lived in all of Ponyville by far.
I can see why they really didn’t want to forfeit this race…
All of the carts were pretty much still neck and neck right now, none of them having the chance to break away just yet. Applejack figured the real race wouldn’t start till she started seeing those obstacles that Root mentioned. Either way this wasn’t a simple downhill derby like she thought, the race definitely didn’t end at the foot of the mountain.
Applejack glanced to her sides at the two nearest carts, they had different paint jobs but the actual design of the carts were the same. Seems like there was no customization allowed in this race, it was all down to the skill of the drivers then wasn’t it?
Applejack grinned. Fine by her.
They were just about at the bottom of the mountain, coming full speed down that steep slope, the noise from the crowd of ponies there was now starting to overpower the fierce wind that was lapping at her. It was then that Applejack noticed something. Coming up at ground level the road didn’t look so even, it wasn’t smooth like the downhill part, there were…
“Uh oh.”
Bumps, ramps, pits and blockades had been thrown out randomly on the race track starting once the carts hit ground level. And if Applejack kept going straight like she was now she’d find herself careening into a pit that was who knew how deep. And at the speed she was going she didn’t need to think too hard about what would happen.
“This is not alright!” Applejack steered herself a bit to the right, nearly touching the cart next to her, it was tough to shift over like that going at the speed she was. She could feel the wind and gravity pulling at her cart. “Now I wish they didn’t let me drive their cart!”
She hit the bottom of the mountain, the ground leveling out so fast her stomach went up into her chest and she was lifted slightly up off her seat. But she still held control over herself and the cart, now came the hard part. The cart to her right was just barely giving her enough room to avoid the first pit but right after that the track got bumpy, lots of ponymade bumps and divots had been made to make things difficult for the racers. As her cart sped over them the vibrations shook her whole cart something fierce. She might as well have been bull-riding right now with how much she was being tossed around. At least the track itself seemed to be entirely straight from what Applejack had seen. It was probably just short enough that their carts would maintain full momentum from coming down the mountain until the finish line. Right now with those bumps Applejack was barely holding onto the wheel, putting all her strength into it to keep the cart going straight and stop herself from losing control over it. She was thankful for the gloves Squeaky had brought her, they allowed her to keep a solid grip and kept her sweat from getting in the way.
A blockade was coming up in front of the cart next to her, Applejack yelped when he banged into her, fighting for space to get over to avoid the obstacle. “Hey!” Applejack yelled at the driver, but he just nastily grinned back at her.
Her eyes narrowed in anger. “Oh, so that’s how this race is gonna be then?” Applejack still didn’t feel like letting a pony splatter themselves against a wall so she turned a bit to give him enough room over. The opposing racer quickly overtook her and stuck out his tongue.
“Grrrr.” Applejack saw a ramp coming up to her left now. “Perfect.” She smirked to herself and steered her cart to it.
There must have been a trigger in the road or something because just when she was a few feet from hitting the ramp a large wooden ring popped up in front of it. Applejack’s cart would end up flying right through it.
And then the ring caught fire and Applejack realized this might be a mistake.
Too late to do anything about that now though. Applejack zoomed up the ramp and rocketed off it, flying through the hoop and managing to avoid any errant licks of fire. Just a little bit too hot for her taste though, she put a note to herself to avoid rings of fire in the future. She was still airborne when she noticed that below her for a while wasn’t the normal racetrack but a long series of spikes that she’d land on if she didn’t have enough distance with her jump. Spikes were another thing she made a note to herself to avoid.
Luckily Applejack had enough momentum when she hit the ramp to clear the spikes, her cart bounced a few times when she landed back on the ground but it was no trouble for her to keep control of it. “Oof, this race is all kinds of wrong.” Applejack shook her head as she drove on, now ahead of most other carts.
She heard a loud crash from behind her and the crowd gasped, Applejack winced, some other pony obviously wasn’t as fortunate as she was. She was a little perturbed at the ponies watching this race not seeming to have much of a problem with how dangerous and reckless it all was. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie would probably think it was all cool too though…
A cart painted a vibrant pink flew off a ramp next to Applejack and bounced ahead of her, now she was cut off and stuck right behind this new racer.
I wonder if using Hoof of the Earth would be cheating? Probably.
Applejack could’ve sent tremors out to disable other carts or get over obstacles but her integrity told her to win this race fairly. Even if it was nuts and the other racers were jerks. She wouldn’t wanna stoop to Flim and Flam’s level to beat them either.
“I’ll take the high road.” She said to herself, chuckling on the inside at the pun.
Up ahead the racetrack leveled up into a big hill that spanned the width of the track, every cart would have to go over it. She knew that at this speed it would be akin to flying off a ramp once they reached the top of the hill but she had no idea what the track looked like beyond that to prepare. There could be more spikes, or bumps, or pits or any other number of obstacles. She’d just have to grin and bear it and hope she could keep control of the cart once she got over the hill and dodge any obstacles that might be there.
The pink cart in front of her hit the hill and jumped off it, Applejack right on its tail. When she saw the pink cart fly off with the driver sitting up straight in it she got an idea. Once Applejack’s cart hit the top of the hill and also zoomed off it Applejack hunkered down, lowering her wind resistance so her cart could better torpedo through the air. It paid off as unlike the driver of the pink cart Applejack got a bit more distance from the jump and managed to keep some extra speed. She ended up flying right over the pink cart and regaining her place.
“Yee-haw!” Applejack yelled as she sat back up, ducking down like that was good for jumps but she needed to be able to see as best she could for the rest of the race.
There was another ramp ahead of her with a sizzling pit of fire positioned just far enough beyond it that if she jumped off she’d land right in front of the pit and at best would have to quickly swerve out of the way. So best case scenario she wastes some time and speed avoiding a hazard, worst case scenario… best not to go there.
Applejack grunted in annoyance and turned to avoid the ramp, but the parts of the track to the side of the ramp were bumpy and uneven, so even now she was losing speed as she traveled over it.
She heard another crash from behind her as a second racer finished the race prematurely. Six left. Taking the time to glance to her sides Applejack saw that there were only two other carts that were as far up as she was, that rainbow painted cart and another one painted white with a sun on it.
“Be a right joke if this race ends up being the death of me.” Applejack tightened her grip on the wheel as she finished up the bumpy part. A series of blockades were built on the rest of the track that she and the other racers would have to avoid now. The rainbow cart came in trying to muscle her out, wanting to get on the safe path and force her off it or into another blockade if he could. Applejack frowned at him, she wasn’t gonna go out of her way to hurt anypony but she wasn’t gonna let this fellow do something like that to her either.
Applejack steadied herself as the rainbow cart came in just a few inches away from hitting her and hung there, she knew that soon he’d suddenly jerk his wheel to the side and ram her. Well she had a surprise in store for him.
When he did attempt to ram her Applejack’s superior reflexes allowed her to scoot just out of the way, him not hitting anything caused him to lose a little control and wobble at the surprise. But Applejack wasn’t done yet, now she yanked her wheel to the side and smacked into him. Smirking as he totally lost control of his cart and began to spin out, one of his wheel popping off from the stress. She was more than happy that a jerk like that was out of the race but still thankful that he didn’t hit anything or crash completely.
Element of Harmony but I aint the Princess of Friendship either. Applejack smiled to herself.
Applejack could see the finish line coming up ahead, a huge banner was stretched over the racetrack and what looked like an even larger crowd of ponies was gathered there. This was great, there were only a few more pits and blockades ahead and now only the white cart was a threat to her. She just needed to keep up as much speed as she could while she dodged these final obstacles and she was sure she could win.
The end of the race was only a few hundred feet away, Applejack could see that there was one final obstacle in store besides the ones she was already zipping through right now. A small ramp was built across the whole track and numerous wooden rings stood right in front of it. Applejack was certain they’d be set on fire once the carts got closer but even if they weren’t if she didn’t have precise aim her cart would hit the side of a ring when she jumped off the ramp.
The winner would be decided by whoever took the jump better. Applejack and the other racer were now in the straightaway before the ramp, having conquered the last few bumps and other obstacles with neither of them giving up any speed or position. As Applejack expected the rings were lit up, the fire crackled and sparks flew to the ground before the approaching carts.
Applejack knew she had the right approach. She was speeding ahead straight on at the ramp, aiming right for the center of a ring. She kept her hooves tight on the wheel to make sure she wouldn’t pivot or move even a fraction of an inch.
This is it…
Flower cart number seven hit the final ramp with all its remaining speed, Applejack ducked down to minimize wind resistance again, certain her aim was true and she’d be carried safely through the flaming ring.
She felt the heat pass over her and grinned, cart slamming back down onto the ground. She looked up to see the finish line quickly approaching, glancing back she saw that the white cart had barely missed making it through the rings, it crashed onto the ground in flames with its driver being thrown out. But the crowd didn’t gasp in shock from that but instead cheered for Applejack making it through. And they would cheer louder once she passed the finish line.
Applejack raised her head proudly as her cart passed over the line, listening to the cheers from the ponies and waving to them.
Of course as the faces of the ponies went by her in a blur she noticed she was also still going very fast and wasn’t exactly sure how to stop.
“Now how in the hay am I gonna-”
Applejack looked forward, squinting her eyes at a rapidly approaching obstruction in the road up ahead.
Pillows. Lots and lots of pillows piled up.
“You’re kidding.”
Applejack stood on the victory platform with Root, Squeaky and the other members of their team. Despite being the driver she hung back and allowed Root and Squeaky to take center stage. Was only right after all.
They had all congratulated her greatly on her victory. Applejack was thinking of unloading on them about the craziness of the race but figured she might as well let that be water under the bridge. Better to just celebrate and get along with everypony. But she was also exhausted after that event and her eyes were pretty baggy. Stomach still empty too.
Root, with a little help from Squeaky, hefted the victory trophy over his head while the crowd cheered and stamped their hooves on the ground. The MC, and organizer of the race as Applejack learned, was congratulating them on their victory and had some other worker ponies bring another prize up to the platform.
“Another prize?” Applejack asked one of her teams mares standing next to her.
“Oh yes! The grand prize for winning the race, it’s a real treat, just look!”
Applejack watched as a group of ponies struggled to lift a massive crate onto the stage. After setting it down one of them started going to work on it with a crowbar trying to pop off the top. She walked up to the crate with the rest of the team, Applejack really wanted to see what the prize was.
Finally the pony succeeded in knocking off the top, Squeaky jumped on her dad’s head so she could peer inside the crate and Applejack got up on her hind legs to peak her head over.
Pears.
Hundreds and maybe even thousands of pears.
Hm, that’s about half a joke the universe is playing on me.
Her stomach rumbled again and Applejack didn’t feel like denying it anymore. Besides, she didn’t have anything against pears, especially after she learned about her mama. It’s not like they were strawberries or something.
Applejack smiled and reached into the crate, pulling out two pears and hoofing one to an ecstatic Squeaky while the other members of the team started going for their own. “Guess I can’t be mad about something like this.” Applejack said and took a nice big bite out of her pear, swallowing it down and licking her lips with a satisfied sigh.
Applejack walked through the hazy morning with a concerned look on her face. She could smell it from far away and it just got stronger and stronger as she went on. Burnt wood was a smell she knew very well. There had been a forest fire not too long ago around here, otherwise the smell would’ve lifted already. The sky was still a little smoky too, blocking out the sun and making it look overcast, like it was about to start pouring rain down on her. For now despite how bad it looked the air was still fine to breath but if she went further it might get smokier. Unfortunately there wasn’t really anywhere else to go. The rolling green hills spanned in all directions and it didn’t look any better elsewhere. She knew at least that there were settlements down this way, the trails made through the hills looked like they still saw plenty of recent use and this was the direction Starburst said she got ponies from.
She opened up the saddlebag that Squeaky had given her as a gift and took out a pear. Still nice and ripe and every bit as delicious as the first one she had taken out of the crate. “Here’s to you, mama.” Applejack said as she started chowing down on it.
It was nice that she had a bag and a full stomach again, especially since she’d been walking for a while now. She was hoping now that she could find a stream or something to wash her hat and mane in, the frayed ends of her hair were getting to be a bit much. She didn’t mind keeping tidy as much as some ponies like Rarity but she enjoyed her weekly spa visits a lot too. Just a quick dunk in the water would go wonders to putting her mane and tail into a more manageable state.
Applejack yawned a bit as she kept up her walk, the somewhat smoky air made for a lack of much to look at. Even without that she knew she was just walking up a hill covered in evergreens. If it was a bit different she might’ve gone searching for apple trees but this just wasn’t the type of place they grew. It was probably a bad idea to go wandering off the trail when vision was low too.
Not that she would get lost.
Applejack didn’t get lost.
“I definitely wouldn’t get lost.” Applejack said out loud to herself, glaring at the trail and the forest right around her, half considering actually going off it just to prove herself right.
In the end common sense won out and Applejack continued up the trail. With a big frown on her face but still.
About halfway up the hill the trail stopped going straight up and began to curve around the hill. Fine by Applejack, made it a lot easier to walk. That burnt smell got stronger as she started to round the hill though, it might’ve been that the whole other side of the hill had been on fire. Or if not that then the latest fire was somewhere else very close. There weren’t any birds or critters around, which didn’t surprise Applejack, the fires probably scared them all away. It was a quiet morning.
It might’ve been getting closer to noon though for all she knew, the smoky sky made it impossible for her to see just where the sun was. It didn’t seem like the day had gotten any brighter over the past hours since she had woken up. Her body was telling her that she had woken up at her normal early morning time but if she had overslept even just a little she could be way off on what time it was.
Applejack peeked up at the overcast looking sky. “At least it aint actually raining. Course with my luck now that I said that...” Applejack shook her head and hoped for the best.
As Applejack continued on the sheer quietness was actually starting to get to her. She was fine being on her own, especially more than Pinkie or Fluttershy would be in this situation, but she liked being able to have at least somepony to talk to. And it wasn’t even the lack of a conversation partner but just how unnaturally quiet and still everything was on this hill. There weren’t even any bugs buzzing around. It’s like the forest fire had turned this whole hill into one big dead zone.
The haze that hung around the ground was growing thicker and making it harder for Applejack to see. She grabbed her hat and started using it to clear up some of the air. What a hassle.
Pushing through the heavy air Applejack kept her hooves on the trail. “I should’ve just gone around all these darn hills. Trail or not it couldn’t be worse than breathing all this in.” It was actually coming close to where Applejack might start coughing, she knew there wasn’t a fire actually burning right now but the smokiness was starting to become unbearable anyways.
Maybe there was a fire? For all she knew there was some crazy weather phenomenon going on in these hills and she was about to walk right into a forest fire. But there was no heat, no light from the fire, and not nearly as much smoke as there should be if that was the case.
A few more minutes of battling through that thick, heavy air on the trail and Applejack had reached the back half of the mountain. The wind had begun picking up, she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, maybe it would clear up all the leftover smoke or blow in some more from somewhere else on the hills. Another minute or two of walking and the air was actually starting to thin out, for the first time in a while Applejack could see more than ten feet in front of her.
There wasn’t a very pretty sight waiting for her.
As Applejack partially suspected the whole back half of the hill was blackened. The fire here had been fierce and there wasn’t a single bit of green left on this part of the hill, it even spread to the valley in between hills and up the adjacent one. All the dead greenery and charred remains of the hill made Applejack happy that she didn’t get caught up in the fire. But Starburst had said there were multiple forest fires and Applejack didn’t really want to lollygag in an area like this, who knew when the next one would happen. For now she’d walk down the hill and head over to the next one. Hopefully she’d get to a wetter area or at least somewhere with a town where she could hang out for a bit.
Or Ponyville.
Naw, fat chance on that one…
The burnt wood and plants crunched under her hooves as she descended the hill. If there was a trail leading down at one point the fire had done away with it. A log crumbled beneath her, the insides just a gray ash. Shaking off her hoof to get that ash out Applejack slowed down a bit, she didn’t want to suddenly stumble on something weakened by the fire. She’d fallen on her face more than enough lately. And rolling down a hill would probably be a little bit worse than that.
The smell was another thing bothering her. This place didn’t have the smell of nicely burning firewood, that smell that reminded her of home and family, this was just the overpowering smell of a wildfire’s devastating results. Something she could do without.
Applejack grimaced as she kept on down the hill. There was just something unnatural about this fire. Something just felt wrong with it.
Her instincts had never led her astray before, sense of direction maybe, but never her instincts. “Best to get through this place quick.”
It took a good long while but Applejack made it through the burnt areas and was now walking through the forest on the next hill. This hill was much smaller than the one she had just been on, she hoped that meant that it was one of the last ones and she could start traversing level ground again. Even if it was just some boring plains or a wasteland.
It still bothered her how quiet it was even though she had long left behind the areas actually affected by the forest fire. There still weren’t any animals around or even any bugs. Just what in the hay was going on around here that the animals still wouldn’t return to their homes even after the fire was long done with?
Applejack sighed. “Something nuts is gonna happen again soon aint it?” She looked up through the trees at the sky as she spoke, the sun moving just past the noon position. Rolling her eyes she went back to staring straight ahead. “I’m avoiding any kind of craziness that I can. I’m just going home. No more adventures, no more crazy ponies to fight, nothing except walking.”
Instead of going around this hill Applejack just walked straight to the top since it wasn’t that big. Once she got to the top she could see what was in store for her. Unfortunately the top of the hill was covered in trees that obstructed her view so Applejack had to climb up one of the taller ones so she could survey just what was further north now.
Quite a bit as it turned out.
A lush, verdant green valley stretched out right before here. Healthy forests, grasslands, numerous rivers and tiny lakes. It was a beautiful sight for Applejack. To her right a huge mountain jutted out of the ground, almost looking out of place enough that Applejack wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Discord put it there for fun. It looked less like a normal mountain and more like a sheer wall of rock, stretching on the far side of the valley all the way to the horizon. To her left the valley slowly petered out into simple yellow plains that went as far west as Applejack could see. It would’ve been a picture perfect sight but for one thing.
The dark spots.
She could see numerous dots of blackened land from up here, there seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to them. Just a few dozen random spots where wildfires had taken place.
Despite the overwhelming beauty before her, with ninety-nine percent of the land looking perfect, her eyes were drawn to the blemishes. There was something wrong with these fires, Applejack could feel it. But for now all she could do was travel on.
The first town Applejack had come across in her walk through the beautiful valley was a pretty marvelous looking place. It was almost less like a town and more like two gigantic buildings, separated by a river running right down the center of the village. The ponies who lived here had constructed two buildings that faced one another and were connected by dozens upon dozens of bridges and tunnels. Some of them came out right at ground level above the river while others were suspended in air. The buildings themselves were massive, Applejack had no doubt that if you turned the biggest skyscraper from Manehattan on its side it wouldn’t be as long as these. They looked haphazardly designed, as if somepony first built a smaller building and then just kept adding on to it, putting more and more above it and beside it with no forward planning or any idea that they were going to do this in the first place. She saw some parts of the building were made from brick and stone, others concrete, or metal or even just wood. It was a true mishmash. Chimneys, smokestacks and plaza’s dotted the roofs of the building. Because of how uneven it all was there were shops and public markets on the top level right next to things like chimneys and air vents and even some housing units that came out halfway.
It was chaotic but it had character, Applejack liked that. She also had no doubt that inside the two huge structures was complete mayhem, it must be a labyrinth of corridors, alleyways, offices, apartments and who knows what other independent construction in there. At the moment she was standing in the middle of one of the raised bridges above the river. From what she could tell the building was about five standard stories tall. But anything standard meant nothing in two buildings like this, who knew just how many different levels and areas there were. It was doubtful even most of the ponies here knew it all.
Speaking of the ponies they seemed to be quite the industrious folk. The bridges and walkways were bustling with busy ponies, all of them walking with purpose and focus, a lot of them were wearing business suits or some other kind of uniform. This “town” had a lot going on for itself right now. Applejack just hoped she’d be able to find a place to rest for a second or maybe get some extra food, but she didn’t have any money or even anything to trade really if it came down to it.
She walked over to the building on the east side of the river and took some stairs up to the top level. The market on the roof seemed like the best place to start, Applejack had no idea if there was even a hotel or place to rest around here but there was definitely food. Most of the ponies she walked past paid her no mind at all even though she obviously wasn’t from around here and was pretty messy looking. When she got to the market she lifted her nose in the air and tried to see if she could smell any apples.
No such luck.
She did see some stands selling carrots and potatoes among other things, that seemed like as good a place to start as any. Maybe she could trade a pear for some.
Applejack walked up to the frizzy orange-maned mare selling vegetables. “Scuse me ma'am, I was wondering if I could maybe have some carrots? Problem is I don’t really have any money, anything you might be willing to trade for or anything?”
The mare eyed her with a suspicious look, Applejack’s appearance probably made her look like some kind of urchin or vagrant. “Well I wouldn’t be against it.” She said a bit uneasily. “But what do you have to trade? Sorry if I’m being rude but you seem a bit… destitute.”
Applejack smiled and chuckled a bit. “No offense taken, I know how bad I look right now. Kind of wish I could find a spa or something too. But uh, anyways, I don’t have much on me but I was wondering if you’d like a pear for some carrots?” Applejack reached into her bag and pulled out one of her remaining pears.
The mare’s eyebrows instantly shot up and her mouth opened with a gasp. “A pear! My word, wherever did you get those?”
Applejack tilted her head, pretty surprised by the reaction. “I won em in a race. Why? Are pears not common around here?”
“They’re a delicacy here. If you want you can have all my carrots just for the pear, please!” The mare grabbed a big bucket of carrots and placed it on her table in front of Applejack.
Applejack looked at the bucket and the pear in her hoof. She thought about the three other pears she still had in her saddlebag. “Huh. Aint that something. Would you mind also telling me where I could find a nice bath?”
Now unlike the last time she was at a spa Applejack really let her enjoy herself this time. With a delighted sigh she slipped down to her neck in the hot, bubbly water. She had taken a quick shower right before to get all the grime and dirt out of her mane and coat and now it was time to relax. All the kinks and soreness in her muscles were just evaporating away. She had a massage scheduled for later and then a visit to the mane stylist so she could finally fix her frazzled look. Already she had bought some new hairbands for her mane and tail after they got done up. Yep, she was really enjoying herself in this town.
And she didn’t even need a map to navigate through the buildings.
That’ll show Big Mac. I’ll tell him all about this place when I get home.
Applejack took a quick dip into the water, letting the warmth wash over her face. With a “pop” she came back out, taking a deep breath and lounging on the side of the large tub she was in. Those pears were enough to give her a hotel suite, more than enough food, and a trip to the best spa around and still left her with some leftover local money. She figured she might as well spend it all since it’d be useless once she left town. As she learned from others the place was entirely self-sufficient and they never had much contact with outsiders or other towns.
Spending a good half hour just soaking there Applejack finally felt relaxed enough to get out. As the water dripped off her she couldn’t help but smile at how sparkly clean she was, her coat looked even better than it felt. It would take a more dedicated process to get her mane and tail just right but even they looked a lot better than they normally did.
“Even Rarity would be jealous of how I look right now.” Applejack snickered at the thought.
Applejack took a big stretch and toweled herself off before heading to the massage wing of the luxurious spa. Her masseuse, a light-purple mare by the name of Lilac Touch, was waiting for her.
“Miss Applejack, it is my pleasure to help you today.” She bowed, fake eyelashes flittering, and motioned to the massage table.
“Eheh, thank you.” Applejack rubbed the back of her neck, the extra-polite mare just making her a bit uncomfortable. She wasn’t used to ponies bowing for her, it was kind of awkward.
Still she hopped up onto the table and lay down just the same. A massage was a massage. She closed her eyes and let Lilac Touch get to work. Maybe she could even take a bit of a nap while it was going on. Or she could go over the various ways she was gonna have to refuse the mane stylist from doing something fancy. Just had to remember all the ways she would reject Rarity’s offers.
As Lilac Touch got to work Applejack groaned in contentment. The spa had already done a lot of good for her body but now she was just turning into putty. She probably had a big satisfied smile on her face the whole time too.
Instead of just letting herself fall asleep Applejack decided to ask about something she was wondering. “So hey, Lilac, I’m gonna be staying for at least a night here, do you know if there’s any work that needs to be done around? Anything I can help out with?” Applejack didn’t want to stay long but she wanted to give something back to this place after the great reception she got, even if it was just dirtying her hooves for a day she felt she owed them that much after getting all this for just a few pears.
Lilac hummed for a second. “Hm, well if you wanted to help with something you could go see the builders at the end of our town.”
“Oh, you’re still adding on more stuff? Woo, this place is just gonna get bigger and bigger huh?”
“No no, it’s nothing like that.” Lilac shook her head. “They’re rebuilding the ends of the village after they were burnt down. It’s lucky that we were able to stop the fire from spreading along further but a lot was still lost.”
Applejack’s eyes opened, an upset frown appearing on her face. “I’m sorry to hear that, I’d heard that there were a lot of wildfires springing up around here.”
Lilac grimaced, a worried look taking over her normally inviting smile. “It wasn’t a wildfire, we were attacked.”
Applejack pushed herself up, nearly toppling over Lilac on accident. “Attacked?! By who?”
Lilac steadied herself, giving Applejack a bit of a disapproving glare, but answered her anyways. “I don’t know exactly, I wasn’t in the area. From what I heard it was a pony but they weren’t a normal pony like you or me.” Lilac swallowed, as if she was afraid of what she was about to say. “They were on fire. And they burned part of our buildings down before leaving. Our security team tried to stop her but they couldn’t do anything, they were lucky to escape with their lives from what I heard.”
“A pony on fire?” Applejack asked.
“Yep, that’s what everypony who saw her said. I heard she could even control the fire herself, she threw it at our buildings and attacked ponies with it.”
A Nirik?! Could it really be?
Applejack didn’t voice her suspicions. It was likely these ponies living here didn’t know anything about Kirin or Nirik’s at all anyways. And she didn’t want to slander any Kirin in case it didn’t have anything to do with them. But a pony on fire certainly sounded like a Nirik to her.
Applejack scratched her head, she didn’t like how this was developing one bit. And if this possible Nirik was the cause of the fire here was she also the cause of all the other fires? Is that why things felt so wrong to Applejack?
She hopped off the table, getting ready to leave the room. “Thanks for everything, Lilac. But can you tell the mane stylist that I’m canceling? I’m gonna go check some things out.”
Lilac Touch just nodded. She didn’t really get why Applejack was suddenly reacting like this but it wasn’t her place to question a customer. Springy Clippings would be upset though.
Applejack left the spa, going back up to the top level of the building so she could more quickly reach the far end of the town. Despite ditching the mane stylist she at least took the time to put her hairbands in so she was looking like her usual self again. Going through the top level was still a pain even though it was better than trying to navigate through any of the lower levels. She ended up hitting a lot of dead ends and places where she couldn’t just continue straight on but had to cross a bridge to the other building. She wanted to be mad at the lack of foresight that they didn’t include a single path that went from one end of the building to the other but with the way the place was built she knew it was impossible to avoid things ending up like this. So instead Applejack just enjoyed the sights, the ponies walking past her, the random obtuse building coming out the side of another building where it really had no place to be, a wooden office built on top of a metal clothing store. Looking at it all now as she walked by it seemed like what would happen if Pinkie Pie ever designed a city. Or Discord.
Hm, got me thinking that if Twilight ever designed a city it’d be the exact opposite of this. Starlight too. Oh, wait…
Shaking her head to clear those thoughts away, Applejack saw ahead that there was some temporary fencing and signs put up to cordon off a large part of the building. Was she at the end? She walked up to the cheap chain-link fencing and peered through it.
Oh yeah, she was at the end.
A huge portion of the building, and the building on the other side of the river, had been destroyed by fire. She saw dozens of ponies working to clear debris and knock down unstable structures. With the haphazard way things were built there were a lot of uneven parts. Some of the stone and metal parts had survived but even they were damaged and would probably have to be completely torn down and rebuilt. Applejack hoped that there weren’t any houses or living areas that had been in this part. So much had been reduced to ash, there would’ve been five stories worth of building here and it looked like it had originally stretched out another hundred feet in front of her or so. But almost all that was gone.
“Why would anypony do this?” She whispered to herself.
From what Lilac said it sounded like the pony, or Nirik, had pretty much just set fire to the buildings and left. Why?
Applejack didn’t know. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She wanted to just keep going home and not get caught up in anymore adventures or weirdness. But this fire pony was dangerous, very dangerous, and she couldn’t just do nothing about this, could she? How would she feel if this pony came through Ponyville? Applejack… she had an obligation to her family, and she wanted to avoid any unnecessary problems, which is why she up and left the area as quickly as she could after defeating Night Storm. Even though she knew she left a lot of ponies hanging, her family and friends all came first. Night Storm was a big enough threat, an evil enough pony that her personal interests didn’t matter, she had to stop him cause it was just the right thing to do even though she had no investment or relationship with the ponies he was hurting. It was important enough whereas the rest wasn’t.
It’s the same thing here.
Doing the right thing out of the goodness of your heart. Applejack nodded, eyes turning hard as steel. She was going to find the pony who did this and stop them.
Down the river from the two building town that Applejack had just been in, whose name she just now realized she never learned, trees were starting to pop up. Not having any idea on where to go initially, since none of the ponies cleaning up the mess back there had any idea where this fire pony went, Applejack decided to just go the same way she was going beforehand. Following the river was always a good idea and now it was leading her into another big forest full of tall redwoods.
A forest full of apple trees would’ve been preferable but for the moment something like that wasn’t at the forefront of her mind. There wasn’t any higher ground for her to see any more burnt spots in the valley and she didn’t smell anything weird either. But just like the hill she had been on previously this forest was unusually quiet and devoid of animals. It must mean she was on the right track. Applejack was certain she’d see more signs or find a trail leading to this fire pony, or at least another place she had set fire to, soon.
For now the flowing of the river was a calming source for Applejack. In the past she wouldn’t care about something like that, she’d single-mindedly push ahead just thinking about finding and stopping the fire pony, but enough time with Fluttershy made her appreciate what slowing down and just thinking about something good could do for you. She was upset about what she had seen but she didn’t want to be all strung out and aggravated when she eventually found the culprit. Her temper had caused more than one problem in the past. In a situation like this it would probably prove a lot better to not be hot-headed.
Did I just make a darn pun? Applejack rolled her eyes and groaned at herself.
Applejack grabbed a carrot out of her saddlebag and ate the whole thing in one bite, no need to worry about sand worms in the forest. She filled up plenty before she had left, there were a couple oranges and some radishes in there too. There were supposedly some other villages in the direction Applejack was going but nopony back at those buildings had a map or solid directions. Just knowledge that there was a town of ponies that lived in treehouses among the tallest redwoods and another that lived in a canyon formed by the river as it went further downstream. Helpful.
If there were other villages they may have already been attacked too, possibly even before where she had just come from. Applejack tried to look through the trees at the sky to see if there was any smoke but it just looked like normal clouds and blue sky that she could see through the branches and leaves. Maybe she’d have to climb one of the redwoods.
“We’ll leave that for plan B, ugh.” Climbing one of these huge, densely branched, trees would’ve been a lot more trouble than the ones she climbed before. “Knowing my luck there’ll be a beehive in one of em too.”
As she continued her walk down the side of the river, kind of wishing there was a real road, Applejack saw that a short distance away it turned hard left and started going west in the direction of those endless plains she had seen. Now she didn’t know if she still wanted to follow it or keep going straight, there weren’t any burnt spots out in the plains but it was possible the river turned again.
Frowning a bit Applejack stuck to her gut instinct and left the river, she knew the direction she was going felt right and this part of the forest was quiet and devoid of animals, still the only sign she had that the fire pony was or had been around here. That might change if she suddenly started going another direction.
Applejack turned up her nose to see if she could smell anything but still didn’t get any scents that weren’t just normal forest smells. She could see the sun above the trees, it was well past noon now and a steady breeze was blowing in from the east. She should be able to smell any smoke or anything burnt if it was around, maybe she should’ve taken better note of where all the black spots were in the valley when she was up on that hill. As of now after walking in the forest for so long she was starting to get discouraged at the lack of any more progress.
No real trail or any other signs other than it just being too darn quiet all around her. This was just getting annoying.
“Can’t come up with a song or anything to pass the time either, wish Twilight or Pinkie were here.” Applejack snorted and rubbed her nose. “Apples, apples, apples, wish I could find some apples...”
That passed the time time for about five minutes.
The forest of redwoods was starting to thin out a bit, she was likely coming to the end of it. Maybe there was a village nearby that cleared out some of the forest or it was naturally ending. She knew that somewhere to her right was that huge mountain wall and there was no forest near the foot of it. Applejack started to see large granite boulders in the ground, maybe she was coming to a rockier area, there could always be big rock formations hidden in the forest that she couldn’t have seen from far away. The Everfree was like that too.
“With any luck there’s nothing crazy in here like the Everfree though. I don’t wanna stumble across some forgotten castle or any weird monsters, a pony on fire is trouble enough that I don’t want to deal with. Now I’m talking too much to myself.” Applejack sighed as she continued on.
Moss covered rocks were popping up everywhere now. At least it gave her something different to look at after all the redwoods, Applejack thought. And she could climb and hop over them if she was feeling bored instead of just walk around. As she did jump over a big one she wiped the sweat from her brow.
“Woah, when did I get so out of shape? Sweating just from a little of this.” Applejack hopped over another few rocks, feeling the heat get to her head a little. “What in tarnation?”
Applejack realized it wasn’t the exertion causing her to sweat, the temperature had risen. It was hotter out now. She looked up at the sun but that hadn’t changed at all.
“When did it get so darn hot?”
More sweat cascaded down her body, it was almost like there was a-
A fire. A fire right behind her.
Applejack’s eyes opened wide and she turned around. There hadn’t been any sound of crackling fire, or smell of smoke, but she was still standing right there. Applejack wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking at, but it was definitely not a Nirik.
A pony covered in fire, just like Lilac had said and that was the most accurate thing Applejack could think of. She was an earth pony just like Applejack but whatever her natural coat and mane looked like Applejack had no idea. Flames covered every portion of her body, her mane and tail themselves seemed to be solid fire, the yellow, orange and red tint from the licking flames made her look almost like a walking campfire in pony shape. Applejack could just barely spot a cutie mark that looked like a head of lettuce on her flank, the one thing that looked out of place.
The heat radiated off of her in waves, Applejack could feel the sweat on her face as she stared at the pony with mouth agape.
“Are you from the Spirit Shrine?”
Applejack blinked, the mare on fire had asked her some question but she didn’t know how to react to this situation.
The mare’s eyes narrowed at Applejack. “Answer me. You don’t look like you’re from one of the towns around here, are you from the Spirit Shrine or no?”
Applejack shook herself our of her stupor. “I aint never heard of any ‘Spirit Shrine’ or nothing. But I’ve heard about some fire pony who attacked a town I was just in. That was you right? Why’d you do that, and have you been the one starting forest fires all around here?”
“If you’re not from the Spirit Shrine I don’t care, get out of here before I decide I don’t like you.” The mare started to turn away from Applejack, her flaming hooves surprisingly not leaving any marks in the ground or grass beneath her.
“Now you hold on!” Applejack yelled and ran in front of her. “You may not have a problem with me but I got one with you! Why are you doing all this? You think you can just attack some ponies and set their town on fire?”
The mare stared hard at Applejack, her eyes started to twitch and she bared her teeth in anger. “Yes. All those ponies living carefree lives, happy with their families.” A tear of liquid fire dropped from the mare’s eye as she started to shake with rage. “They don’t deserve it. I don’t care about their stupid town, or their stupid lives. They don’t deserve to be happy.”
The flames started to grow in intensity, Applejack gulped and stepped back a little.
“Tell me, what about you? Do you have a family that loves you?” The mare asked her, more tears dripping from her eyes.
Applejack was afraid to answer, the fires covering the mare started to spread and burn away the grass around her.
“I can tell.” The pony said to Applejack, barely above a whisper. “You do. Why do you get to be happy?” A column of fire erupted from her back, the flames pouring from the air set fire to the redwoods around them. “You don’t deserve it!”
With a screaming snarl the fire pony jumped at Applejack.
“I’ll pay them back! I’ll get justice!”
Applejack leaped out of the way of the pony, right where she was standing was consumed in a fireball as the angry mare attacked her. Sparks of fire shot off from her body in every direction, setting more of the greenery in the area alight. The mare looked at Applejack with a face full of rage. She stomped her hooves on the ground and streams of fire came flowing from her body, snaking across the ground at Applejack.
“Oh boy.” Applejack jumped away from them, hopping onto a rock and then another one when the fire changed direction to follow her. The mare was definitely able to control what her fire did. Soon enough though it wouldn’t matter if she was able to directly hit Applejack with any fire or not, the air was heating up and the smoke was getting thick enough that soon it’d affect Applejack’s breathing and vision.
If this keeps up the whole forest will burn down.
“Stop all this right now!” Applejack yelled to the mare as she jumped onto another granite boulder to avoid the flames, they steadily began to climb the boulder, disintegrating the moss covering it.
“I have the power to get my revenge! Nothing will stop me!” The mare yelled back to her.
The flames climbing up the boulder stopped but Applejack had no time to relax. Instead her opponent pointed her hoof at Applejack and a huge snake of fire grew from it, zooming right towards Applejack.
“Oh boy again.” Applejack grit her teeth and jumped down the backside of the boulder, the fire snake following her, she quickly ran out of its way but even when it plowed into the ground it just reformed and came after her again, leaving a trail of wild flames in its wake.
Applejack ran between trees and rocks to try and get the thing to lose her but it just kept coming. She looked ahead of her and saw two large trees standing next to each other and got an idea. Running between them she sent out a tremor with Hoof of the Earth, right as the fire snake was going between them the ground and tress lurched together, smashing the fire snake between them and causing the fire to get stuck on the wood. Burning away the trees instead of reforming and coming after her again.
That was only one of several problems taken care of though. The fire was fully raging out of control now and eventually Applejack would be trapped with no way out. And the fire pony was still just standing right there, preparing to burn Applejack to a crisp herself.
Well I aint gonna let her do that.
Instead of letting herself be thrown on the defensive again Applejack ran towards the fire pony at full speed.
The pony seemed surprised for a second, but then just stood there, an impassive expression on her face.
Applejack was surprised at her reaction too but she wasn’t taking any chances. She was confident enough in herself to avoid any surprises the fire pony might throw at her, what she was about to do might end up hurting but she couldn’t worry about that now. Applejack sent out a tremor through the ground as she ran, designed to break the fire pony’s forelegs and also bounce around in her head to disorient her or knock her out.
The tremor reached her… and nothing happened.
That’s impossible!
Applejack skidded to a stop, her earlier enthusiasm for taking the mare head on gone.
“What’s wrong? Weren’t you going to attack me? I was giving you a free hit.” The fire pony tilted her head, looking at Applejack with derision, as if she was worth less than dirt.
“Grr.” Applejack growled, it looked like the fire pony didn’t even realize that Applejack had tried to attack her. “You better shut your mouth! I’m not letting somepony like you get away with doing whatever you want!” Applejack ran forward again, the fire pony still not showing any signs of defending herself.
She had a stronger tremor in her hoof, once she contacted with the mare’s chest it would break all of her legs and rattle her brain so much she’d be out cold.
Applejack’s hoof passed through the mare’s body.
She didn’t know how to react at first, it was so sudden, her swipe came out so quickly that at first she didn’t feel anything. She knew that punching something covered in flames would hurt, that’s why she was just going to touch her as quickly as possible and then pull away. But she didn’t feel herself make contact with a pony’s physical body.
And then the pain came. Agonizing pain on her right hoof, Applejack looked down to see it blackened and cracked with red hot flames covering it. She screamed in terror and pain and fell over backwards, tears streaming out of her eyes. She tried stamping it out on the dirt but even though she was able to smother the fire the pain didn’t lessen at all.
Applejack looked up through pain clenched eyes to see the mare standing in front of her, flames flickering on her chest… no, flames flickering from inside her chest as her whole body shimmered and warped where Applejack had touched.
She wasn’t a pony covered in fire, she was a pony made of fire.
The fire pony looked down at Applejack emotionlessly, her earlier aggression and anger gone as quick as her temper. “You’re just an outsider so I’ll give you a warning instead. Stay away from me. I’ll let you live this time but if you come after me again, if you try to stop me, you’ll burn.”
She left Applejack to lay there, the fire dying around her much faster than any natural fire would until only a few hot embers were left. Applejack wiped some tears from her eyes and cradled her injured hoof, sitting in the middle of a blackened circle of the forest. Now what was she supposed to do?
Applejack felt sick. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been limping along through the forest, she had passed out and woken up sometime ago after the fire pony had left her. Her hoof was charred and in constant searing pain, so much that she could hardly put any weight on it and was barely able to walk. Now sweat dripped from her brow and it wasn’t from any fire but from the fever breaking out in her body. She was no doctor but she was sure her hoof was infected after taking that fire and having her practically drag it through a dirty forest.
“I don’t feel so great...” In her delirious state she wasn’t even sure what direction she was going anymore. North like she was originally? Maybe she had gotten completely turned around and was heading south. Without the river nearby there was no way to tell.
Applejack’s eyelids felt heavy, her head hot and pounding, she had lost her saddlebag at some point too. She couldn’t even remember if it had fallen off or if she willingly left it to lighten her load. What time of day was it even? Everything was just a blur to Applejack now.
She slumped up against a tree, breathing heavily and on the verge of passing out again. Worried about doing that in the middle of who-knows-where Applejack steadied herself as best she could and forced her body to continue walking forward. It was difficult to walk in a straight line, her body kept lurching and making her zig-zag back and forth instead of just going where she wanted to. Now the pain and smell from her hoof was making her nauseous, and with her head already hurting a ton Applejack was doing all she could to keep from throwing up.
Now the unnatural quiet from the forest was actually a positive, Applejack didn’t need anything else bothering her.
“Gotta get to… why’s everything so hot?” Applejack’s fever was rising in pitch, an accidental hoofstep where she put too much weight on her sensitive hoof caused a lance of pain to go up her leg. She didn’t cry out, just simply fell forward onto the ground, breath ragged and sweat pouring down her body. She was too disoriented at this point to understand what was going on.
Applejack shifted in and out of a semi-conscious state, body shivering and shaking while it tried to fight off the fever and infection. It was lucky she was in just about the best shape a pony could be in. Her eyes flickered about in their sockets, shapes and images dancing around her blurred vision like she was having a waking dream.
She wasn’t sure how long she lied there in her delirious state. For brief moments of clarity she would will herself up and continue walking. She didn’t know where, just forward, just somewhere that wasn’t where she was right now.
At some point she realized there weren’t any more trees around. She had left the forest completely and was now wandering down a grassy field. Her unfocused eyes tried to take in what else was around her but she couldn’t process much in the state she was in. It wasn’t yellow like the plains she had seen to the west but that was all Applejack knew for sure.
Still feverish she didn’t notice the switch to rocky ground beneath her hooves either, a stumble over some loose pebbles later and Applejack had collapsed on the ground again.
“I could… use some water.” With one eye open Applejack stared absentmindedly up at the sky, the sun was all one big blur to her. “Twilight, some help would be appreciated. Sorry for taking so long to ask… I’m stubborn.”
And with that Applejack drifted off into feverish sleep again.
Applejack half woke up muttering to herself, legs kicking at the air, the heat and pounding in her head had weakened but she was confused as to where she was now. She was in a bed under some sheets, she looked to be inside some sort of building, the roof that she was staring at through bleary eyes looked like stone to her. Whatever fever dream she may have been having was gone now, not even the slightest memory remained. She was still exhausted but she wasn’t sweating up a storm or had her head stuck in a fog. The pain and higher than average temperature were light enough for a healthy pony like herself to handle on her own now.
The only pain that Applejack still really felt strongly was her hoof. Pushing the sheets off herself Applejack saw that her hoof was wrapped in bandages. It felt odd, different from just the typical pain she was feeling from it earlier, maybe whoever put the bandages on used some sort of special medicine.
Whatever the deal was with it it still really hurt.
“Now where in the hay am I?” Applejack scanned the room. It couldn’t get any more simple, there was no window so wherever she was it was likely a large building, besides the bed she was in there was a table in the middle of the room and a smaller nightstand with a glass of water on it next to her.
Applejack’s mouth was parched so she had no problem grabbing the glass and drinking down its contents. After that Applejack hopped off the bed, keeping her leg bent to avoid using her hoof, it made walking awkward but she would have to make do. Her hoof continued to throb with every movement and her fever still hadn’t broken completely, things were still pretty woozy for Applejack, she was gonna have to take things easy for a second lest she wind up in a heap on the floor.
She slowly walked over to the door and turned the knob with her mouth, once it was open she peeked her head out into the hallway. “Hello?” Her voice echoed down the stone hallway lined with torches but there was no answer for her.
Applejack sighed and chose to hobble down the hallway to her right. Every now and then there would be an open door that led into a room just like the one she woke up in, besides that it was just a normal hallway. Now really, where was she now? To Applejack it looked like they were in some sort of cave or mountain, the whole place looked like it was just carved right into the rock. She couldn’t remember her journey after getting burned too well but maybe she wandered over to the huge mountain wall on accident.
After walking down the hallway for a bit it opened up into a much larger room, the walls were painted with beautiful pictures of ponies frolicking in flower gardens and the ceiling was one huge painting of two ponies, one made of fire and one of water, entwined in a dance together with white roses and brambles bordering them.
“Wow, I aint much for art but this is mighty pretty.” Applejack said as she looked around the big room.
“Oh my, you’re already up?”
Applejack looked over to the source of the voice, a tall and very thin unicorn walked towards her from the back of the room. There was a large set of double doors back there built under a stone archway where she must have come from. The unicorn herself was pink and wearing a white cloak that covered nearly her entire body, but it was clear from her face and light hoofsteps that the mare was almost thin as a skeleton.
“Well howdy, and yeah but I still aint back at a hundred percent just yet. Thanks for helping me out by the way. Or at least I assume y’all did, I can’t really remember too well.” Applejack greeted her.
“We did indeed. We saw you collapsed practically right outside our shrine.” The unicorn answered.
“Shrine?” The word sent alarm bells off in Applejack’s head. “Would that happen to be the Spirit Shrine by any chance?”
A troubled look spread across the unicorn’s face. “Your burn isn’t from any normal fire is it?”
Applejack shook her head. “No miss, it’s not. And I think you know what I mean by that.”
The unicorn frowned, eyebrows furrowing as she seemed to debate with herself on what to do next. Finally she spoke up again. “My name is Temperance, if you would please come with me I will explain things to you.” She lifted a hoof and guided Applejack to the large doors at the back of the room.
“Alright, my name’s Applejack by the way.”
“Her name is Green Field.”
Applejack sat in a chair as Temperance spoke to her, she had been led to a dome shaped room wide and tall enough to fit Twilight’s castle in it that was decorated with more of the same kinds of paintings as well as a number of fountains and planters filled with flowers. In the middle of the room was an altar with an ornate golden chest sitting upon it. A perfect white marble floor radiated out from the altar, bordered by immaculately cut green grass. Temperance and Applejack sat together on fancy and intricately carved wooden chairs situated on the grass.
Nine other mares were also gathered around them, all wearing the same white cloak, some unicorns and some earth ponies, maybe even a couple of them were actually pegasi, Applejack couldn’t tell with the cloaks on. All of them were just as skeletal thin as Temperance, it was a little unnerving.
There was still a dull throb in her head and she felt a lot hotter than normal but Applejack was still fully aware of what was going on. “So what is she?” Just knowing the fire pony’s name didn’t really tell her much.
“Green Field is a completely normal earth pony just like yourself. The fire that she has become is the result of a magical artifact called the Heart of Fire.” Temperance told her. “She stole it from here.” The unicorn glanced back at the golden chest. “The Heart merged with her body and turned her into the pony you saw.”
“Okay I’m following along so far, I think, but why did she do this? When I met her she seemed really angry and upset and she mentioned something about justice and revenge.”
A ripple of sorrow and disappointment went through the cloaked ponies, Applejack could plainly see how they were affected by what she had said about Green Field.
Temperance closed her eyes and bowed her head low, tears forming under her eyelids. “Green Field was a simple farmer not long ago. With a family and home she cherished. She lived on the far side of the valley opposite from here, close to the endless plains. One day a band of outlaws from beyond the valley came to her farming community, a group of evil ponies who only knew how to steal and destroy, they stole food and attacked ponies, even setting fire to some of the farms. Green Field went to seek help from the various villages and towns in the valley but they all refused. Whether it be from fear or apathy I do not know. Whatever the reason the farming ponies were defenseless. Green Field’s home was burnt to the ground and her family… was tragically lost.”
Applejack sat back with a look of horror on her face. “That’s horrible! How could nopony help them?!”
Temperance opened her eyes, the sadness and guilt in them spoke volumes.
“Wait.” Applejack narrowed her eyes at Temperance and threw a hard glare at the others around her. “She asked you for help too didn’t she?”
“She did.”
Even through her fever Applejack was still Applejack enough to sputter angrily. “Well why in all of Tartarus didn’t you help!”
“We are pacifists, all who watch over the Heart of Fire are sworn to peace.” Temperance sighed sadly. “Green Field, like many in the valley, knew the Spirit Shrine contained magical artifacts. She came not to ask for our assistance but for us to allow her to use the Heart of Fire to protect her home. We refused her.”
“I… I see, I guess it aint so simple. I mean, if that’s your way and everything I don’t mean to be rude or anything.” Applejack cradled her wrapped up hoof, still feeling dismayed about nopony coming to the aid of Green Field. “And that thing is definitely dangerous too.”
“Thank you, but I regret how we handled things, we could’ve done more for her. I know it. And we were unable to stop her from stealing the Heart afterwards.”
“Well, you’re not responsible for what she’s done since. That’s on her. I guess she wants revenge on all the ponies who didn’t come to help her?” Applejack thought.
“Yes.” Temperance nodded. “After she first stole the Heart she went to her former home and… disposed of the vile ponies that had attacked her. Now we believe she’s going to go burn down every other settlement in the valley, she’s become twisted by despair and anger. The magic of the Heart of Fire would have taken her some time to get used to but now it seems she’s ready to get her dark revenge.”
Temperance looked around at her fellow shrine ponies. “It won’t be long before she comes back here as well, to destroy us for our inaction.”
Applejack shook her head at that. “No way, I aint letting this go on.” Temperance looked at her in surprise. “I may not have anything to do with this, but I can’t let Green Field keep on going like she is. Even if what happened to her was terrible it’s just as wrong for her to take it out on innocent ponies.” Applejack looked down at her hoof. “By the way when do you think my hoof will be good as new?”
“We used our magic and medicine for your hoof.” Another pony, this one either a blue earth pony or pegasus, spoke up from the circle around Applejack and Temperance. “My name is Sincerity, I helped with your wounds and sickness. Our healing magic is strong and with a body as resolute as yours all you will need is a full night’s rest to be back to normal. Just make sure you leave the wrap on overnight.”
“Thank ya kindly.” Applejack nodded to her and the other ponies.
“Yes, I believe we should all get some rest now. Miss Applejack, we can talk about this more in the morning. I suppose you don’t know what time it is but we’re just about into the evening now.” Temperance said, standing up from her chair. “If you are determined to stop Green Field there is much we can discuss tomorrow. But for now please allow me to take you back to your room.”
Applejack didn’t protest as Temperance used her magic to hold Applejack’s injured hoof, making it a lot easier for her to walk without having to put any weight down on it. Her fever and headache were diminishing by the second and Applejack was excited to be back in tip top shape after some sleep.
Much better. That healing magic Sincerity mentioned must really be something for her to be feeling like this after how awful she was just yesterday. Applejack sat up on her bed and carefully removed the wrap of bandages around her hoof. She was a little bit worried about what she might see under it but her fears were unfounded, her hoof looked as good as new. Almost better, like she just got back from a trip to the spa.
“Wow, these ponies really are something.” Applejack jumped off the bed to test things out. No pain, not even any soreness, it was really like she hadn’t accidentally caught her hoof on fire yesterday. Her fever and headache were completely gone too, all in all she felt like a million bits.
Applejack stretched some more before heading out the door of her room, best to get up and at em as quick as possible. She wanted to hear whatever else Temperance and the others had to say about Green Field and that Heart of Fire doohickey. Hopefully they had some advice for her or knew some kind of crazy spell to disenchant it or whatever. Twilight would know what would need to be done with it. Applejack not so much.
She ended up going the same direction down the hallway to find Temperance. The shrine was laid out in a very practical and straightforward manner, her room was situated in the left half of the shrine while the huge room where the Heart of Fire was previously kept was dead center, Applejack was kept in the guest wing and going right out of there would bring her to the center of the shrine. The room where she had initially met Temperance was front and center of the shrine, a second hallway that Applejack didn’t initially see when she first got there led to the right wing of the shrine where the shrine ponies rooms resided. If she had gone left out of her room she would’ve eventually found herself at the exit to the shrine, a large set of stone doors sunk far back into the mountain wall under an overhang with pillars supporting it.
This time Temperance wasn’t in the first room so Applejack made her way back to the larger room on her own, what she figured was the actual “shrine” itself. Coming out into the large shrine Applejack could admire the beauty around her a lot better since she wasn’t feeling sick at all, unlike yesterday. And it was all built right into a mountain, Applejack had no idea how many hundreds of feet of rock were above the ceiling but it amazed her that this place felt so beautiful and natural like it was the gardens of Canterlot castle when it was essentially all in a big cavern.
“Applejack, good to see you well.”
She had been gawking at everything around her that she failed to notice Temperance and two other unicorns walking up to her from a garden at her side. They walked around a fountain displaying two fishes squirting water over each others heads to greet her.
“Good morning to you too, Temperance.” Applejack flashed her a winning smile. “And uh, sorry but I don’t believe I got your names?”
The first of the other unicorns to speak up was a violet colored mare, with a shiny black mane and eyes set back deep in her skull, giving her even more of a gaunt appearance than the other thin ponies here. “I am Resolution, pleased to formally make your acquaintance.” She gave a slight bow of her head to Applejack.
The other was a dull white mare with a straw-blonde mane. “I am Tranquility.” She smiled slightly at Applejack but seemed a bit nervous around the unfamiliar pony.
“Nice to meet the both of ya as well.” Applejack gave out her hoof to shake, which the two did although in Tranquility’s case very gingerly and quickly.
“Well, since our magic seems to have done its work I would like to talk to you about your plans for Green Field now. There are several things I believe are pertinent to discuss.” Temperance said to her.
“Yeah. And just so you know I really meant what I said, I’ll stop her. I can bring that Heart of Fire thing back here for you too.”
“You are too kind.” Temperance smiled at her. “What you are saying is very dangerous but you think nothing of helping complete strangers. Thank you. But before you go to face her again we must give you our aid as well.”
“Giving me aid? I thought you were pacifists?” Applejack asked in confusion.
“Pacifism is not inaction.” Resolution said to her. “We did not allow Green Field to take the Heart of Fire because we knew what she would use it for, but we can help you stop her. It is nothing so direct as a weapon or facing her ourselves, I am sorry to say but that would be stretching our vows too much, but we can give you a magic talisman that will partially neutralize the power of the Heart of Fire.”
“Well I guess I probably would need something like that if I was going to fight her again. The first time didn’t go so good.” Applejack rubbed the back of her neck. “Thanks for doing this for me.”
“No need for that.” Temperance said. “We have a responsibility towards the Heart of Fire as well. The talisman the three of us will prepare for you should expel the Heart from her body if you can touch her with it, it should also work as a shield against the fire she summons.” Temperance’s horn lit up with a light pink glow and a rolled up piece of parchment was drawn out of her cloak. “However, our magic is not near so strong as the Heart of Fire, I do not believe the talisman will be able to withstand her power for long. You must be careful.”
“Don’t worry, I know how she works now and I’ve been in a scrap or two in my life.” Applejack winked at Temperance. “I’ll leave as soon as possible.”
“I thank you again, besides that I must ask that you do not harm Green Field after removing the Heart of Fire from her.”
Applejack stopped a bit at that, not frowning but still a little apprehensive about Temperance asking her that. Sure she wasn’t planning to do anything serious to her, especially since it sounded like she’d be harmless without the Heart, but she had already done so much. Applejack was prepared to do what was necessary if it came down to it. “Is this part of y’all being pacifists?”
“Partially, yes.” Temperance replied. “But I also simply don’t wish such a troubled mare to be hurt anymore, if possible I would like you to bring her back here so we can apologize to her.”
“Well, I’ll try to get her to stop being so revenge-obsessed if I can. Uh, no promises though, I’m more of a hooves on kind of gal.” Applejack nervously chuckled after that.
“I trust in you. Now then,” Temperance used her magic to unfurl the parchment, revealing it as blank. “Resolution, Tranquility, if you would.”
The two other unicorns lit up their horns and fired small, concentrated beams of magic onto the parchment. Together they each drew a line that curved together to form a circle, when that was done Temperance fired her own magic at the parchment to draw a six-sided star in the middle of the circle. Then the three of them drew hearts around it all.
Applejack was uncertain if that last part was necessary or just to pretty it up.
“Here, this is all we can do.” Temperance rolled it up and levitated it to Applejack, who placed it under her hat.
“That’s alright, I got this.”
Temperance allowed herself to giggle a little at that. “Indeed.”
“Alright then, now I should really get on out there. I’ve gotta find her before she does any more damage.” Applejack nodded to the three unicorns and turned to leave the shrine room.
“Hold on, we’ll escort you out, there’s a spell we can use to locate the Heart of Fire, that way you won’t have to be searching blind for her. We are situated high up along the great barrier, it has always allowed us to see the large fires and smoke columns Green Field creates.” Temperance walked along with Resolution and Tranquility right behind her. “But there hasn’t been one today so far, so we have no normal way of telling where she might be or where she is going.”
Applejack and the three unicorns walked through the rest of the shrine, she saw Sincerity on her way out and smiled at the mare, thanking her for the great medicine and all that. Soon they came to the great stone doors that led to the outside, they were probable meant to be moved by magic but Applejack had no problem pushing them open on her own. Immediately rays of sunlight poured onto her, she had to squint her eyes shut to avoid being blinded. Getting her eyes used to the natural light she stepped out and admired the view. They looked to be about halfway up the huge mountain wall, it gave them a commanding view of the valley. Right past the pillars a single long stone staircase went to the ground below. Tripping on that would be pretty bad.
“Great view ya got here.” Applejack smiled back at the shrine ponies.
They all smiled back at her but again Temperance was the one to take the lead. “Yes, it’s perfect to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately we can’t simply appreciate the valley’s natural beauty right now.” She walked out in front of Applejack, right to the edge of the stairs and closed her eyes, concentrating deeply.
Her horn started to glow again but the spell seemed to take much more time than the one she had used for the talisman, maybe she was slowly scanning the entire valley for the Heart and that’s why it was taking so long.
Couldn’t the other two help? Applejack thought to herself but wisely avoided saying it out loud.
After a few more minutes Temperance opened her eyes again. “Found it. Her.” She turned to face Applejack. “She’s moving close to a canyon that a group of ponies have made their home, come here and I can show you exactly the way.”
And so it was that Applejack was now lightly running through the forest, she wanted to be sure to catch Green Field before she could attack a town again. And she’d probably do even worse than what she did to that double-building town this time. Applejack was worried that she might really go all the way now if she had fully tamed the Heart of Fire like Temperance believed she had.
Again she thanked herself for keeping her body in such great shape, she couldn’t imagine Rarity in this situation. That mare really should take better care of herself. Oh sure, she always kept her appearance up and made sure she was groomed well but a little exercise is great for everypony. Pinkie Pie mentioned once how she had seen Rarity eating entire cartons of ice cream by herself one day when she got stressed out by some fashion thing.
“Where in the hay is my mind wandering now?” Applejack shook her head of the random thoughts and went back to focusing on trying to find Green Field. She knew the general direction of where she was and where she was going but that might not be good enough. If that fire pony was going along slowly Applejack bet she could catch up easy but if not she might not make it in time.
She was farther north than where she first came across Green Field, a couple of times she had to cross a small stream to get where she needed to go. Speaking of streams the canyon the ponies lived in probably had a river at the bottom too. Maybe if Applejack couldn’t get her with the talisman she could still get her to fall in the river? Would that even work? The Heart of Fire was magic so just falling into a normal river or lake probably wouldn’t do anything. Wouldn’t hurt to try though either if it came down to it, Applejack figured.
It’ll probably start getting a little hotter the closer I get to her, or maybe she just made things hotter around her intentionally when she snuck up on me. Ugh, why does this all have to be so annoying?
She saw a flicker through the trees. And again.
Seems she was going the right way.
Applejack sped up, this time she’d take Green Field by surprise. All she needed to do was get the talisman on her and this would be over. She made sure she didn’t accidentally trip, or step on a twig, or do something that would expose her. She was getting closer now, instead of just looking like a fire from far away she could now make out Green Field’s shape as the fire pony slowly walked forward. Applejack narrowed her eyes, this was it.
She was nearly right behind her. Green Field still hadn’t noticed her approach but soon she’d be able to hear Applejack’s hooves as she bounded across the ground to her. It was now or never, Applejack didn’t hesitate, she sped up to full speed and ran at Green Field’s back. She had pulled out the talisman from under her hat and held it in her mouth, once she was close enough she’d grab it and stick it to Green Field. If she was fortunate this would all be decided in an instant, it was risky of her to not slow down and try to sneak up on Green Field but she figured she had just as much of a chance finishing things like this. A single droplet of sweat dripped down her face.
Right now, she grabbed the talisman with her hoof and held it open. She’d practically crash into Green Field going like this if she wasn’t careful. She was almost there.
But Green Field reacted too fast. She turned around and saw Applejack before she should’ve, she didn’t seem like the kind of pony with senses that sharp and reflexes that fast. Applejack was still running, still hoping to be able to stick her with the talisman before she could react. Green Field’s eyes widened and fire burst from her body, creating a sphere around herself that expanded outwards, Applejack was the one who had to react fast now. Using Hoof of the Earth she caused the ground below her to rupture, jumping up at the same time, the extra force of the exploding ground combined with her own strength allowed her to clear the protective sphere that Green Field produced.
She landed on the other side of the fire pony while the sphere dissipated, leaving Green Field standing there with the ground around her burning. Green Field wheeled around to glare angrily at Applejack.
“You again?! I warned you not to try and stop me! And what was that weird magic I sensed, you-” Green Field stopped, eyes looking up and down Applejack’s body and taking in her strangely uninjured appearance. Her eyes narrowed at Applejack as her body relaxed into a much calmer state, the flames around her simmering down. “You’ve been to the Spirit Shrine haven’t you?”
Applejack didn’t answer. She was thinking about how Green Field could sense the talisman, it must’ve been a side-effect of the Heart of Fire, maybe it recognized the shrine ponies magic or felt that the talisman was dangerous. Applejack was thinking if she should just attack again and hope for a win in a straight on fight. But now that she was here talking to Green Field there was something else she wanted to try first.
“Alright look, I know I might be a bit of a hypocrite for saying this considering I just tried to attack you from behind and all, but I really think you should just stop all this and give up the Heart of Fire, okay?”
“Really. Really?” Green Field asked incredulously, fire starting to swirl around her hooves.
“I just think it would be for the best. The ponies at the shrine told me all about you and-”
Green Field screamed at Applejack and blasted a huge fireball at her. The massive thing could’ve consumed a carriage and it made Applejack sweat like crazy just from being near.
“So that was definitely the wrong thing to say.” Applejack said as she jumped out of the way of the fireball. “Guess convincing her to give up just aint an option.” Time to talk with her hooves, Applejack thought.
Seeing the huge fireball miss her Green Field now shot out a dozen smaller fireballs at Applejack. Applejack used a tremor to shoot out a bunch of rocks and dirt from under the ground, impacting the fireballs and stopping Green Field’s attack as the rocks and dirt fell back to the ground covered in flames.
Green Field snarled and raised an eyebrow at her. “Seems like you’re not a normal earth pony either.”
From her sides came two blasts of fire, each one shooting out in a curve that would eventually have them meet right where Applejack was standing. She hopped back just in time as the two blasts collided, creating an explosion that knocked Applejack back. She quickly got to her hooves to defend against Green Field’s next attack. Which came quickly enough when through the ball of fire that the previous attack had left a pegasus made of fire flew out at Applejack.
“Oh come on now!” Applejack ran from the pegasus but just like the fire snake that Green Field had made last time they fought it chased after her. Luckily it wasn’t near so fast as a real pegasus would be but even when she shot dirt and rocks up at it it wasn’t enough to get it to dissipate, everything that came in contact with it just burned up and fell through its body. The thing was keeping her from getting in close to Green Field too. She constantly had to backpedal away from the pegasus, with each step she saw Green Field getting further away. Applejack had to deal with this thing and get in close to use the talisman.
Spotting a large tree she got an idea, she couldn’t replicate how she defeated the fire snake exactly but this would still work, Applejack ran past the tree while shooting a tremor out to it. When the pegasus was flying at her the tree’s trunk exploded, toppling the whole tree over so that its bushy branches and leaves fell onto the pegasus, smothering it into the ground.
“Easy as apple pie.” Applejack smirked while looking back at Green Field, still just standing a fair distance away from her.
That was when the wall of fire sprang up behind her.
Applejack jumped in surprise at the huge wall of fire that was cutting her off from the rest of the forest, now she couldn’t retreat from Green Field anymore even if she wanted to.
“Oh I’m sorry, were you paying too much attention to my little pegasus to notice me doing that?” Green Field mockingly said to her. “I’m not letting you live this time.” Green Field glowed brighter as the flames that made up her body started burning with greater intensity, two huge fire snakes came out of her this time and slithered towards Applejack, leaving devastating trails of fire wherever they touched.
She was already almost backed up against the fire wall and she didn’t have anything that could block or smother those snakes. The talisman was still in her hoof, its power wasn’t infinite and she didn’t want to waste some of the magic in it if she didn’t have to. But if she didn’t do anything she’d probably be burned up by these snakes before she even got close enough to use the talisman on Green Field.
Applejack grunted and furrowed her brow at the snakes coming at her. “Alright, you asked for it.”
She pulled up the talisman and pointed it towards the fire snakes, a blue-white light came from the parchment as the magically-etched symbols glowed. The fire snakes opened their jaws wide, striking down at Applejack as if she was some frog for them to eat. But when the glow reached them the fires vanished, snuffed out instantly like a match that had been blown on.
Applejack broke out into a run immediately after seeing that, she’d go straight for Green Field and tag her with the talisman, knowing now that it could protect her from any attack Green Field threw at her or any defense she could conjure up. Green Field’s face was one of total shock when she saw her fire snakes die out, now she created a plain wave of fire and had it flow out at Applejack. She would’ve never been able to dodge it at this range if she had to, it was too wide and deep, the wave was only a few feet high but it still consumed everything in its way, any trees it touched were completely lit up and burned to the ground in seconds.
It was pretty good for Applejack that she didn’t need to dodge.
The talisman parted the wave of fire like it wasn’t even there. Applejack ran across the scorched earth, Green Field now almost within reach. She looked at Applejack with a scared expression, she was backpedaling away from her but she wasn’t near as fast as Applejack. Perhaps realizing this she stopped and fiercely glared at Applejack like a cornered animal. Pillars of fire erupted across her body and dozens of fireballs shot into the air before quickly coming back down at Applejack like flaming meteors.
Most came down around Applejack, harmlessly exploding far enough away from her, but some were dead on so she had to use the talisman to obliterate them. Applejack couldn’t be certain but she thought the glow from the talisman might’ve been getting weaker.
Green Field wasn’t discouraged by her meteors failing, she opened up her mouth and breathed out a steady stream of spiraling fire straight at Applejack. Applejack put her hoof out in front of her and the talisman got rid of the fire before it could even make Applejack feel hot. The glow reached back to Green Field and she had to squint her eyes shut and stop breathing fire, it seemed it was disrupting her powers.
Applejack was almost on top of her now, she knew the talisman could get through anything, Green Field clearly wasn’t as physically capable as her so Applejack would have no problem getting her with it. Just a few more steps were between them as Applejack ran full speed at her enemy.
Come on!
Green Field wasn’t going to take this lying down though, she still could use the flames enough to ignite a fire under herself, her hooves practically turning to rockets as she jumped in the air to avoid Applejack.
The talisman got rid of the fires left behind so they wouldn’t hurt Applejack but now Green Field had vaulted behind her, giving herself a little more distance from the pony trying to stop her. Applejack turned to again reach her as quickly as possible while Green Field threw out the biggest blast of fire yet. She must’ve figured she couldn’t run anymore and was trying to just completely overwhelm Applejack. Applejack meanwhile was barreling straight ahead, she’d use the talisman on this fire blast and then stick it on Green Field’s chest right behind it and end things.
Applejack and the fire met, the huge flames produced by the Heart of Fire could swallow her barn whole now, but she ran through them with the talisman in hoof. Its glow created a safe path for her, eradicating the fires around her, making it look like Applejack was running through a tunnel of flames. This time though the heat was getting to her, it was making her sluggish and sweaty as she ran through the fire to Green Field, but there shouldn’t be much more. Applejack knew she was close.
The glow finally broke through the last bit of flames from Green Field, Applejack came out of the tunnel right in front of her. Green Field’s eyes were wide with worry while Applejack grit her teeth and reached out with the talisman.
Unfortunately the glow from the talisman promptly died off and the parchment caught fire, shriveling up and burning to ash in Applejack’s hoof.
As she skidded to a halt with her face about an inch away from Green Field’s a stray thought went through Applejack’s mind about how it was probably a bad idea to come fight again without any sort of real contingency or backup plan.
With their faces so close together they could see nothing else, Green Field smirked at Applejack. “I think you just lost something important.”
“Eyup.” Applejack sweated rivers down her face.
“Want a head start in running away? I’m feeling generous.”
“Thank ya kindly.”
Applejack ran very fast.
A fireball sailed over her head from behind and exploded in front of her, creating a crater that she had to jump over. More of those kept coming as Applejack did all she could to dodge them and their fallout. The wall of fire Green Field created earlier was still going strong so Applejack only had one way she could go, she hoped she would find a river or lake soon and maybe see if that dunking her in water idea would actually work.
Instead, as the fireballs kept her running away, the forest thinned out and Applejack came to the edge of a cliff. Or canyon would be more accurate. Applejack looked to the bottom of the canyon to see a river, this must’ve been the canyon Temperance mentioned that Green Field was going towards in the first place. Applejack looked across it but the distance was way too far for her to jump.
“Looks like somepony has run out of options.”
Applejack gulped and turned around. Green Field was there, flames rolling off her body and looking like she was struggling to not laugh at Applejack’s situation.
“Yeah, well… uh. I can’t think of a comeback.” Applejack grimaced, Rainbow Dash can never learn of this.
“Right, well let me just reiterate. You should have left me alone.” Green Field created another fire snake, its mouth opened wide and the magical creation bared its fangs at Applejack. “Goodbye.”
The snake lunged at Applejack, and there was really only one thing she could do about it.
She jumped.
The fire snake crashed into the ground right where she was standing just an instant before. The snake and the edge of the cliff exploded in a ball of fire, the flames fanning out and washing over Applejack’s body as the pressure from the blast knocked her further into the canyon. Partially on fire and dazed from the force of the blast, Applejack fell.
To be more accurate, water hurt when you hit it after falling about two hundred feet. And after being lit on fire and severely burned in several places. But the pain was a slight, very slight, blessing in disguise because it snapped Applejack’s mind back into full gear. She wasn’t sure if anything was broken from the fall but she knew she had to struggle to stay afloat as the current of the river carried her terribly hurt body downstream. The rapids and her panicked flailing threatened to drown her as her head was constantly finding itself submerged. It was difficult to calm down though with every single fiber of her being screaming out in pain.
She didn’t even see the rock in the middle of the river, she just felt her body smack against it before being swept aside again. Discombobulated, she tried paddling about with her hooves, trying to get into a normal swimming motion. But she just didn’t have the sense to tell what was going on anymore, she paddled and flipped over and around like a rag-doll tossed into a washing machine. Swallowing more than one mouthful of water on accident Applejack could tell less and less of what was going on. Her world was nothing but water and spinning and her vision started to fade more and more.
Apple Bloom… everypony…
She wasn’t sure if she was fully awake anymore, it felt like she was in that half-dreamlike state she would sometimes get in when she worked herself too hard and didn’t get enough sleep the previous night. Everything felt jumbled to her. Applejack’s body felt like it was weightless, like she was floating on a cloud. Her mind was too rattled to think harder about anything, she was just left to go with the flow from one sensation to the next.
This sense of grogginess continued until she heard a voice that was most certainly not her own. Then more. Applejack realized she had stopped moving, but her whole body was numb, almost as numb as her mind, and she almost didn’t notice. The water from the river was still pounding against her but she was stuck on some sort of net in the river.
She could hear ponies yelling but didn’t have the strength to move her head to look at them. As the cold water continued to run over her she closed her eyes and finally fell into a real sleep.
Applejack slowly opened her eyes to find herself in bed again. Despite what she had just been through she was much more aware of things than when she had woken up in the Spirit Shrine after collapsing from her fever.
That included being aware of how much pain her body was in.
“Ughhh...” Applejack groaned as she raised her head to look down at her body, seeing it covered in bandages that made her look like a mummy. “Rarity would… like the new fashion statement.” At least she wasn’t so badly hurt that she couldn’t make jokes, Applejack thought to herself.
Sitting up a bit despite the pain Applejack took a look around the room she was in. Unlike at the Spirit Shrine where she had her own private room this was clearly a normal hospital room. Five other hospital beds just like the one she was in filled the room, and a big window at the end allowed light to pour in. It had a nice inviting atmosphere, would’ve felt just like being in Ponyville General aside from the walls of this building being made from slabs of stone.
Applejack carefully checked out her body to make sure she could move everything just fine, there was a lot of pain but nothing seemed broken. She didn’t have a problem moving her limbs or anything either. The burns on her body probably weren’t as severe as the first time considering she didn’t essentially stick her hoof into a raging magical fire this time.
Looking at the window Applejack decided to get up out of bed, if light was coming in that meant that either it hadn’t been too long since she had fallen into the river in the first place or more than a whole day had passed. Things would be really bad if the second possibility was the right one. She gingerly got onto her hooves and pushed through the pain and soreness. Now she was sure there was nothing broken so that was good at least. Sidling up to the window and taking a gander outside Applejack was happy to see what looked like a normal village. It wasn’t on fire and there were no screams so Green Field likely hadn’t arrived yet. The village itself wasn’t as unique looking as the two-building town but it was still pretty interesting to Applejack as it looked like a lot of buildings were built directly into the canyon wall. Opening the window a bit, Applejack leaned her head out to see that even this hospital room was just slightly jutting out of the wall and the rest of the hospital was probably built underground. Below her there were a few standalone buildings along the side of the river, they mostly looked like ponies home’s. There was probably a whole series of interconnected buildings and passages all built inside the canyon that you could never see from outside. Her little sister and her friends would love to explore a place like this.
But Applejack really didn’t have any more time to appreciate the view. She had to warn these ponies that Green Field was coming and then get back to the Spirit Shrine.
Green Field might be going to the Spirit Shrine right now though after knowing they helped me…
Applejack stretched to get all the kinks out of her muscles, then started walking to the door. She’d leave the bandages on for now at least until she got to the Spirit Shrine and could get some magic healing again. But before she could open the door a pony on the other side swung it open for her. He was clearly a doctor, wearing the classic white coat and with eyeglasses pushed down his nose.
He looked shocked to see her up and moving around. “What are you doing out of bed?”
“Sorry but I got a lot of important things to do, thanks for treating me and all though.” Applejack practically pushed him out of the way. “Also I gotta warn you about something, if you can spread the news to everypony in town?”
“What in blazes are you talking about?! You’re lucky to be alive first of all, you need to get back in bed and rest! Those burns were very serious and your body was bruised and beaten all over.” The doctor tried to gently push her back into the room. “If those kids didn’t see you coming down the river who knows what could have happened.”
Applejack pushed off his hoof and looked at him with a hard expression. “Look, you don’t know it but you’re in danger. There’s a pony coming to attack this village. I understand that you want to make sure your patient is okay but we really don’t have time for all this. How long was I out for anyways?”
“What?! Y-You were only asleep for an hour or two, we put our burn salve and other remedies on you as quickly as we could. And attack? But why? I don’t understand.” The doctor shook his head while backing away from Applejack.
“The pony coming to attack you is a gal named Green Field, she’s from that farming community out west that was destroyed by a vicious group of thugs. She came here to ask for help but your town refused, now she’s got a magical artifact and she’s coming to get revenge on y’all.”
The doctor paled. “O-Oh, well I remember hearing about that happening to the farmers out there but I don’t know anything about her coming here or us refusing to help.”
“Doesn’t matter to her. She’s on the warpath. Even if it was just your leaders or whoever that refused her she’s gonna see your whole village as guilty.” Applejack sighed. “Look, just please go and tell everypony you can that she’s coming. You need to run, or hide somewhere safe.”
“Um, well, alright. Thanks for the warning.” The doctor nodded to her but then frowned. “What are you going to do? You really should just rest, you’re badly injured.”
“Nothing broken, good enough for me.” Applejack stretched once more and walked out the door. “I’ve got a pony to stop.” She stopped and glanced back at the doctor. “What’s the fastest way to the Spirit Shrine from here?”
After hoofing it as fast as she could through the forest to the huge mountain wall Applejack had finally made it back to the huge stone steps that led up to the Spirit Shrine. Thankfully for her the river flowed in a curve that went towards the mountain. So after being swept downstream for a while and ending up at the canyon village she turned out to be much closer to the Spirit Shrine than where she had initially fallen in. Her body ached something fierce now and she couldn’t go near as fast as normal but she still didn’t see any sign of Green Field. Either she hadn’t gotten to the Spirit Shrine yet or she was still going to attack the canyon village that she was going to in the first place.
And now I gotta climb all these darn steps…
It was torture on her joints but she made it up. Applejack had enough determination to play through anything short of crippling. Taking the time to catch her breath, Applejack looked behind her at the valley.
Her eyes widened.
“Oh, that’s not good.”
A huge column of smoke and fire was steadily making its way through the forest in the valley towards the Spirit Shrine. It looked like a living forest fire, slowly consuming everything in front of it as it crept towards its destination, leaving nothing but charred and blackened earth in its wake. At the size it was at now likely every other village and settlement in the valley could see it. Applejack was half glad that it meant Green Field wasn’t attacking that canyon village now but the other half of her was very, very worried. If Temperance and the others didn’t have a way to stop the Heart of Fire everything here was gonna go up in flames.
The doors to the shrine opened up behind her as she watched the approaching fire.
“Applejack, come inside, we need to talk.” She heard Sincerity’s voice calling out to her.
Applejack stood there for a few moments longer. Eyes glued to the inevitable coming of Green Field’s inferno. Her face was twisted in worry and she clicked her tongue, turning from the fire she walked towards Sincerity and the doors to the shrine.
“I guess you could see that coming?”
“Yes.” Sincerity nodded as she guided Applejack in. “I’ll take care of your wounds quickly, then we can meet the others in the sacred garden.”
Sincerity led her to another room in the shrine that Applejack had never been in before. Applejack pretty much tore off her own bandages while Sincerity and another mare calling herself Humility prepared their medicine and got to work. She felt it working almost instantly, it must work a lot better on surface wounds than something like a fever. Helped that none of her burns were as bad as her hoof that first time.
“So what’s the plan? Temperance and y’all going to give me another talisman?” Applejack asked her.
“No, they can’t make another one so quickly, and if it failed once you probably wouldn’t be able to get it to work on Green Field again. Instead we are… giving you something else.” Sincerity replied, her face looked conflicted as if the ponies had come to a decision that doesn’t sit well with her.
“What do you mean?”
“Let us take you to the others. Temperance will explain everything.” Sincerity and Humility then led her out of their medical room, taking her back to the large shrine room Applejack knew well.
They were all there, she recognized Tranquility and Resolution and of course Temperance. All of them looked like they were troubled by something and Applejack had the suspicion that it wasn’t Green Field coming.
All eyes turned to Applejack.
“Um, I’m guessing you have something important to tell me? Sincerity mentioned you were gonna give me something and all?” Applejack said while rubbing the back of her neck and trying to ignore the nervous gazes of the shrine ponies.
Temperance nodded and walked towards her. “Applejack, we have come to make a difficult choice. Although it pains us we believe this is the only way to stop Green Field and fix this problem. This problem that is all our fault in the first place. There is but one thing we can do in atonement for our inaction and negligence even though it goes against our entire purpose here.” Temperance closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “We shall bestow upon you the Heart of Water.”
Applejack could only tilt her head in confusion as Temperance spoke to her about this new thingamajig.
Temperance, to her credit, was very patient with Applejack. She was pretty sure she saw Resolution roll her eyes though. “The Heart of Water.” Temperance clarified. “I mentioned to you previously that we guard magical artifacts here, the Heart of Water is the counterpart to the Heart of Fire.” Temperance’s horn glowed and she looked to the chest in the shrine, her magic opened it up and out came a small object that looked like a piece of jewelry to Applejack.
A small blue heart ringed by gold. At first Applejack thought it was a sapphire or maybe a diamond but as Temperance brought it closer Applejack realized that the heart was just made of deep, solid water. Temperance brought it to her hoof and held it out for Applejack to come take, the Heart had a strange calming effect coming from it, waves of peacefulness seemed to roll off of it and wash over Applejack.
Applejack walked up and looked at the Heart of Water in Temperance’s hoof, she frowned and looked up at the thin mare. “Are you really alright with giving this to me?”
Temperance sighed and looked down at the Heart with a sad expression. “Our duty is to protect these artifacts, we failed once, now so much more is at stake than just our vows and shrine. We… we have decided to make this sacrifice for the greater good.”
“I’m sorry that you have to go through all this.” Applejack said while looking around at the other mares watching her. “But also, are you okay with giving this to me? Like me specifically. You hardly know me.”
“On the contrary, Applejack.” Temperance answered, calmly shaking her head at the farmer. “We believe we know you very well from the actions you have taken in your short time here.”
“You have done nothing but act selflessly for the benefit of others.” Sincerity spoke up. “You entered a conflict that had nothing to do with you purely because you didn’t want to see innocents harmed, even after being gravely hurt you continued to try and stop Green Field, and after failing again you still came to help us and didn’t give up on your desire to do the right thing. Nopony would have blamed you if you simply left after being defeated or never tried in the first place, this is not your home, but you continue to try and help everypony here out of nothing but the goodness of your heart.”
Applejack felt the heat rising to her cheeks, she pulled her hat down over her face to cover her embarrassed blush. “You’re flattering me way too much here.”
“Hardly. I truly don’t think there are many ponies who would act the way you have, Applejack.” Temperance told her.
“I really don’t think I’m so special or anything, you should meet some of my friends.”
“It’s good to be humble as well.” Temperance giggled. “But all we can go on is what we’ve seen from you. And you haven’t disappointed. I have total faith in you, Applejack.” She took Applejack’s hoof in her own and deposited the Heart of Water in it. “I trust in your ability to stop Green Field.”
Applejack looked down at the Heart of Water, the glimmering artifact creating rainbows whenever the light hit it just right. It felt good in her hooves. Cool, inviting, it made her think of relaxing in the bath, or walking through a pleasant summer rain. She looked back up at Temperance and the other ponies who struggled to make the choice to give it to her, all of them pinning their hopes on her.
Applejack let out a deep breath that she didn’t know she was even holding in. “Alright, I’ll take it.” Applejack had wanted something to fight Green Field with but the responsibility of the Heart of Water, and knowing that the shrine ponies have essentially broken their vows over this, was a lot to take. She hoped their trust wasn’t misplaced. It was a lot of responsibility for one pony to take on.
Temperance smiled. “Thank you.”
“So, uh, how do I use this thing?” Applejack said as she scrutinized the Heart of Water, resisting the urge to just start poking or shaking it.
“You only need to will it to and it will merge with your body.” Temperance answered.
“Uh, right.” Applejack felt a more detailed answer might have been needed but didn’t press it. “I’ll keep it safe until I get to Green Field.” She reached up and put the Heart of Water safely under her hat. “And speaking of that I should probably get a move on, she’s moving slow but she’s still doing a lot of damage to the forest.”
“Yes, we have talked enough.” Temperance nodded to the others and they all began to file out of the shrine room, the sacred garden as Applejack thinks she heard Sincerity call it. Temperance and Applejack were the last to leave, with her escorting Applejack to the entrance of the shrine. “I would like to wish you good luck one last time, Applejack.” Temperance said as she used her magic to open up the great stone doors to the outside. The column of smoke and fire that Green Field had created was even larger, the sky in some areas of the valley would be dark thanks to all the smoke, and the fire was spreading to more areas as she made her inexorable push to the Spirit Shrine.
Applejack smiled at her as she walked to the steps, not paying any mind to Green Field’s devastation. “No need for that, I got this. Third time’s the charm they say.” She winked at Temperance and began heading down to confront Green Field.
Boy was it hot out. Despite the seriousness of the situation Applejack couldn’t help but just be mildly annoyed at the uncomfortable temperature thanks to the combination of Green Field’s flames and the already hot sun hanging overhead.
And the fact that she had gone down all those steps rather fast, working up a sweat even before the unnatural heat from the flames started getting to her.
Really wish somepony around here had apples. Apple pie with a big mug of apple cider to go with it would just be perfect right now. Mmm, can’t think of a better thing to have after a fight.
Applejack licked her lips thinking about that. As foolish as it was since she knew nothing of the sort awaited her even if she won. But it never hurt to remind herself what she was working towards. You know, besides getting back to her family and friends.
“Maybe it’s the heat talking but Applebloom and Big Mac and Granny Smith can all take care of themselves, but my apples need me.” Applejack wiped a huge gob of sweat from her brow, making it splatter on the ground. “Hope no pony steps in that either, yuck.”
Applejack had reached the forest now after coming down from the mountain wall. She could see the plume of smoke and fire in front her, it wouldn’t be a long walk for her to make it to Green Field. Through the trees the blaze could be plainly seen and above them more smoke rose up to cover the sky. The seemingly unstoppable advance of the fire made her think back to when they saved the Crystal Empire from King Sombra. That actually reassured Applejack a good bit, she may have been on her own but Green Field wasn’t as bad as him and Applejack had some power of her own now too. Things were bad but they still weren’t that bad.
Applejack smiled as she walked deeper into the forest, confident in herself. Confident knowing the shrine ponies believed in her, and that if her friends knew what she was about to do that they’d believe in her too.
The crackling of the flames started to grow loud enough to drown out Applejack’s thoughts. Applejack and Green Field would meet soon, the heat from the inferno was growing and Applejack could see trees being consumed by the fire a short distance away.
“Here we go.” Applejack said to herself, stopping and waiting for Green Field to reach her. She used Hoof of the Earth to fell some of the trees around her, giving herself a bit of an open space so Green Field could see her clearly.
Quickly, the fire came rolling in like a wave of lava down the side of a volcano. Almost solid, it just washed over and ate up the ground and trees. Riding atop the tumbling fire like it was some great mount was Green Field. Applejack didn’t flinch, she knew Green Field would stop and she wasn’t wrong, the fire settled down and stopped its approach a dozen or so feet in front of Applejack. Green Field stood on the flames like they were solid as stone and looked down on Applejack. High up enough that she was equal to standing on a house it probably would’ve intimidated a lesser pony.
But not Applejack.
“Well, well, well, look who’s back. Did the first two times not hurt enough?” Green Field stared the impassive Applejack down before her face turned into a snarl. “You’re not even from here! Why don’t you just go away and let me get my revenge? What are these dumb ponies to you that you’d die for them? Huh?!”
“Nothing.” Applejack continued to look up at her. “I’m just doing the right thing.”
Green Field’s teeth clenched. “They all deserve this!”
“No, they don’t. You didn’t deserve what happened to you and now they don’t deserve what you’re doing to them.” Applejack matched her glare with one of her own.
More tears of liquid fire began to bubble at Green Field’s eyes but she didn’t let it get to her. “Fine, you can stand there and burn too!” The flames she was standing on grew and flickered with greater intensity, Green Field was preparing to smite Applejack for good this time.
“Alright then, let’s get down to it.” Applejack reached up and pulled the Heart of Water out of her hat. It rested there on her hoof with its calming presence. Closing her eyes she thought about its power, asking it to become a part of her, willing it to merge with her body and help her. A strange feeling began to spread through her body, she felt different, she felt wet and like her body was constantly in motion, she felt not just lighter but almost completely weightless and the heat wasn’t bothering her anymore either. Even her breathing had stopped and her heart beat had disappeared.
But she was still calm and not worried about any of that. Applejack had other things to worry about. Feeling the resolve inside of her she opened up her eyes.
It was pretty weird to look at your body and see… not your body. The water that made up Applejack’s body was constantly streaming and swirling around in her pony shape. Like she was just a container holding back an ocean. But it didn’t feel bad, she wasn’t worried that she might suddenly “pop” or anything. It all felt natural. As natural as the hat that was still on her head.
“You… they gave you the Heart of Water!”
Applejack stopped looking at herself to glance up at the furious Green Field. Fire billowed around her, jets and balls exploding out from her body in greater intensity thanks to the sheer anger she felt at the ponies of the Spirit Shrine willingly giving Applejack the Heart of Water.
“Yep, they did.” Applejack concentrated and water poured out from her hooves, creating an ever flowing fountain that shot up and made her stand at eye level with Green Field.
“How dare they! After everything that happened, for them to just hand that over to you!” Green Field raised a hoof and created a rapidly expanding ball of fire over her head.
Applejack responded by summoning water from seemingly nowhere, creating waves that matched the height and size of the inferno that Green Field was riding. Now it was like a lake had appeared in the middle of the forest. For any birds or pegasi above them it would look like twin seas of fire and water were about to smash into each other.
“You can’t stop me!” With a final scream, Green Field hurled her massive fireball at Applejack.
Applejack raised up a huge wall of water to block it, the fire clashing with it causing an explosion of steam that covered the two ponies. Green Field didn’t waste a moment as she shot dozens of balls of fire out of her body through the steam, it didn’t matter if she couldn’t see she’d just use sheer quantity to obliterate Applejack and evaporate the water.
But as the steam cleared Applejack was still standing there on her water, the sea behind her only boiling in a few spots. Her right hoof had been blown off by a fireball but the water that made up her body quickly reformed as if nothing had happened at all.
“Well, fancy that now.” Applejack smirked at Green Field and waved her hoof forward. Tentacles of water as thick as tree trunks shot out from behind her, whipping at Green Field.
Green Field roared and pillars of fire shot up around her from the inferno. Bisecting and incinerating the tentacles of water that came at her. Then she reared back and the sea of fire shifted with her, it acted almost more like a solid entity, like a wave of lava than fire, before she pushed forward and slammed directly into Applejack’s water.
Shockwaves and thunderclaps sounded throughout the valley as the two incredible magical forces met. Applejack didn’t allow herself to be pushed back, bracing her hooves she forced her water forward to fight Green Field’s inferno blow for blow. As the fire and water bashed against each other, each force struggling for dominance like two big-horned sheep duking it out, Applejack decided to take a page out of her opponent’s book and created a huge sea serpent from her water to attack Green Field.
The thing sprouted out of the water behind Applejack, she made it the size of a Quarray Eel, with its jaws snapping open it dove for Green Field.
“Is that supposed to scare me?” Green Field responded by making another huge fire snake to duel Applejack’s sea serpent, intercepting its strike and winding around it. The two constructions battled while Applejack and Green Field continued to try and out muscle each other.
Seeing that neither side was giving an inch Applejack pulled back. The moment she did, Green Field pushed forward to overtake the space Applejack had just left. But this was fine by Applejack, she turned the whole sea of water she was standing on into a huge wave that now rose and towered over Green Field. Stuck below the peak, Green Field watched as Applejack rode the spray of the wave, her body practically melting into it, and crashed the whole thing down over the inferno.
The noise was deafening. And the force that the wave struck the ground with would’ve felt like an earthquake to any nearby ponies. Applejack allowed her water to disperse after coming down, now instead of on fire the forest looked like the largest and strongest thunderstorm had just been through, water dripped from every leaf and branch and innumerable puddles dotted the ground.
But things weren’t over yet.
Applejack looked back at where Green Field’s inferno had been. Most of the fire was drowned out but a single huge pillar of flame still stood in the middle of a cloud of steam, thousands of gallons of water being evaporated around it.
Without warning a huge blast of fire shot out from the steam towards Applejack. She barely responded in time by making a swirling vortex of water in front of her as a shield to absorb the fire. The blast tried to push through and overcome Applejack’s shield but she kept putting more water into it, all that happened was the water quenching the fire as fast as the fire could evaporate the water. The two powers seemed evenly matched.
As the fire blast died down Applejack lowered her shield, letting the leftover water splatter on the ground. Looking ahead she saw Green Field walk out from the pillar of leftover flame. The two didn’t speak to each other, Applejack prepared herself to react while the flames that made up Green Field flickered and grew.
Green Field concentrated hard, eyes narrowed and brow furrowed at Applejack. Her whole body erupted into one big flame, burning and melting the ground around her. Five flaming pegasi were born from her flame and came flying at Applejack as Green Field’s body returned to its normal flaming state.
“Well I can do that now too.” Applejack made her own pegasi out of water, having some fun with it and giving them all Rainbow Dash’s mane style. “Go on Dash, er Dash’s, take it to her!” The five water pegasi flew out to engage their fiery opponents.
It made Applejack think of an aerial battle between two teams of Wonderbolts. The fire and water constructs flew around each other, striking with their wings or colliding into each other and beating their hooves and heads together. One of the fire pegasi flew past it all to attack Applejack only to be tackled from behind by one of her water Rainbow Dash’s, the two crashing into the ground and almost merging into each other before both of them popped and lost their forms completely.
Backing up from the battle, Applejack grimaced slightly. “Some of this is getting a little weird.”
No longer satisfied just watching the pegasi fight, Green Field started shooting out beams of fire, trying to blast Applejack’s constructs out of the sky. Applejack frowned and created several huge spheres of water and threw them up into the air, having them intercept whatever blasts from Green Field they could.
The two constantly tried to outmaneuver the other, Green Field shooting up bolts and balls of fire to destroy Applejack’s spheres and Rainbow Dash’s while Applejack used her spheres to soak up and block any attack. Green Field created a short wave of fire at her hooves and shot it out at Applejack to try and distract her, it stayed close to the ground and moved quickly but Applejack hardly needed to give it any thought to counter it. She simply let water rush from her hooves to create a wall in front of her that intercepted the wave of fire, causing both to explode as they collided.
Now Green Field was really fed up with this back and forth. She let out a roar and gathered a massive pillar of flames in front of her. It started spinning around fiercely, forming a fire tornado, She sent it forward and right into the fighting pegasi and spheres of water. Her own fire pegasi were swept away and consumed by the tornado while Applejack’s spheres and watery Rainbow Dash’s were blown apart. Frowning, Applejack decided to respond in kind and created a maelstrom in front of her that kept growing up and up until it matched Green Field’s fire tornado in size.
The two tornadoes clashed. Fire and water digging into each other, the incredible spinning making their exteriors more like giant elemental buzzsaws than anything. Steam perpetually shot out from where the two met but neither tornado seemed to be growing any weaker or smaller. Green Field and Applejack were both able to control them perfectly, Green Field pulled hers back slightly to be able to smash it back into Applejack’s with more force, but Applejack had hers slide out of the way to make Green Field have to keep chasing after her tornado. Even Applejack was surprised by how fast they could make their tornadoes glide over the ground.
Again though it was just a stalemate, the two tornadoes clashed again and again with Applejack and Green Field controlling them from a distance, neither pony giving up any ground.
Applejack couldn’t see Green Field smirk but she did see the two huge arms of fire that suddenly grew out of her tornado. They latched onto the water tornado and tore it in half as Applejack watched on.
“I need to get more creative.” Applejack summoned another wall of water in front of herself while Green Field’s fire tornado buzzed towards her. Instead of creating another tornado or something Applejack let the wall crash down and spread out across the ground in front of her, creating a large pool several feet deep that the fire tornado would have to go through.
Green Field obviously didn’t see it as a threat and had her armed-tornado blaze right through Applejack’s pool. Now it was Applejack’s turn to smirk as the pool quickly began to rotate when the fire tornado was halfway through, becoming a huge whirlpool that caught Green Field’s tornado right in the middle.
“Now watch this!” Applejack raised her hooves and the whirlpool turned into a huge set of crocodile jaws, each jaw easily a hundred feet long. She clapped her hooves together and the jaws snapped shut on the fire tornado, extinguishing it completely. Letting go of her hooves the water fell like a geyser back over the ground, blanketing both Applejack and Green Field in a steady mist.
Each droplet sizzled and evaporated on Green Field’s flaming body as she angrily stared at Applejack.
Raising a hoof of her own, Green Field created a fireball over her head. It kept expanding until it was easily the size of a house. Applejack waited for Green Field to throw it at her but it never came, instead the fire pony launched it into the sky where it disappeared inside the smoky clouds that were hanging over them.
Not done yet Green Field shot out two streams of fire from her sides. They went out a long ways and then curved inwards, meeting together behind Applejack’s back to form a huge ring of fire around the two ponies. Green Field started chuckling at Applejack as she walked towards her, forming a lance of fire above her head.
Applejack wasn’t just going to sit around anymore so she also formed a huge ball of water over her head to defend against whatever Green Field might throw at her. More water also seeped out of her hooves and formed a wave under Applejack that she could ride and move around speedily on. She was preparing herself for anything.
And then it began to rain.
Dozens of fireballs fell from the sky towards Applejack and Green Field, completely random and indiscriminate, they started striking everywhere in the ring of fire Green Field made. Applejack gritted her teeth and started dodging all that she could with her wave. One fireball hit the ground right in front of her, making a smoking crater and forcing Applejack to change directions, putting her right in the path of another one. She moved the water ball she was holding over her head to catch it but the fireball completely destroyed it when it hit. The blast knocked Applejack off her wave and onto the ground where more meteors continued to hit around her.
Green Field laughed and threw the fire lance she had right at Applejack. Applejack’s quick reflexes allowed her to fire out a jet of water from her hoof at the lance to stop it but this momentary distraction from Green Field opened her up to being hit from a falling fireball. The explosion enveloped Applejack and made a huge smoking crater in the ground.
Green Field looked on in glee and hopped towards the crater, hoping her opponent was obliterated. But as the smoke cleared her face fell. Applejack’s hat was sitting inside a ball of water protected from any harm while Applejack’s body seemingly reconstituted itself out of thin air, the water collecting and reforming her in perfect condition.
“Wooh, that felt weird.” Applejack said as she shook her watery body, calling over the ball with her hat and pulling it out, placing it back on top of her head where it belonged.
“Stay down!” Green Field’s eyes were filled with rage and she blasted a huge rolling wave of fire at Applejack. The billowing flames would’ve been strong enough to obliterate anything in their path.
“You stay down!” Applejack fired her own blast of highly pressurized water at the wave of fire, breaking right through the center of it to hit Green Field in the face.
The water blew away the whole upper part of her body so all that was standing there were four flickering legs. But just like with Applejack the flames grew and morphed back into Green Field’s original form and she was no worse for wear. Green Field’s body erupted in even more intense fire as she let out an animalistic yell and charged at Applejack, raising a hoof and creating a huge sword of fire that she could control with it.
Applejack couldn’t say she fancied swords or anything but a prior use of her water came to mind. She called forth more water to gather in front of her and created another set of snapping crocodile jaws. Much smaller than the ones she used to eat the tornado but still big enough to match Green Field’s new sword.
As Green Field swung her sword Applejack reached her jaws forward and clamped down on it. The two now struggling to overpower the other. Green Field trying to destroy and cut through the jaws while Applejack tried to wrench the sword out of her power and extinguish it. Green Field growled and created a second sword free to stab at Applejack, but Applejack herself pulled up a wall of water and turned it into a round shield to block it.
Again and again fire sword hit water shield, steam and sparks of fire flying off with every hit. Green Field opened up her mouth to breath out a wave of fire to cover Applejack and blow away all their weapons but Applejack made water spout from her hooves, sending her up into the air to avoid the fire.
Hanging in the air now Applejack made a ball of water under herself to fly on. Creating another serpent from her hoof she sent it down to attack Green Field.
Green Field scoffed and created three fire snakes of her own. The first locked jaws with Applejack’’s water serpent while the other two tore into its body and pulled it apart. Together the three fire snakes then went after Applejack. Applejack created three more of her own serpents to match, the six constructs now brawling with each other like real snakes that decided to get into a fight. Snapping jaws, biting at and coiling around each other. It was a mess of fire and water as the snakes practically all melted together in a big ball of writhing heads and tails.
Green Field tired of this and shot more flames of her own towards the fighting serpents. The fire merged her snakes together and swallowed up Applejack’s water serpents. The fire now grew and grew and changed into a gigantic fire dragon that flew towards Applejack.
Not to be outdone Applejack kept bringing forth a massive amount of water and formed it into a giant watery Alicorn. The constructs slammed into each other, beating their wings together and creating whirlwinds that blew throughout the forest. The Alicorn’s horn pierced the dragon while the dragon’s jaws clamped down on the Alicorn’s shoulder. Applejack directed its hooves into the dragons stomach while Green Field had the dragons powerful fists pummel the back of Applejack’s Alicorn.
Both ponies made their constructs fly backwards, putting some space between them. Green Field’s dragon opened up its mouth, fire began to gather in its maw. Applejack’s Alicorn pointed its horn at the dragon and a powerful vortex of water began to form at the tip.
With a thunderous cry both dragon and Alicorn let loose their attacks.
The blasts of fire and water met in the sky, exploding with enough force to blow away the smoke clouds and flatten the nearby trees on the ground. Alicorn of water and dragon of fire were both caught up in and obliterated by the explosion.
Applejack was slammed to the ground by the shockwave, momentarily becoming a puddle before snapping back to pony shape. Green Field was similarly flattened by the pressure, looking like a fire lit on the ground before forming back into a pony.
Green Field looked at Applejack while gnashing her teeth in anger. Applejack for her part was just scowling at the devastation to everything around them their fight had caused.
Seeing her opponent not paying attention Green Field ran in with a fireball over her head and threw it towards Applejack. Applejack barely even glanced Green Field’s direction before just lazily bringing up a wall of water to block the fireball. Eyes still full of wrath, Green Field conjured more fireballs, throwing them into Applejack’s water defenses over and over, just trying to wear her down and destroy her.
Applejack finally did return her attention fully to Green Field, seeing the maddened mare with her mane and tail burning, her eyes dripping those burning tears to the ground as she threw more and more fire at her opponent. Applejack created a bigger shield of water around herself to block the constant blasts of fire, Green Field seemed to be at her wit’s end, not even trying for anything fancy anymore and just endlessly buffeting Applejack’s shield with her fireballs.
“Give up! Give up and let me get my revenge!” Green Field yelled between blasts of fire, each sentence punctuated by a renewed volley. “I need to make them pay! I need to get justice for my family! My friends! Everypony!” Applejack could hear how hoarse her yelling was becoming. “I can’t rest until these ponies pay for letting it happen! I can’t! Do you have any idea how much it hurts?! Do you know what it was like to have them all refuse to help and then see them go back to laughing and living their normal lives while my family… my family...” Green Field’s assault stopped for a moment.
Applejack let her water splash to the ground as she looked at the fire pony with pity and sympathy, she didn’t know exactly how Green Field felt, but she had felt that same kind of loss too in the past. Applejack locked eyes with her, both of them filled with sadness.
“You...” Green Field said to her. “You should just get out my way!” Green Field’s anger rose again and she created another huge fireball over her head.
Applejack looked up at it. There was a lot she could do to stop it and resume their fight. But she didn’t want to do anything like that, not anymore. Instead she reached a hoof to her chest and closed her eyes.
Sighing deeply she concentrated and a bright light came forth from her. It temporarily blinded Green Field and made her turn away, when she looked back Applejack was back to her normal orange self, regular pony body and all, holding the Heart of Water in her hoof.
Green Field scowled at her in confusion, taking a step back in case this was some sort of trick. When Applejack didn’t move she slowly started to grin and stood up proud. “H-Hah! So you’ve given up finally? Finally realize it was pointless and that I’d never stop my revenge?” She pointed her hoof up and brought the fireball closer to Applejack. “Well good, now I can end this!”
“I haven’t given up.” Applejack said, looking straight into Green Field’s eyes, not worried about the fireball practically right over her head. “But I’m done fighting. I want to talk to you.”
“Talk? You want to talk?!” Green Field brought her fireball down lower to the point where it was making Applejack sweat. The licks of flame could almost reach her head. “There’s nothing more to talk about! You know what happened, you know why I’m doing this!”
Applejack didn’t flinch and continued to look at Green Field. “I heard from others about what happened. There’s a big difference between that and hearing it from you. I don’t think we need to fight anymore. Just talk to me.”
“You stupid little pony!” The fireball flickered and expanded, sparks flying to the ground. “After everything I’ve done to you you think you can still just talk to me?” Green Field shook in anger where she stood, staring down Applejack.
“Yes.” Applejack replied. “Cause when I look at you, when I listen to you, I don’t see some evil pony or monster destroying things for their own amusement or for some other selfish reason. All I see is a sad, upset pony lashing out.” Applejack dropped the Heart of Water to the ground and reached her hoof forward in a placating gesture. “Please. Talk to me. Tell me what happened, tell me how you feel inside.”
Green Field glared down at Applejack, if it wasn’t for her current fiery state her eyes would be bloodshot and her forehead creased in fury.
“Fine! You want to hear about it so bad? Hear about what I went through! Then fine!” The fireball she was hovering over Applejack’s head fizzled away and Green Field walked closer to her till they were only a few steps away from each other. “Do you know how normal my life was?” Green Field gestured to her head of lettuce Cutie Mark with a morose look on her face. “It was just a farm like any other...”
The brown filly with her chestnut mane and tail woke up at the first crack of dawn. Yawning wide she tossed off her sheets and hopped out of bed, smiling even wider as she opened up her curtains and looked out at the beautiful morning and bright sun outside.
“Good morning, world!”
Rows upon rows of lettuce spread out from the farmhouse, the leafy greens wet with morning dew and glistening in the sunlight. To Green Field there was no sight more pleasing. Wiping the last vestiges of sleep from her eyes she reached over to her nightstand to grab her sun hat. Right where she left it last night, always making sure everything was in place the night before for the next day of work.
Putting it on and tying the bow under her chin to make sure it stayed in place she opened up her door and merrily trotted out of her room.
She could hear her older brothers stirring in their room and she smirked to herself. She was always quicker to get up and get ready than them. As she walked down the hallway the pleasant smell of soup wafted to her nose, her mother had probably been up a good hour already now to prepare breakfast and everything for the rest of the family. Green Field pushed open the swinging door and walked into the kitchen to see her father sitting at the table spreading butter on a piece of toast while her mother stirred a large pot of soup.
Taking in a whiff of the air, Green Field sighed contentedly. What a great way to start the morning.
She walked over to the table to sit down next to her father, who silently nodded to her in acknowledgment. Green Field smiled back while her mother looked over her shoulder to give her daughter a small smile of her own. Taking a piece of toast from the plate in the center of the table the young filly started chowing down on it. Not bothering with any butter like her father.
“Could you tell if your brothers were awake yet?” Her father absentmindedly asked her, eyes still fixed on his toast.
“Yes sir, I heard them moving around in there.” She beamed proudly knowing that her parents knew she was ready well before her brothers.
“That’s good, it’s gonna be a long day in the field today.” Her father replied, taking a single bite out of his toast.
Green Field’s mother finished up with her soup and blew out the fire in the stove. Hefting the large pot with her potholders she brought it to the counter and began to use a big ladle to serve its delicious contents into five bowls.
A morning as same and as perfect as any other.
The familiar squeak of the swinging door being pushed open announced her brothers arrivals. The twin brothers with their identical gray coats but dark red manes and tails, they even styled their manes into the same bowl cut. It was weird looking. Even as their little sister she could never tell them apart without looking at their Cutie Marks. Her brother Leaf and his wagon Cutie Mark and her other brother Root and his hoe Cutie Mark.
The two of them wordlessly dragged their hooves over to the table and took their seats while their mother put the bowls of soup in front of everypony. The soup was thick and hearty, it needed to be to last them all through their hard labor every morning in season. Green Field’s mother took her own seat and started to drink up too, her portion was notably smaller than any of the others. It was a quiet breakfast as always, the noise made from the farm ponies slurping up soup the only sound in the kitchen. Talking could come later, after their work was done. But until then, from sunrise to sunset, it was all business at the family farm.
Green Field was the first to finish her soup, she sat patiently waiting for her father and brothers to finish so they could get started on harvesting today. Her first major harvest since getting her Cutie Mark. It was starting to become difficult to contain her excitement, she’d been waiting for this for forever. She knew a farmer needed patience but she wished everypony else would hurry up!
Finally after what seemed like an eternity her brothers and father put down their spoons. Bowls as dry as a bone.
“Alright, up and at em. We’ve got a lot of work to do.” Her father pushed out his chair and stood up, leading the way for Green Field, Leaf and Root to follow him outside.
The sun’s bright rays beat down on Green Field and her family as they walked to the endless rows of lettuce. She was pretty thankful for her hat right now and would become even more thankful later in the day when the sun was high and the last little bits of morning chill were gone for good.
The tools and boxes for the lettuce had been set up the night before, now it was time to dig the heads out and get them ready for delivery.
A long repetitive process that took up Green Field’s whole day. She saw the sun moving through the sky as she went up and down each row with her family. Sweat was dripping from her brow despite the hat and she was getting sore all over.
And she loved it.
Smiling the whole time as she got the heads of lettuce and packaged them carefully, what was there to not like? She liked to think of all the other ponies who ate their lettuce, how much her family provided for the ponies around. She took pride in her work, she liked the tough labor, her father made sure to instill good hardworking values in them all. It was a simple life. An exhausting life. But she wouldn’t change it for anything.
The next day she walked down the road from her farm with her brother Leaf, he was pulling a wagon loaded with boxes of lettuce that they would deliver to the other farms around here. Her father and Root meanwhile took another wagon and delivered lettuce to various other towns and ponies in the valley. Green Field from here could see their destination coming up, the wheat farm adjacent to her family’s own. She’d been eating bread made from this farm’s wheat all her life.
She trotted ahead of her brother, but not far enough to leave him behind, she was just excited to get there and deliver the lettuce she harvested personally. The rolling wheat fields swayed in the slight breeze, she had ran through them many times before while playing with friends.
The road took them right in front of the spotlessly painted white house. Mr. Dough was already waiting for them, waving cheerfully. Green Field and Leaf both happily waved back. Mr. Dough was one of the nicest ponies Green Field knew, one time he had taken her and some of the other kids around to the mill so they could see how wheat became dough. After that they had all come back to his farm and his wife made fresh bread for them all, it was just about the most delicious thing she had ever eaten.
“Well how are two of my favorite ponies around doing?” He cheerfully greeted them with as Leaf pulled the wagon to a stop and Green Field happily ran over.
“Great! Yesterday we got through everything!” Green Field smiled up at him, boasting of her accomplishment while Leaf just smiled lightly and nodded. “I packed your box of lettuce myself.” She gestured back at the wagon with her hoof before running to it and hopping on the back, wrapping her hooves around one of the boxes on top and hopping back off.
Only slightly struggling with the weight and size of the box.
Green Field put it on her back and carried it over to Mr. Dough. Hooves trembling only slightly.
“Easy there now, don’t want to hurt yourself.” He picked the box up from her back and winked at her. "Thanks a lot though, I can’t wait to have a salad with the best lettuce in the whole wide world.”
Green Field blushed and rubbed the back of her head embarrassedly. “Aw, you don’t need to go that far.”
Leaf just rolled his eyes. “Come on squirt, there’s more deliveries to make.”
“Now hold on a second you two.” Mr. Dough said to them, grabbing their attention. “Come on inside for a minute, I got a special treat that you’ll love.”
“I really appreciate the offer Mr. Dough but we should really stick to our deliveries, and we couldn’t possibly intrude on you either.” Leaf smiled good-naturedly while shaking his head at Mr. Dough’s offer. Green Field pouted but knew that Leaf had a point.
“That’s real good of you kids.” Mr. Dough closed his eyes and nodded appreciatively. “But are you really telling me you’re gonna turn down some pear pie?” With a grin he opened his eyes a sliver at the two of them.
Both of the lettuce farming ponies jaws dropped.
“Did you say pear pie?” Leaf asked, as if he couldn’t believe his ears.
“That’s right. Won it in a card game last night at Wellpeak. Brought it back for the family but figured it’d be good to share with my favorite neighbors too.”
“We, we can’t accept that.” Leaf shook his head, he really wanted a piece of pear pie but it was such a rare delicacy that it just wouldn’t sit right with him to take some from Mr. Dough.
Green Field wasn’t paying attention to her brother at all though, she just stood there with her mouth watering and eyes sparkling at the opportunity to have pear pie.
Mr. Dough chuckled at Leaf’s unwillingness to impose. “Please, I’m going to be sending over slices of it to your father even if you say no now. Come on inside.” He turned and carried the box of lettuce into his house, beckoning Leaf and Green Field to come in after him.
Leaf looked down at his little sister to see what she thought.
The only response was an eagerly nodding filly with drool dripping out of her mouth. Leaf sighed and began walking in after Mr. Dough, Green Field quickly speeding past him.
Through the hallway and sitting room and straight into the kitchen, Mr. Dough put the box of lettuces down on the kitchen table, cracking his back he smiled to Leaf and Green Field before walking over to the stove.
And there it was. Green Field could see it sitting there over the stove. A perfectly made pear pie. The lightly browned and flaky crust coming over the pan, the smallest trace of its aroma still drifting off it. It would’ve been big enough to feed their family even without having dinner first, it looked amazing. Mr. Dough reached into a drawer by the stove and pulled out a knife, he grabbed the pie off the stove and carried it into his family’s dining room, Leaf and Green Field mesmerized by it and following closely behind.
“Ten slices will be just about perfect.” Mr. Dough said as he carefully placed it on his dining room table.
“Ten?” Leaf asked. His own family had five members but he knew that Mr. Dough and his wife only had one colt.
“I’ll be giving two to Hoofshot, he can bring one home to his daughter.”
Leaf nodded, Hoofshot was the farmhoof who worked in Mr. Dough’s field. Without him there’d just be too much wheat for Mr. Dough’s family to get through.
“Um, where’s Golden by the way?” Green Field asked Mr. Dough, thoughts momentarily taken off the pear pie on the table.
Leaf glanced at her and saw the faintest bit of blush on her cheeks as she asked about Mr. Dough’s son. He rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath. “Fillies...”
“Oh he’s cleaning things up out back at the moment, I’ll slice this pie up and holler at him to come in so you can all eat together. Me and the missus can have our pie later tonight.” Mr. Dough did exactly as he said. The moment the knife cut into the criss-crossing crust on top the smell of baked pears started to fill the room, Green Field and Leaf breathed in deep through their noses to savor it. A few perfect slices divided the pie into ten pieces, Mr. Dough told them to hold on for a second while he went to fetch his son.
Green Field’s tail was swishing around in anticipation. Pear pie and getting to spend some time around her crush? Could this day get any better?!
Mr. Dough came back in through the back door with his son in tow. Golden had a bright yellow mane and tail with a stark white coat and big, droopy, puppy-dog eyes. Green Field blushed a little when he walked in and waved nervously. Just barely squeaking out a “Hi” to him when he sat down next to her.
“You kids enjoy now.” Mr. Dough said as he brought out three plates from the kitchen and put a slice of pear pie on each. Then he headed out back, maybe to finish the work he had taken Golden from.
“Well, ready to eat?” Golden asked the two of the them. He was looking forward to the pie just as much.
Green Field nodded frantically while Leaf was a bit more reserved.
Picking up forks they all dug in together.
“It’s. So. Good.” Green Field said before even swallowing her first bite, forgetting completely about her manners.
The three ponies ate the rest of their pie in relative silence. It was simply too good and too special to break their meal up with talk. Green Field had never had anything like it, the pears, the crust, it was all so perfect. Even Leaf was silently savoring every last morsel of flavor. The taste made her want to scarf it all down as quickly as possible, but what a waste that would’ve been, instead she slowed herself down. Eating far slower than she ever thought she could just so she could have this slice of pear pie for as long as possible.
Golden finished his and licked his lips clean, rubbing his belly happily. “That was amazing.”
Green Field and Leaf both finished up soon after, Green Field holding her face in her hooves as she let the flavor sit in her mouth, a completely blissful expression on her face.
“Yeah...” She managed to get out, still on cloud nine from the delicious pear pie.
Leaf stood up from the table and wiped off his face. “I really can’t thank your father enough for the pie but the two of us also have to get back to our deliveries.” He nodded at Green Field who just groaned and got out of her chair too. “Thank you for the hospitality, Golden.”
“Was no bother to us at all.” Golden smiled at the two of them, causing Green Field to blush.
Leaf led his lettuce farming sister out of the house and back to their wagon. She was absolutely ecstatic at how the day had gone, she was sure she’d have a big goofy grin on her face till she went to sleep. Leaf was strapping himself back onto the wagon when Golden came out, looking like he was holding something behind his back.
“Hey hold on a second!” He said, looking to Green Field.
She perked up in pleasant surprise and trotted over to him. “What is it?”
Golden chewed on his lip for a second before glancing to Leaf.
Seeming to get what he was asking Leaf rolled his eyes and started walking away to give the two of them some privacy.
“So, I was really happy to see you today.” Golden said to her. “I was glad my dad called me inside.”
“Oh… oh.” Green Field’s eyes went wide and she started blushing harder than before.
“Uh, I mean… I know you have to get back to work but I just really wanted to talk to you.” Golden was starting to get a blush too under his droopy eyes.
“W-Well, I’m glad you did. I always like talking to you too.” Green Field awkwardly shuffled her hooves.
“Yeah, known you for a real long time now.”
“Mhm...”
There was a pause in the conversation as both of them were a little too nervous to continue. But it only took a second longer for Green Field to realize that Golden was hiding something from her.
“Hey, what are you holding onto?”
“Oh!” He jumped a little, startled. “Well, uh, nothing really.” He nervously pulled out his hoof, showing the daisy he was holding to her. “I just, uh… picked it earlier and thought you might like it.”
Green Field’s mouth opened but no words came out, instead her face just lit up and she tenderly took the daisy from his hoof. “T-Thanks. I really like it.” She sputtered, trying to not act embarrassed and failing miserably. “I-It’s a really nice gift...”
Golden gulped. “Thank you.” His blushing had almost gotten as bad as hers. “So, I said I was happy to see you today… I’d be happier if I could see you even more. If you want.” As Green Field looked at him in shock he kept trying to look everywhere but into her eyes.
“I’d like to see you even more too.” Green Field answered him, heart beating out of control in her chest.
Golden finally looked back at her and smiled wide. “You know I’ve been wanting to ask that for a long time.”
“I’ve been wanting to hear it for a long time.”
Green Field took a step forward, if Golden took one too they’d be close enough to…
The years passed by.
Not in so much of a flash, farm work was difficult and the family was always busy. But time went on as it always did. And once a precocious filly, Green Field had now become a young mare. Her father had more lines under his eyes than he used to and he wasn’t as fast when working but every morning he still got up to tend to the fields just the same. Whenever Green Field wasn’t helping around the family farm she was spending her time with Golden. In short, life was good.
It was late now as she pulled her family’s wagon back to the farm. She’d been strong enough for a while now to take it with her and make deliveries throughout the valley all on her own. The sun was setting right in front of her, casting an orange glow across the top of the cornstalks she walked past. Soon she’d be home and she could make some time for Golden.
Green Field’s ears perked up as she heard something from up ahead. At first she thought it might have been the yelping from some over-active kids playing around, but when she listened harder and heard it again it just sounded like screaming. Green Field furrowed her brow as she kept walking with her wagon, slightly picking up the pace at the worrying noise.
As she got closer she noticed that the orange glow over the fields wasn’t just from the sun, something was burning, she could see the smoke rising in the sky now.
“Fire?! Oh no.” Green Field unlatched herself from the wagon and started running, from where she was it looked like the fire was at Ms. Spring’s watermelon patch.
She got off the path and made a shortcut through the cornfield. It didn't take long for her to make her way through it but as she did the sounds of screaming and panic kept growing louder. It sounded like something else was going on besides just a fire, there was too much noise.
Finally Green Field passed through the last row of corn.
“What is this?” She quietly said as she looked on in horror.
Ponies she recognized, her neighbors and friends, ran throughout the farms in chaos, being chased by mean and rough looking ponies that Green Field had never seen before. Ms. Spring’s house was on fire and so were several others. Absentmindedly looking in the direction of her home, Green Field could see smoke rising from that direction too.
She saw one of her old friends, Parsnips, lying on the ground with a bruise on her head only a few feet away from her. At Ms. Spring’s watermelon patch several of the mean looking ponies were loading up all the watermelon’s they could carry onto a wagon while Ms. Spring was tied up on the ground. Luckily nopony else had seen her yet.
I have to get home.
With all the chaos that was going on Green Field hoped that none of the attackers would notice her as she ran from farm to farm. Hopefully they’d be too busy plundering stuff right now to give some random farm pony any notice.
She was getting closer, running through the tall wheat of Golden’s farm but for once not thinking about him, just trying to make sure her family was okay. She could see her house past the wheat and rows of lettuce now, smoke was billowing out of its windows-
“Get down!”
Green Field found herself pushed to the ground in the wheat field, she tried to scream but a hoof covered her mouth and a familiar voice whispered in her ear.
“Shh! Be quiet.” Golden said to her as he had them lying in the dirt, the stalks of wheat high enough that nopony could see them if they were walking on level ground with them. “We can’t do anything right now, just stay low and don’t make a peep.”
Green Field started to cry as the realization of her own helplessness kicked in. But Golden was right, what could she do? Every time the wheat in front of her waved with the wind she could make out details of what was happening at her farm. Unfamiliar ponies were stealing her family’s lettuce, they were burning down the house she lived in, they were taking any valuables they saw and loading them up in their saddlebags. She saw her brothers beaten up and tied together, helplessly forced to watch as it all happened. Where were her parents? Were they okay? What about Golden’s parents?
“They came from the plains to the west.” Golden began to whisper to her, probably to keep her from dwelling on anything. “They just started running through all the farms, taking whatever they felt like and attacking anypony that tried to stop them. We can’t fight back anymore, there’s too many of them and they’re vicious. They started setting fires a little bit ago. My dad tried to stand up to their leader and just got a face full of dirt for his trouble. We need to hide for now, it’ll be okay, I promise.”
Green Field nodded, her tears still running down her face and onto his hoof. She trusted him. Things would be okay.
It was hours longer still that they stayed there, until the sounds of evil ponies were gone completely and the screaming had died down. Then they got up and helped put out the fires that were left, Green Field ran to her family to see that they were okay, Golden as well made sure his mom and dad were alright too. There was no time for sleeping that night, even past midnight all the ponies that were in good enough condition gathered at the center of the farms to talk about what happened and what they should do next.
Green Field’s father was among them, he and her mother were having dinner at a neighbor’s when the attackers came. Now Green Field stood with him and Golden among the rest of the disturbed and frightened farmers.
“What do we do?! They told Dough they’d come back and do even worse to us next time!” Ms. Spring shouted at the assembly of ponies, quivering in fear.
“What can we do? We can’t fight.” One of Green Field’s old friends, Bean Sprout spoke up. “Do we just run away?”
“Run from our homes? To where? What would we even do after that?” An older stallion balked at that suggestion. “These farms are our home, we can’t abandon them.”
“Maybe we can get help?” Green Field’s father said. “From one of the other towns like Wellpeak or Slick Rock. Maybe we could even ask the Spirit Shrine.”
There were some mumbles of agreement at that but a lot of ponies were still worried. They had no idea when they might be attacked again. It would take a while for anypony to get to all the various villages in the valley, and especially to get to the Spirit Shrine and back. They stood under the moonlight debating what they should do, so many would still be needed to fix things in the morning and get the farms back and running again. With everything that was stolen and destroyed there might be a food shortage for a while too.
They argued more and more with each other and nothing was getting done. Green Field looked between them all as her temper flared, why were they arguing now of all times? Action needed to be taken no matter what it was.
“Everypony just be quiet!” She finally exploded and shouted out at the gathered ponies. Her father and Golden both dumbly looked down at her.
Green Field stared down the rest of her neighbors and friends. “I’m going to get help. Everypony else here can fix things up and prepare for when those ponies might come back. Make a place to hide or find some way to defend the farms or something.” Green Field’s face softened a bit. “But I promise I’ll be back with help. Even if I have to visit every last little dive in the valley. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
Green Field finished up and turned to run off, even though it was the middle of the night she wasn’t wasting any time. Golden came running after her.
“Hold up! I’m coming too!”
“No, you need to help your parents. I’ll be fine, just help out here and wait for me.” She smiled at him. “It’ll be alright.”
Golden was upset but nodded. “Okay. I’ll handle things here.”
Green Field didn’t say anything more to him, just picked up her pace and ran in the direction of the nearest town. She would save everypony.
But it was the same everywhere.
We’re afraid. We don’t want to get involved. There’s nothing we can do. Sorry. Nopony would help them. It was the same everywhere. Even the Spirit Shrine wouldn’t use its magic to help and protect the farms. Green Field accomplished nothing.
Why? How? How could they just ignore them and keep on going about their daily lives? How could they just have fun, laughing and playing with their friends and families while everypony important to Green Field was in danger. So many of these ponies even knew the farm ponies. Why wouldn’t they help? How could they say it wasn’t their problem? Why did even the benevolent ponies of the Spirit Shrine refuse to lift a single hoof to help?
Why was this happening to her?
She ran back to the farms, ran with all her might, even if she couldn’t find any help she could still be there herself to defend her home and the homes of those important to her. Green Field was past the point of exhaustion but she still didn’t stop, her spirit was stronger than her body.
But when she got closer she saw that same orange glow from before.
And she saw the same smoke rising into the sky as before.
There was something missing this time though. There weren’t any screams. None even from Green Field as she walked through her destroyed world. Only silent tears fell from her eyes to the ground as she stood amongst the flames, and her heart turned to fire inside of her.
“And you know the rest. There isn’t anything more to say.”
Those tears of fire kept flowing from her eyes as Green Field finished telling her story to Applejack. Applejack for her part also had misty eyes. The two ponies stood there for a few silent moments, Green Field taking a breather to clear her head and Applejack just giving her the time she needed.
Closing her eyes for a second, Green Field took a deep breath and exhaled. Opening them again she stared long and hard at Applejack. “Alright, that’s it. Time for me to finish things here.” She raised her hoof again and fire began to gather above it.
Applejack just looked on with sympathy and pity.
“Why?”
Green Field’s eyes narrowed. “Why what?”
“Why do you have to keep doing this? Can’t you just stop?”
“You know why!” Green Field angrily replied. “How can I stop and do nothing after that? It isn’t right, it’s not fair!” She lowered her hoof and pointed it at Applejack. “All of those ponies who refused to help us are getting what they deserve. My family, everypony, can’t rest in peace until it’s over.”
“Do you really think that?” Applejack said sadly. “Are they going to want to see you doing just what those other ponies did to them?”
A fire ball shot past her face as Green Field stomped forward, burning face an inch from Applejack, causing her to break out in sweat from the sudden heat.
“Shut up! You think I’m like those monsters?! I’m getting the revenge and justice I deserve!”
Applejack stood her ground. “No. You’re hurting others who don’t deserve it. What you’re doing isn’t right.”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Green Field shook her head and stamped her hooves on the ground, flames burning where she stood. “I have to!”
“But has anything you’ve done made you happy? Has it helped at all?”
Green Field stood still, head hung low. It seemed like nearly an eternity before she responded. “No.” She whispered almost too low for Applejack to hear. “It still hurts, everything just keeps hurting worse and worse.” She trembled as she couldn’t meet Applejack’s gaze, tears falling to the ground and sizzling.
“That’s because you aren’t doing what’s good. Instead of dealing with what happened you’re lashing out and spreading the pain and hurt to everypony.” Applejack consoled her, she even tentatively placed a hoof on Green Field’s shoulder, correct that it wouldn’t burn her this time. “Now tell me, honestly, do you think your parents, and Golden, and everypony else would want you to do this?”
Green Field shook. She raised her head to look at Applejack, tears flowing freely.
“No.”
Applejack smiled. “Is it really so hard to stop and make things right?”
Green Field’s mouth twitched, opening and closing a few times before she found her words. “But I don’t have anything left.”
Applejack’s smile took on a hint of sadness. “I felt that same way once.” Green Field looked at her in confusion, and maybe a bit of hope. “I’m not going to say I know exactly how you’re feeling, but when I was younger I lost my parents. I know what it’s like to lose the ponies important to you, that emptiness, that sadness that feels like it aint ever gonna go away. I was so upset for the longest time, and yes, seeing other kids with their parents made me jealous and even a little angry too. And if we’re being honest, I think if I was in your situation that I’d probably do the same thing you did.” Applejack’s smile turned into a knowing frown. “But that doesn’t make it right.”
Green Field started to choke up a bit, whimpering, she responded to Applejack. “But it’s not fair.”
“I know it’s not. But doing all this-” Applejack gestured to the burnt and destroyed forest around them. “Isn’t going to help make you feel better. It took time, but I filled that emptiness up inside me with the love from others. My brother, my little sister, my grandma and my friends.”
“But I don’t have anypony like that anymore.” Green Field scowled, a flash of anger returning to her eyes.
“Oh yes you do.” Applejack grabbed her by the shoulders and stared right into her eyes, still unafraid of the possibility of being burned. “Me. I can give you my love and understanding to help you now.” She smiled and released Green Field, taking a step back and extending a hoof out in friendship. “What do you say?”
Green Field’s composure broke, her anger disappearing as her whole body was wracked with sobs. Tears, of water, fell to the ground as she hiccuped and looked on at Applejack, she was barely able to force out a nod with how overcome she was.
“Yes!” The cry was that of a mewling dog that had just been adopted. A flash of bright light came from her body that momentarily blinded Applejack.
When the spots were gone from her eyes she saw Green Field for the first time.
That brown farmer with a frizzy chestnut mane and head of lettuce cutie mark. Rivers of tears pouring from her eyes and the Heart of Fire lying on the ground in front of her.
Applejack smiled, as soon as she did Green Field leaped forward and put her arms around Applejack’s neck. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m, so, so sorry!” She cried and wailed into Applejack’s shoulder.
“Hey, it’s alright, just let it all out.” Applejack hugged her tight and started rubbing her back to calm her down. “It’s okay, you’re okay.”
It was later in the day but the two farmers were now standing inside the sacred garden, the shrine ponies standing around them, smiling at the two. Temperance was especially proud and happy to see Applejack and Green Field back and okay.
Applejack reached up under her hat and pulled out the Hearts of Fire and Water, giving them back to Temperance who levitated them back into the chest where they belonged.
“I, we, truly can not thank you enough for this, Applejack.” She said to her, bowing her head along with the other shrine ponies.
“Aw shucks, you really don’t need to do anything like that.” Applejack blushed in embarrassment and rubbed the back of her head.
Green Field meanwhile was standing next to her, staring at the ground. She felt guilty being here after stealing the Heart of Fire, upset at what she had done with it, and still dealing with all of her jumbled emotions after everything. She didn’t even notice as Temperance walked up to her.
“Green Field, please, raise your head.”
She just shook her head and closed her eyes, she didn’t want to have to look at any of them. “I shouldn’t be here.”
She felt a gentle hoof at her chin, raising it up so she and Temperance could see each other face to face.
“Everything’s okay now.” Temperance smiled at her. “You don’t need to feel guilty, we all made mistakes.”
Green Field sniffled and started to cry again. “I’m sorry.”
Now Temperance shook her head. “You don’t have to apologize. It’s in the past now and you went through something horrible. We hold nothing against you.” Temperance glanced at the other shrine ponies before returning to look at Green Field. “In fact, we were going to offer you the opportunity to live here with us. If you wanted to.”
Applejack smiled while Green Field’s eyes widened in awe.
Her lip trembled for a second, she looked to Applejack, then the other shrine ponies, before finally returning to Temperance. Green Field took a step back and took a deep breath.
“I… thank you. But I can’t accept that.”
Applejack’s mouth opened in shock, she was about to step forward and say something when Temperance put her hoof in front of her.
“Why?” Temperance herself seemed a little surprised and disappointed but she wanted to listen to Green Field’s reason.
Green Field frowned as she looked between Temperance and Applejack. “This… isn’t my home. You’re all nice, and giving me more than I deserve, I’m really thankful that you would even offer that to me in the first place. But I don’t belong here. I belong back at the farms. Even with what little is left of them, I want to do what I can for my home.”
At that Applejack walked up and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “I feel ya. Just remember that you’re not alone, even if I’m not around.”
Green Field smiled and held Applejack’s hoof. “Thank you.”
“And our shrine will always be open to you as well.” Temperance told her.
Applejack and Green Field hugged, holding like that for a minute until Applejack broke it off. It was finally time for her to leave.
“Well, I’m sorry to end this so soon but I need to start heading back home again.” Applejack sheepishly said. It might’ve been better to have brought her situation up earlier. “I’m glad I met you all but I’ve been away for too long already.”
Green Field wasn’t upset like she would’ve been just a little bit ago, she instead smiled at Applejack. “Safe travels.”
Temperance smiled and nodded down at Applejack as well. “Yes, safe travels out there. I hope you can find your way home soon.” She giggled and winked at Applejack. “Try not to let that good nature of yours get you in any more trouble.”
Applejack smirked and gave her own wink to Green Field. “I think my new friend here can tell you how likely that is.”
Now well north of the valley, Applejack began her slow climb up yet another mountain. The huge rock wall still dominated the land to her east and it was apparent from what others had said that there was simply nothing west so north was the way to go for now. Wiping a bit of sweat from her brow Applejack decided to rest for a second. She turned around so she could face the direction of the valley again and took a seat, the sun almost halfway hidden behind the horizon now. The black spots in the valley were still noticeable to her, especially the recently made one from when Applejack and Green Field had just fought, but they would heal in time. The ponies who lived there were probably already fixing things.
Applejack smiled. She wouldn’t mind coming back here and visiting all the ponies she had met again either. But home was still calling to her first.
Applejack pushed her way through the dense jungle. Over gnarled roots and past thick hanging vines that tugged at and tried to tie her up if she wasn’t paying attention. Darn place was humid as anywhere too. As if the world was mocking her she saw a bunch of pineapple plants, palm trees, lemon trees, lime trees, banana plants, mango trees, just about any other fruit she could think of besides apples.
Applejack was getting real tired of this.
She thought she could hear a river somewhere through all the trees but the foliage was far too dense for her to see anything. In fact she couldn’t even tell what direction she was going in anymore, everything just blended together and there were no paths. She just had to walk over and under trees and push herself past more and more bushes.
This is getting to be a real hassle I could do without.
The sheer heat and humidity had her coat matted and wet. Trying to wipe it off got her nowhere. All she ever saw to drink while she was struggling through here were puddles of pretty gross looking standing water. Applejack wasn’t quite so desperate.
She wished she could find that river to take a big drink from it, and then dunk her whole body in, that’d be nice. Tripping and falling over numerous roots and plants had gotten her pretty dirty and sore after all. There had been a lot of little monkeys running around in the jungle that kept throwing rocks and stuff at her too. She would’ve retaliated but the voice of Fluttershy in her head made her hold back.
After using a vine to swing over a pond full of snapping crocs, Applejack thought there might be a break in the jungle up ahead. There looked to be light coming through the trees in front of her, it must’ve been a clearing or the edge of the jungle.
“Well that’s a relief.” Applejack whistled and headed forwards with renewed vigor.
She only tripped over a root twice more.
Pushing past the huge fronds of a fern, Applejack made it out of the jungle. Part of it at least. What she ended up seeing in front of her now wasn’t all what she expected. Maybe a clearing, or the start of some grasslands or something. But a wide, clearly well maintained, gravel path? No, that was unexpected.
As well as all the ponies traveling down it.
Applejack watched as dozens of ponies made their way down the gravel path, beyond the path it looked like the jungle started up again, and looking to her left she saw that the path went all the way down to a river. So she was right about there being one. There was also a large wooden building with a dock right at the river’s edge. A boathouse and marina? Applejack decided she might as well check things out, if she could get on a boat it would probably beat traveling through the jungle.
As she made her way down the path she started taking note of the other ponies. Most looked pretty rugged, wearing camping gear, carrying full packs of supplies, they seemed like explorers or adventurers of some sort. But there were also a few normal looking families just wearing big smiles and carrying bags that probably just had a lunch or something in them.
Applejack raised an eyebrow at it all, deciding to find out about things she walked over to one of the friendly looking families to say hello.
“Excuse me y’all.” Applejack asked a mother and father walking with their young filly. “I’m not from around here, can ya tell me what this all is about?”
“Oh sure!” The father responded brightly. “You look like you just walked out of the jungle, are you an explorer?”
“Uh, not exactly.”
“Well, just so you know the part of the jungle on that side of the road.” He gestured to the jungle she had come from. “Is the last safe part of the jungle to travel through in this area. Here, look at the other side.” He pointed with his hoof to the far end of the gravel road where the jungle started up again. Now that Applejack really looked at it she saw a number of signs were lined up along the jungle’s edge and a long chain belt held up by wooden posts stretched all the way down to the river and all the way back up the road as far as Applejack could see.
“What’s dangerous about that jungle?” She asked him.
“That’s called the Poison Jungle!” The little filly answered excitedly. “The trees, the plants, the animals and insects, everything in that part of the jungle is poisonous!”
“Don’t scare the miss now, princess.” Her father patted her on the head and turned his gaze back to Applejack. “But she has the truth of it, travel is impossible through there, even the air is toxic because of the humidity. Poison vapors leak out of the trees and plants.”
“Wow, well thanks for the heads up. So if ponies wanna get past all that they take a boat down the river?” Applejack guessed.
The family of three grinned back at her. “Not quite.” The father said. “You see while some ponies go down the river to get through the Poison Jungle a lot of us just raft it for fun! This station here rents out inflatable rafts to ponies and then further down the river after you pass by the Poison Jungle there’s another station where you stop off and return them. There are plenty of roads and paths leading on from there too. Rafting the river is a lot of fun, we do it every year, the rapids are exciting and there are always partiers and some islands in the middle of the river where you can stop off and grab a bite to eat. It’s great!”
“Heh, well that sure does sound like a lot of fun. I’m not much looking for recreation right now though, but I guess I do still need to get down the river. Thanks for filling me in.” Applejack smiled and started to walk with the family as they both went down to the station.
The line was a bit long but it moved constantly and Applejack eventually walked right into the building and out the back, there seemed to be all sorts of rooms and stuff but the line to get rafts and go out to the river just made a straight line through it all. There were three burly stallions passing out rafts to ponies and sending them on their way to the ends of the dock. When Applejack made her way up to one of them she quickly realized there was a problem.
“Uh, I don’t have any money to rent a raft.”
The stallion stared at her with a flat expression. “Do you not know how renting works?”
Applejack scowled. “Look, I know how renting works thank you very much, I just didn’t know where I was and I’ve been through a whole bunch of messes and I don’t got any money, okay?”
“No, not okay. No money, no raft.” He shrugged and motioned for the next pony to come over.
“Now wait just a-”
“Hold on!”
Applejack turned her head at the familiar voice that cut her off, that father from earlier was coming towards them.
“What is it?” The burly dock stallion asked him.
“I couldn’t help but overhear, here-” He gave the stallion a few pieces of what looked like copper to Applejack, they certainly weren’t bits. “I’ll pay for her raft.” He turned his head and smiled at her.
Applejack blushed in embarrassment and kicked at the ground. “I really owe you one now, thanks.” She wanted to refuse him at first but his generous smile told her that would be a fool’s errand.
“Oh it’s no problem at all.” The father said as the stallion pulled up a yellow raft sized for two ponies with a single double-ended paddle in it.
“Smallest we got. Single seaters didn’t have enough room for supplies and bags.” He hoofed it over to Applejack, who propped it up on her back.
“See you on the river!” The generous father waved goodbye to Applejack and ran back to his family, who were already getting ready to head out on their much larger raft.
Applejack was about to follow them out when the dock stallion called out to her. “Hey! It’s your first time on the river isn’t it?”
Applejack cocked an eyebrow at him. “Yeah, why?”
“Then I gotta tell you to keep to the right when the river forks. Did you read any of the signs on the way here?”
“Uhh...”
The stallion sighed. “Look, just be careful out there and try and return the raft in one piece."
Applejack grumbled and went down the dock. The waters were already pretty choppy even here and the river clearly got even rougher and faster farther downstream, she could see the white water from the rapids plainly. It probably would end up being pretty fun getting tossed around by them. She grabbed her raft and held it in her hooves, there were certainly better ways of getting into the river but for right now Applejack decided she could be a little carefree.
“Geronimo!”
She jumped into the river on top of the raft, water splashing up around her, bouncing off the top of the water and quickly being taken away by its current. Grabbing the paddle she steadied herself and started paddling to get into the middle of the river.
I may not have been looking for fun but if it just decided to come my way I aint gonna complain.
Applejack joyfully paddled her way downstream, navigating the rapids, waving to other rafters, fighting to keep her raft from being capsized by some of the bigger rapids. It was the first time in a while she’d been able to just have fun like this. She was thinking of stopping at one of those islands that father mentioned for food when she remembered that she wouldn’t be able to pay for anything. Oh well, she could grab some fruit on the other side of the jungle probably.
It was a nice day too, when she was inside the jungle the humidity was stifling but out on the water it was just pleasant to have the sun right above her in a cloudless sky. The fast rafting down the water even gave her a nice breeze.
She turned a bend in the river and came face to face with even more rapids, these ones big enough that her raft got airborne a couple of times as she was bounced around them. But Applejack held herself steady and didn’t end up taking a plunge in the river. The paddle worked really well for keeping her dry.
“Going a lot better than the class trip with Rainbow Dash so far.” She said to herself, hopefully she could erase that bad memory with this good one. And hopefully there were no Biteacuda’s in the water here.
Applejack idly wondered if the jungle on the other side of the river was poisonous too, maybe she could’ve just gone to that side in the first place. It’s not like she had any set route she was going on. But it was probably better to not chance things and just keep going down the river now until she got to that other station. The river started to curve like a snake, making for a fun ride as she had to paddle hard against the current to keep from accidentally running into the edge of the river. When that stretch ended she came out into a wider, slower, section that had a big island in the middle. There weren’t any trees on it but a lot of rafts had been pulled up to the shores and there were some small shacks built on it. Obviously a hang out for rafters to relax and get some food at in the middle of their journey.
But Applejack just sped by that, waving at the ponies on it.
The river was starting to narrow again and she could see the fork coming up. A big rock jutted out of the river at the end of a jungle covered peninsula, it made for a pretty eye-catching sight.
Doing like she was told Applejack paddled on over and went down the left side of the river. It was slightly calmer looking than the right side but still had its own fair share of rapids, but nothing she couldn’t handle at this point.
Now her journey down the river was actually just starting to get calm and relaxing. The day was turning out pretty well all in all. She met a nice family too.
Applejack was actually thinking of just laying back for a second, pulling her hat over her face, and taking a nice nap in her raft.
The sounds of splashing in the river and a pony crying for help put a stop to that though.
“Help! Help! Somepony, anypony!”
She heard it from her left and looked over to see a pony struggling to stay afloat in the steady current of the water. Applejack grabbed her paddle and started to speed over to him. She was careful to not accidentally run her raft over him, as she got close she held the paddle out to him.
“Grab on!”
The pony grabbed onto the paddle, holding on for dear life as Applejack tried to pull him up onto her raft. Thanks to her strength the soaked stallion was yanked on board, coming to rest in the other seat behind Applejack. He shook his head a bit to get his senses back before thanking Applejack for rescuing him.
“Wow, thanks, that was a real close one. I’m not the strongest swimmer.” He told her, he had green eyes just like she did with an ashen white coat and a black mane that was stuck to his face thanks to the water.
“What happened to ya?” Applejack asked him.
“Oh, I was fishing. Name’s Spool by the way. Anyways I was fishing at the edge of the river on some of the rocks that are out a bit further in the water. Makes for a better place to fish you know? But well, I kind of slipped and fell in.” He chuckled in embarrassment.
Applejack shook her head at him. “Well you’re lucky I was around, name’s Applejack too just so you know.”
“Yeah, really lucky. Rafters don’t come down this way at all.” He said with a vacant expression as he stared at the jungle as they drifted on downstream.
“Uh, what?” Applejack tilted her head in confusion. “Why don’t rafters come down this way? Isn’t this where everypony is supposed to go?”
“Huh? No way, you’re supposed to stick to the right on this river. The way we’re going there’s a waterfall just around the next bend.”
Applejack sat there for a second as she stared at the nonchalant stallion.
“You don’t think you should’ve mentioned that immediately?”
“Yeah probably.”
Applejack growled as she dipped her paddle back into the river to try and get them to one of the sides, the river was already bending and “just around the next bend” made it seem like she probably didn’t have a lot of time to save them.
But as she put the paddle back in the river a Biteacuda jumped up, grabbed it in its mouth, wrenched it out of Applejack’s hooves and swam away with it.
She stared with her mouth wide open at what just happened.
“Wow, don’t see that every day.” Spool said ambivalently, like despite his words it wasn’t really anything special.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Applejack asked to nopony in particular.
The current continued to carry them to the bend, and now knowing that there were in fact Biteacuda’s in the water, Applejack wasn’t too keen on the idea of trying to paddle out of harm’s way with her hooves. Spool was equally useless, just nervously drumming on the side of the raft as doom approached. The water seemed to be steadily speeding up and they were in the very center of the river, they’d never hit one of the sides or any rocks or anything that might stop them. Jumping out and swimming was out of the question. What was Applejack going to do?
Their raft rounded the bend and the cascading top of the waterfall appeared in front of them.
“This ain’t gonna be fun.” Spool said from behind her.
Applejack could only nod in agreement.
Again. Water hurt.
Applejack swam to shore, dragging Spool by the tail with her teeth, and collapsed. Luckily her hat didn’t drift off too far and she was able to recover it as well. She was wet, bugs were buzzing around her, the heat was going to make things unbearable, and the raft was wrecked. The only upside was that at least it didn’t seem like the jungle around them was poisonous.
Spool coughed up some water and sat up. “Hey, we made it.”
Applejack glared at him. “Look, I’m too tired to do much else but since you’re from around here can you at least answer a couple questions for me?”
He shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
“Okay, first off, do you know how I can get to Ponyville from here?”
Spool cupped his hoof under his chin for a second. “Hm, name isn’t ringing a bell. All I know is this one place where people sit around watching a turtle.”
Applejack sighed. “Great. Well my other question is do you know where I can find any apples to eat?”
“What are apples?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Are they like pineapples.”
Too tired to rant, Applejack just groaned and rolled over onto her back and stared up at the sky. The day had not been as fun as she was hoping. But about as fun as she expected.
Applejack had been standing in front of the solid iron gate for about five minutes now. She tried to see if she could open up the doors on her own first but no such luck, she tried knocking but there was no answer, and now she tried yelling to see if there was even anypony there to mind the gate in the first place. She knew there had to be at least something beyond it since there was a placard on the gate with the name “Intelligentiaville” written on it. Whatever that meant.
The gate was so far the only entrance Applejack had seen along the iron wall that had bisected the entire forest, and likely held the entirety of the town inside. It seemed to stretch on quite a ways and only curved slightly, walking around it would definitely take a while. Better to just go through if she could.
But so far she was having no such luck getting through this gate.
Hoof of the Earth could get her through in a flash but that would be, well, just wrong.
So here she still was, calling out for any ponies that might be listening or nearby. Hoping that somepony would open up the gate before the sun got too low and she had to walk around the whole town in darkness.
She decided to pound on the gate a little harder. Might’ve been rude but it’s not like she was the one who blocked off a huge portion of the forest. She turned around and raised her legs, ready to give it a quick buck-
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing! You the one who’s been making all that ruckus?”
Applejack stopped and looked up. A dark yellow earth pony stallion wearing a top hat was peering at her from on top of the wall, just his head and shoulders poking over, there must’ve been a ledge on the other side.
“Uh, yeah, that’s me. I’d like to walk through your town if I can? I’m traveling through this way.”
The pony scoffed. “Miss, please. Do you have any idea just where you are trying to get into?”
Applejack looked around for a second and then scratched her head. “Not really?”
The pony made an exaggerated sigh and rolled his eyes. “This is the great city-state of Intelligentiaville, where only the best and the brightest are allowed in. Only the top of the top, the cream of the crop, the geniuses among geniuses! Now, may I ask, are you a genius?”
Applejack was getting a little tired of this already. “Nope.”
“Well, are you a mathematician?”
“Nope.”
“A scholar?”
“Nope.”
“A wizard?”
“Nope.”
“A philosopher?”
“Nope.”
“An artist?”
“Nope.”
“A chef famed far and wide?”
“Nope.”
“A groundbreaking musician?”
“Nope.”
“An architect?”
“Nope.”
“A creator of any sort?”
“Nope.”
The stallion looked down at her, pondering for a second. “Well miss, then may I ask just what are you?”
“I’m an apple farmer.”
It was quiet for a few moments. Then a slight rumbling made its way out of the stallion’s mouth, followed by giggling that eventually evolved into full blown laughter as he guffawed and pointed at Applejack, as if he couldn’t believe his ears.
“A-A farmer? Truly? Miss, please, you must be joking! I can’t believe my ears! To think a simple farmer of all things would want to come into the greatness that is Intelligentiaville!”
Applejack blankly looked up at him, not finding the same kind of humor in the situation. “Well what do y’all do for food in there if there aint any farmers?”
“We invent it!” He shot an angry scowl at her through narrowed eyes. “And y’all is quite uncouth sounding.”
“Uh-huh, right.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Well look, can I just walk through? I’m not gonna do anything or stay the night. I just wanna get to the other side of this forest.”
“Yes I’m not surprised that you would still want to come inside and see Intelligentiaville!” The stallion replied, completely ignoring what Applejack said. “It contains wonders that most ponies could never dream of, miracles of magic, art, and science! It is no surprise that a common pony of your nature would be captivated by such things. Alas you would hardly be able to understand much of the wonders that are to be found inside here but that is no fault of your own, we sadly cannot all be geniuses. Sadly, so sadly, are most ponies merely blessed with average intelligence. But! The awe and wonder and curiosity of the new and unknown is a feeling known to all! Even you, farmer, must have felt this excitement in your life. And you shall find even greater excitement inside!”
He was breathing a bit heavily as he finished up his babbling. Applejack was still standing there under him with an unamused frown.
“Does that mean I can come through?”
“But of course! We are quite generous, such wonders need to be shared with the world. There is only one slight condition.” He grinned at her, his eyes glinting mischievously.
“What?” Applejack asked cautiously.
“You must wear-” He reached down next to him. “This!” And pulled up two signboards tied together with enough space to drape over a pony’s back and leave both signs hanging at their sides.
The signs read “NOT A GENIUS” and there was a drawing of a dunce cap under the words.
“Sorry.” The stallion said cheerfully, on the verge of giggling. “It’s just so we all know who the smart, miraculous ponies are and who isn’t. I mean, most of us geniuses wouldn’t want to waste the time talking to a non-genius. We have important inventions to invent and discovers to discover after all. Here, I’ll throw this down to you and once you’ve put it on you can come on in.” He smiled at her.
Applejack was now more than a little tired.
“No thanks, I’ll just walk around.” And she started walking away down the side of the wall.
The stallions jaw dropped the same as the signboards that fell out of his hoof. “W-What? Hey, you can’t be serious, you don’t know what you’re missing here!” His earlier smugness was gone as Applejack just ignored him, no longer having any intent to come inside Intelligentiaville. “This is the grandest city ever! Do you know what’s inside here!”
“I can guess.” She glanced up at him. “A bunch of idiots who like to mess around with ponies.”
“H-Hey! We’re not stupid, you’re stupid for not wanting to come into such an awesome town!” He followed her down the wall, the ledge must’ve gone the whole length of it. “Our magicians would totally blow your mind! We’ve got a huge underground library with ancient tomes and books no other ponies have ever laid eyes on!”
“That sure sounds nice, why don’t you go and enjoy some of that yourself instead of wasting your time with a simple farmer?” She said sarcastically, suppressing a grin.
He sweated and his eyes were darting around in a panic, trying to look for a way to convince her to come inside. “Well we have some great artists and fashion designers too. The best of the best! You like hats obviously, I’m sure we can find you the most amazing hat in the whole world!”
Applejack smiled up at him. “No thanks, I like my simple, comfortable hat just fine. Had it for years, it’s pretty special to me.”
“But, but-”
“Boy howdy, you sure do seem to want me to see all those wonders in your town now don’t you?” Applejack said as she kept trotting down the wall.
The stallion fidgeted. “It’s not like that! You should be the one who wants to see all the amazing and totally exclusive things in here! You should be super curious and begging for a chance to come inside and see our town! Don’t you want to see what we do for food? You’re a farmer after all, isn’t it super mysterious to you?”
Applejack stopped and looked him dead in the eyes with a big smile on her face. “Nope!” And her walking resumed.
His lips quivered. “F-Fine, be that way! You’re just a big dummy! You don’t know what you’re missing!” He kept walking after Applejack to hassle her some more. “We don’t want you in here anyways!”
“And yet you keep coming after and talking to me.”
“I’m trying to convince you of how wrong you are for walking away!”
“Uh-huh, sounds like a good way to spend the day.”
“Better than the way you’re spending it. You could be in here with us seeing totally awesome and one-of-a-kind magic! We got floating crystals and paintings that talk to you and all sorts of other amazing stuff. We totally have a wizard who shrunk a whole forest into miniature size, it’s really cool looking, don’t you want to see that?!” He asked, getting more and more desperate.
“Still no!” Applejack didn’t even turn to look at him this time.
“Okay fine! But you’re dumb, your hat’s dumb, and I don’t know what apples are but I bet those are pretty dumb too!” He blew a raspberry at her.
Applejack halted. If she cared enough she would’ve questioned how a supposed genius living in a village full of other supposed geniuses didn’t know what apples were. But she didn’t really care about that part. Now she wasn’t going to flip out or do anything drastic, but that slight against apples still wasn’t something she could just let go.
“Could you stand still for a second?” She said without looking back at him.
“Um, why?”
“No reason.” Applejack reached out a hoof and lightly tapped the iron wall. The tremor made the wall shake and vibrate like an earthquake was happening right under it.
“W-Woah!” The stallion tried to hold on but first his top hat was knocked off and then the strong shaking of the wall caused him to fall off it as well. “Waughhh!” Applejack heard a dull thud as he hit the ground behind the iron wall. “Ow.”
Applejack smirked as she walked away. It would take her awhile to get all the way around this town and the sun was already starting to get low, but despite the immense waste of time that conversation she had had was she was now in a pretty good mood at least. And she avoided a big village of idiots that with her luck probably would’ve ended in all kinds of crazy stuff happening to her. Not a bad day all in all.
It was green rolling hills as far as Applejack could see. Pleasant if not for how muggy it was outside. Overcast but not quite so much that it was going to rain. Just a pinch too cold due to the lack of sunlight, with a slight breeze blowing in, making waves through the grass on the hills. Up and down she walked through them, the small dips between hills not even making enough flat ground to put a table down. It felt lonely outside, the bland scenery and bad weather just made things unwelcoming. And quieter than things had been for Applejack lately. Which again would be pleasant if not for how gloomy everything was.
Applejack crested another one of the small hills and stifled a yawn, it was still early in the morning, hard to tell exactly when since the sun was blocked by clouds but she could tell time well enough on her own to know it wasn’t even past 9 o’clock yet. Wherever Rainbow Dash was she would probably still be asleep for another few hours at least.
The grass was still a little moist as she walked over it, she had almost slipped a couple times. Carefully making her way, half sliding, down the hill she pretty much immediately started her ascent up the next one. It was looking to be a quiet day so far. But of course as she got to the top of that newest hill there was something that caught her eye at the bottom of it.
A sign.
Now, Applejack had not had the best luck with signs lately. Part of her wanted to completely ignore it, she’d go down the side of the hill and walk up the one next to the sign instead of behind it. It was that simple.
But the other part of her had once again forgotten the phrase “Curiosity killed the cat” and so with a mild amount of trepidation she slid down the hill to go read this newest sign.
When she got up to it it was, to put it simply, the most puzzling sign she had seen so far on her little journey. Even more obtuse than the “Right and Left” sign she had destroyed. This new sign read:
WARNING:
HARLEQUIN WHITE SPOTTED IN THE AREA
TURN BACK NOW!
Whatever that meant.
Well either way this wasn’t going to be the first sign she ignored. Applejack walked right on by it and started walking up the next hill. Who or what this “Harlequin White” was Applejack would just deal with it as it came, like every other problem. With how things had been going lately she was pretty confident in her ability to get out of trouble.
Although it would probably be better if she could enhance her ability to not get in trouble in the first place.
At the top of her latest hill Applejack noticed a few daisy’s blooming at her hooves. Well, not much but it was at least something new and pretty to look at. As she took her first step to go down the hill the loose soil broke away under her and she ended up tumbling end over end down the hill until the landed in a crumpled heap at the bottom. She decided to lay there and glower at nothing for a second before picking herself back up.
Now she was wet and covered in grass and dirt. So a pretty typical day. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was a little warmer but now that slight breeze was actually a little chilly to her. She shook herself off before climbing the next hill, if there was a dry spot she might’ve sat down for a second but as it was she just kept walking up and down the green hills.
It was probably closer to midday when the fog started rolling in. Just her luck.
So now it was colder and she couldn’t see worth a darn, she had to carefully feel in front of her to make sure she wasn’t making a wrong step. Going up the hills was still alright, but down was outright dangerous now. She had no idea if she was suddenly going to end up going down a much steeper or higher hill than she was expecting, or if maybe there was suddenly a ravine or rocks at the bottom. If she slipped here it could end up really bad.
So of course she inevitably slipped again and wound up face first in a puddle of mud. Could’ve been worse.
As she sat there wiping the mud off her face she could’ve sworn she heard a pony giggling, but when she stopped to really listen for it there was nothing. Grumbling, Applejack got up and continued to feel her way through the fog, the moisture in the air along with her already damp coat was making her a lot colder. Maybe in one of the last towns or settlements she had been in she should’ve bought a jacket or something.
With money she didn’t have…
After sliding down the next hill and blindly pushing her way through the fog, Applejack realized she was on flat ground. Whether that meant there was more distance between hills than normal or she had completely gotten out of the hills she didn’t know. There was moist grass still under her hooves so the landscape hadn’t suddenly changed too drastically.
Applejack slowly walked forward some more until another sound caught her ears. Running water. It was coming from in front of her, it wasn’t very loud so it probably wasn’t a big river or anything, likely just a small creek.
Her theory was proven correct when she reached it, the muddy ground at the creek’s edge making her hooves sink into it, but the water of the creek itself barely came up to her knees. It was almost ice cold but Applejack had to carefully and slowly wade through it so she wouldn’t slip in the mud or get stuck.
Once she got out she shivered, a towel would’ve been nice to have.
There was a little good to come out of passing the creek though, the fog started to lift. Applejack could start to see in front of herself again, it seemed there really weren’t any more hills in front of her, the grass just went on until it hit a treeline some hundred feet ahead of her. The trees were twisted and gnarled with long grass growing up between them, as Applejack got closer the chirping of crickets and croaking of frogs told her all she needed to know. This was a bog.
The cattails, the scummy pond water and all the lily pads, yep, definitely a bog. Applejack had no idea how big it was but she’d just have to bite the bullet and get it over with. Hopefully there weren’t any gators sitting around. The ground pretty much gave way immediately and Applejack was up to her neck in brown, algae covered water. But there was nothing else to do but go through it.
It was cold, gross, and uncomfortable. It was probably only noon or a little after but the coverage from the trees and the cloudy sky made things much darker than they should’ve been, it was almost unnatural.
And now a bunch of mosquito's were buzzing around her head, she tried swatting them away but they were persistent. It was just a cloud of insects around her head as she trudged through the bog.
She wasn’t sure how many hours it took but she did finally get to the end of the bog. With no more trees around she walked through the last marshy bits of ground until she felt solid, dry dirt beneath her hooves. Applejack was covered in all manner of filth from the expedition, Rarity would faint outright upon seeing her. At least her hat was kept clean and dry.
The sky was still dark overhead but there was no more cool breeze so Applejack carried on. A town soon would be nice. Warm food or coffee even nicer.
Applejack stretched her legs for a second and looked out at what was before her. Mostly just a grassy field but a lot of flowers, all kinds that she couldn’t even tell what half of them were. She went to go sniff one of the pretty flowers when she heard a buzzing noise. Not like the buzzing of a mosquito or a fly but like a…
Bee!
Bees flew up from inside all the flowers around Applejack, their buzzing creating a deafening cacophony of noise. Applejack didn’t hesitate though, she ran through the field as the swarm of bees chased after her. She was fast but the things were keeping up pace with her, a few she was able to swat away with her tail when they got close but more of them were starting to close in on her from the sides. Applejack was lucky the ground was flat so she could keep going full speed ahead but that also meant there was nowhere to really hide or run to escape the bees, she just had to hope they’d give up their pursuit soon.
Tripping over a log was pretty much the worst possible outcome in this situation.
Five minutes later a bee sting covered Applejack got off the ground. Again she swore she could’ve heard giggling but looking around there was nothing there.
Walking through the flower covered grass field, Applejack eventually came to a circular spot that had all of its vegetation cleared away. Just a big dirt circle with a dirt path going from the top, winding throughout the grass. Shrugging, she started down the new path, it must lead somewhere.
The cloudy sky overhead was starting to clear up a little bit and rays of sunlight were making their way to the ground. Looked like there were still plenty of hours of daytime left.
Occasionally as she walked down the path she’d see something out of the corner of her eye but when she turned to look at it she didn’t see anything. Maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her after all the bee stings or her exhaustion was just catching up on her. She’d taken a couple of falls already today too. Couldn’t something fun and relaxing happen to her for once on her way home?
Better not even ask for that, with her bad luck so far on this journey asking for something good was just gonna bring something worse.
“Something worse like me?”
Applejack spun around “Who’s there?!” She shouted.
At nothing.
Her heart was pounding hard in her chest, she calmed herself down and tried to remember what Bedrock taught her about using tremors to locate and “see” things. She had only tried it the one night but if she had a knack for Hoof of the Earth she might as well use it.
The tremor left her body and spread out through the field around her. She found a half buried log, an underground burrow full of rabbits, all kinds of pebbles and rocks in the dirt. And nothing else. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the field, and not even any big predators.
Applejack looked up into the sky, nothing was flying above her, there were no trees where something could hide. There was no more giggling and she didn’t see anything in the corner of her eyes. Applejack frowned and turned back around, continuing to walk down the path. If her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her she’d still do what she had planned earlier and just deal with whatever problems came as they came.
Shortly later she saw more hills in the distance. With a roll of her eyes she sped up her pace, if she wanted to find someplace to rest before dark it was gonna take a little work.
At least the sun was almost completely out now, the clouds had almost entirely gone away. Applejack tilted her hat down a bit for some more shade, she wasn’t sure how she managed to get turned around but it looked like she was heading west now, directly at the sun. Guess it didn’t really matter since she didn’t have a set path in mind in the first place.
Applejack reached the hills as the sun began to set, making a slow climb up she looked from on top of the first one to see if she could see any village or something.
Nothing as big as that but there was a decrepit looking shack that looked about just a ten minute walk away. Better than nothing. Applejack began to walk down towards it so she could have some shelter while she slept. In the end, the day still could’ve been worse.
Gray mountains and dry cracked dirt were all that Applejack could see. If there was a way to get lost while being lost Applejack may have just found it. Not that she’d admit to any of that. The one upside right now was the good weather, no clouds, even temperature, no wind or anything to be a bother.
Her hooves reverberated off the hard ground with each step, casting loud echoes across the valleys between the mountains. There was a rock in front of her that she started kicking around to pass the time as she went wherever it was she was going. Someplace normal would be good. It had been days now since she had even seen another pony or anything resembling a town, her throat wasn’t going to be used to talking when she inevitably did run into another pony.
Getting bored of kicking the rock she hit it harder one last time to send it flying. It came back down to the ground and echoed with each bounce, until it disappeared down the side of a hill. Applejack hadn’t been able to see the hill at first because everything looked the same, but as she walked closer and focused she saw the ground suddenly dip in front of her.
It wasn’t a sheer drop but the ground still descended far into another valley. And there was a town down there.
Applejack smiled. And then frowned. The town looked weird.
It was almost like it was trying to copy the blandness in the environment around it. The whole town was in the shape of a square, with rows of buildings all placed at exactly the same distance from each other. Almost every building looked exactly the same too, there was only one area of difference in the center of town where there was some extra space and a few larger and smaller buildings around that. But even those were still very similar looking.
She had never seen such a… planned town.
Or wait, now that she thought about it it was kind of reminding her of something but she just couldn’t place what it was. It was right in the back of her mind. There was something off about all this.
Well there was nothing else to do about it, it was still the first place she’d seen in days and it looked peaceful and well kept enough to stay the night and get some food before leaving tomorrow. She could see some dots moving between buildings from up here, definitely ponies.
Applejack went down the hill to the town, walking pretty much dead center at it so she’d get to that middle part if nopony stopped her first. It’s not like she was worried if somepony did she just figured it was more likely that the town’s mayor or anything else important was in the middle.
As she did make it to the first row of identical buildings, which she was pretty sure were houses, ponies started to notice her. She stuck out like a sore thumb. They did seem friendly enough, all of them smiling and waving at her, the filly’s and colts too, but again there was still something off. All the stallions had the same short haircut and trimmed tails, all the mares had the same pigtails, and everypony wore the same gray dress that covered their whole body. It reminded her of the outfit Maud wore, whatever Rarity would call it.
One of the cheerful stallions came up to Applejack as she was going through the rows. “Hi, welcome to our village, pleasure to meet you!” He greeted enthusiastically, his coat was a deep violet and his mane brown.
“Uh, pleasure to meet you too, name’s Applejack.” She stuck out her hoof for him to shake.
“I’m Wool Dye.” He limply grasped her hoof and gave it a shake. “What brings you out to these parts?”
Applejack rubbed the back of her. “Well I got a little turned around when I was going somewhere and now I’m just looking for a way home.”
He got a sad expression on his face as she told him her story. “Oh I see, that’s so sad, I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t find my way home. Please, won’t you come with me?” He gestured to her to follow him. “I can take you to our gathering place, maybe somepony there can help you.”
“Well I really appreciate the offer but mostly right now I was just looking for a meal and maybe a place to stay the night.” She doubted anypony here knew how to get to Ponyville, and the eeriness of the village was putting her off. “Problem is I really don’t have any money.” Applejack said that last part regrettably but it’s not like she could lie to them about it.
Wool Dye only giggled. “Money? Nopony has money here. We all work together.”
“Oh. Well that sounds nice.” Applejack said genuinely, if a little bit surprised.
As they continued to walk to the center of town Wool Dye tried striking up as much friendly conversation with her as possible.
“So what’s the name of the town you call home?”
“It’s Ponyville. Me and my family live on a farm right outside it called Sweet Apple Acres.” She said proudly.
“I see, well the name’s don’t ring any bells for me unfortunately but I hope somepony else will know. It would just be terrible if you couldn’t find your way home.”
He sounded sincere enough to Applejack but it was so stressed, like he was trying too hard to make sure she knew he cared.
“Well thanks, so what’s the name of this town? And uh, if it isn’t rude to ask how come everything here is so… well, you know?” She asked with a bit of hesitation, she didn’t want to offend him but sometimes she couldn’t help calling stuff out like this.
That honesty had gotten her in trouble before though. She might need to work on making her “honest opinion” a little nicer around these ponies.
“It’s all due to the influence of our divine gospel. We were once lost and angry ponies, but we discovered the truth and bettered ourselves. We specifically chose to build the town this way, in this place, because of how neutral and ordered everything is.” He said, smiling the whole way. “Oh, and the town doesn’t have a name.”
Applejack was a bit flummoxed. She really wanted to say something. And she was getting a really bad feeling at the same time.
“Riiight...”
Applejack walked with Wool Dye for a while longer, occasionally another pony would greet them but conversations were kept short. The town wasn’t big so it didn’t take long for them to reach the center. The town opened up into a large square gathering place with a building about twice the size of the others on one side and a few slightly smaller ones than normal on the other side. But they all still looked the same. Same paint, same wood, same style.
“Oh dang.” Realization suddenly struck Applejack.
“Did you say something?” Wool Dye asked as the other townsponies already gathered started to turn in her direction, seeing the bright new arrival.
“Uh, no, nothing at all.” Applejack shook him off.
He seemed to take her word for it and they continued their walk to the large building.
Upon entering it Applejack was fairly certain that it was an office of some sort. A desk was in front of the door and there were numerous filing cabinets behind it, to her right a staircase crept up along the wall leading to a second story hallway.
A tan stallion sitting behind the desk rose to greet Applejack. “Welcome!” He said happily. “Wow, an outsider! We’ll be sure to record this occurrence.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean by that?”
Wool Dye answered for him. “This is our multi-purpose building. We hold our records here and conduct any pertinent meetings, upstairs are guest rooms for travelers like yourself. We like to catalog our new lives here and how we better ourselves through following our gospel.”
The tan stallion was nodding along the whole time. “Yes indeed.”
“Right, so you think I might find someway back home here or something?” Applejack questioned.
“Well the ponies that make up our town come from many different places, our previous lives are recorded in these cabinets as well, one of them may have something pertaining to your Ponyville.” He happily answered her. “I hope you can find what you need.”
Applejack looked at the many filing cabinets that filled up the room. “So how are these organized then?”
“Oh don’t worry abut that, Firewood and I will help you search through these.” Wool Dye said.
“Heh, thanks. I was a little worried for a second there.” She smiled at the two of them.
“Our sacred text tells us to be kind and helpful, we simply must aid all ponies in need.” The newly christened Firewood explained to Applejack as he went around to the nearest filing cabinet.
“Firewood is correct, this is all only normal.” Wool Dye as well went to a filing cabinet and began looking through it.
Applejack was still weirded out by this all, and she had a few questions that she was pretty sure she didn’t want to hear the answer to but for now it was time to get down to business. With any luck she’d find something about Ponyville and then she could leave as soon as possible without anything else happening.
It was probably a bad idea for me to think that…
The three of them spent a few hours searching through all the cabinets, it was like doing inventory at Ponyville city hall, this is the kind of thing Twilight should be doing. She’d love to do this. As it was, Applejack was forced to sift through file after file, most of it completely irrelevant to where ponies in the town came from and absolutely none of it making any mention of Ponyville. She started to feel more and more defeated as the amount of cabinets dwindled down. Applejack now knew a bunch of completely useless knowledge about this nameless town and its inhabitants but learned nothing about where she might be or where she needed to go. Great.
Wool Dye was apologetic as he approached Applejack. “I’m truly sorry you didn’t find anything about your home.”
“It’s alright, I’m used to this by now.” Applejack put the last couple of files back in their cabinet.
“Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise though!” His eyes lit up as a big smile broke out on his face.
Applejack stopped and slowly turned to look at him. “How do ya figure?”
“Well you seemed to be in a hurry to find your way home, but since now you’re at a dead end maybe you’d like to stay in our town for a little while? We’d all love to share our way of life with you.” Wool Dye and Firewood both walked up to her, making her take a preemptive step back.
“Look, I’m sure it’s wonderful and all but I really would like to just rest for a bit and head off as soon as possible.” She tried edging her way over to the stairs.
“That’s alright, we would never force you into an uncomfortable situation. That isn’t our way.” Wool Dye nodded. “You can take any room upstairs you like. There aren’t any other ponies from out of town around.”
“Thank you.” Applejack eagerly started to head up the stairs.
But when she was halfway up she figured she just finally had to ask. Biting her lip she looked back at Wool Dye and Firewood.
“Just out of curiosity, what’s this ‘gospel’ and everything called? Where’d you get the idea for it?”
Both of their smiles somehow got even wider.
“Well I’m glad you asked!” Wool Dye said. “We follow the Word of Glimmer, discovered from a book that fell from the sky written by our idol, Starlight Glimmer.”
Starlight, even when you’re my friend you’re still causing me problems.
Applejack most certainly kept that thought to herself. Forcing herself to smile she stiffly responded. “Wow, that sounds pretty amazing. Maybe we can talk about it more tomorrow morning.” With each word she took another step until she got to the second floor, the two ponies down there waving at her as she went.
Applejack was gonna go to bed, wake up, and leave before she opened her big mouth and made a bunch of ponies really angry. Gonna be tough.
Applejack slept in a plain bed in an unfurnished room. Even the curtains on the window were gray. She woke up early, remembering what she planned to do, but not sure how she was going to go about doing it. With the way the town was designed there was no way she could sneak out without being seen. Especially since she looked completely different from every other pony thanks to her hat, lack of a dress, and highly visible Cutie Mark. Despite it being as early as it was there were probably already plenty of ponies going about their business in town.
Most probably wouldn’t mind her if yesterday was any proof but if she wasn’t already walking around with Wool Dye she bet more would come up and try to talk with her.
It’s not like she was afraid of them, she just didn’t want to deal with any of this craziness, and she knew that the longer she spent around these ponies the more likely it was she’d say something about Starlight and that book they worshiped. That could end badly.
She got out of her bed and made for the door, walking as lightly as possible in case any pony was downstairs. There was only one way in or out of this building and unless she wanted to jump out a window she’d have to walk right in front of the desk downstairs. She had to hope that there was just nopony there yet.
Applejack opened the door to the hallway.
“Gah!” She jumped back, a unicorn was standing right in front of her door holding a tray of muffins.
“Good morning! I’m here to give you a big friendly greeting and a lovely breakfast.” The bright yellow mare with vibrant pink hair greeted. Her natural colors proved a stark contrast to the dull outfit she wore and the color of the building around her.
“How long have you been standing out there?!”
“Twenty-eight minutes!” She said, smiling sweetly. “My name is Solar Streak, I’m so happy to get to meet an outsider! We’re all so happy, won’t you come and join us for breakfast?” She motioned the plate of muffins down the hallway to the stairs, Applejack couldn’t help but notice that she didn’t use her magic to carry the tray.
“Uh, us?”
“Mhm!” Solar nodded. “Wool told us that you seemed interested in learning more about the Word of Glimmer, so he gathered up some of us to have breakfast with you and share with you the wonders of Starlight Glimmer!”
Aghhhhhhhhhh
“That…sounds… swell.” Applejack really wanted to say something else as her face tightened up.
“I know right!” Solar replied, oblivious to or willingly ignoring Applejack’s mannerisms.
She led Applejack down the hallway to the stairs. From the railing Applejack could see Wool Dye and three other ponies gathered around down on the first floor, Firewood was absent though, they had moved the desk and some cabinets and had set up a folding table with chairs around it along with some water and more muffins.
And a familiar looking book in the center of the table.
Applejack thought about just running. She didn’t want to deal with this. She thought about cutting Wool Dye off the moment he opened up his mouth and just telling him she wasn’t interested and she had to go.
But seeing that book made her think twice. Was it really alright for her to just leave these ponies here and let them continue on with their misguided ways? Letting them get corrupted by the old beliefs that Starlight herself had thrown away. Starlight would definitely be upset to know what was going on in this village, and Twilight too would probably be mad at her if she at least didn’t try to do something to convince them that this “Word of Glimmer” way of thinking was wrong.
With trepidation Applejack descended the stairs and took a seat at the table.
The others quickly sat down with her, Solar gave out muffins to everypony. Wool Dye decided to start with introductions.
“So you’ve obviously met me and Solar, but these are a few other curious ponies who especially wanted to share with you the story of The Word of Glimmer.” He spread his forelegs wide across the table.
“My name is Wind Walk.” A small white mare with a sky blue mane said, judging by the name and the bulging sides of the dress she was probably a pegasus.
“I’m Dazzle.” A black unicorn stallion with a bald head greeted her.
“And my name is Brush Swipe.” A portly earth pony mare said. She had big brown eyes that matched her mane and a dull pink coat.
“Right, nice to meet you, I’m Applejack in case Wool Dye didn’t already tell you.”
They smiled at her while Wool Dye spoke up again. “I’m sorry there are so few of us but on such short notice there weren’t many I could gather. I’m sure you have so many questions and we’ll just have to answer as best we possibly can.”
Applejack closed her eyes and rubbed them for a second, trying to get the last bit of tiredness out of her system. “Okay… so first of all, where’d that book come from?” That was the biggest thing bothering her.
“It fell from the sky!” Wind Walk said. “Right into our old village. It was truly a miracle.”
Applejack wasn’t sure what to make of that. Did some pegasus drop it? Did Starlight accidentally teleport one out here?
“It arrived at the perfect time.” Dazzle agreed. “We were lost, selfish and arrogant ponies. The Word of Glimmer saved us.”
“And so now you all live like this?” Applejack gestured to how everypony was wearing the same thing and all the mares had the same haircut.
“The Word of Glimmer is the word of equality and true harmony. Shun as many differences as possible, shun the evils of Cutie Marks that only divide. Nopony is better or worse at something than anypony else.” Solar said, as if reciting from something.
“Uh-huh. So Cutie Marks are bad to you all.” Applejack nodded along, trying to act like this was all new to her. On the inside she was a little angry that something like this was still going on.
“Cutie Marks are one of the hallmarks of division in the world.” Brush Swipe spoke. “That is why not only do we cover our marks but we specifically never do anything that has to do with our so called special talent. If one’s Cutie Mark was in cooking they would never set foot in the kitchen. That is how we make sure to keep the divisive thing of specialness away.”
“And it’s why unicorns like me never use our magic.” Solar said. “And why pegasi like Wind Walk never fly.” She was very cheerful as she said this all.
Applejack fought to not gape at her. That was even more extreme than Starlight’s village. These ponies had completely gone off the deep end.
She decided to try and chuckle a bit and keep the mood light. “Well, you must not like how I’ve been walking around with my Cutie Mark then.” A few uneasy chuckles came from her.
“Oh, well that’s true but we would never force you to do anything you wouldn’t want to.” Wool Dye said supportively. “After all we know that Starlight Glimmer would never force her ideals on an unwilling pony.”
It took every bit of strength in Applejack’s body to stop herself from repeatedly slamming her head on the table.
Instead she just ground her teeth together and asked her next question. “So what do you know about Starlight Glimmer?”
“Well we’ve been studying the book and trying to figure out as much about her as we can.” Dazzle answered. “Obviously she was a very enlightened being, we believe she was an alicorn at one point who willingly gave up her powers when she found the truth of equality. She didn’t want to be different or special in any way so she gave up her wings and everything else that came with being an alicorn and returned to being a simple earth pony.”
Oh for the love of Celestia…
“She sounds very humble.” Applejack’s desire to share her honest opinion greatly grew.
“She must be!” Solar said from next to her while the others nodded.
“Yeah...” Applejack scratched her head. “So you ignore your Cutie Marks huh? What do you all do then?”
“We draw lots!” Wool Dye said excitedly, obviously he had been waiting to explain as much about the town as he could. “Every week we draw lots to decide what job we do around town. If anypony draws something relating to their Cutie Mark they redraw. Firewood was working here yesterday because he drew the lot to mind the office. And I drew the lot to welcome any possible newcomers.”
“We do things this way so nopony has any special position.” Wind Walk elaborated.
Applejack had to bite her tongue from saying everything they did made their town unique and special compared to the rest of the world. But she still needed to try and convince them that they had the wrong way of things. Gulping, she opened her big mouth again.
“You all seem really happy with how you’re doing things out here.” At that the other ponies faces brightened up even more. “But, uh, are you sure you’re doing the right thing?”
For the first time, they stopped smiling at Applejack.
“What do you mean?” Wool Dye asked with a hint of worry.
“Well it’s just...” Applejack started carefully. “Cutie Marks are a natural and, well, good thing. You know?”
The ponies looked at each other with dismay.
“S-Some of us used to think that.” Solar said. “But we all came to embrace the truth about Cutie Marks being evil, The Word of Glimmer is infallible.” She got a far away look in her eyes as she said that.
“Yeah but, what if this Starlight Glimmer pony ended up reconsidering the things she wrote in that book later?” Applejack nervously tapped her hooves on the table as she said that.
It was deathly silent.
“But… The Word of Glimmer is infallible.” Solar repeated. “Everything has gone so well for us since embracing it.”
“Why would Starlight go back on what she wrote here?” Wool Dye asked Applejack as he regarded her a bit suspiciously. “Is there something you want to say?”
There were many, many, things Applejack wanted to say.
“Look it’s just, I kind of happen to know Starlight Glimmer, personally.” Applejack finally let it out.
“You know the goddess?!” Wind Walk shot up in surprise while the others sat there dumbstruck.
“What? Starlight aint any goddess. She’s just a normal pony.” Applejack replied.
“Well of course, she’s a normal pony no different from any other. That’s the point. We all know that already.” Brush Swipe said.
Applejack’s hoof hit her face. “Ugh, look. What I’m trying to get at is that she was never an alicorn and there’s nothing special about this book she wrote. Also she’s a unicorn, not an earth pony.”
Brush Swipe gasped and brought her hooves up to her mouth as if Applejack just told her the world was about to end.
“We know the book isn’t special.” Dazzle said, although his eyes and face had gotten weirdly blank. “That’s also the point.”
Applejack groaned and finally did bang her head on the table before grabbing the book and waving it at the ponies. “Look, what I’m trying to get at is that you shouldn’t just blindly follow what’s written here. Starlight wrote this when she was in a dark place but she’s renounced all of it. She doesn’t hate Cutie Marks or individuality anymore, okay?”
“What you’re saying doesn’t sound like the Starlight we know.” Wool Dye said through narrowed eyes.
“But you don’t know Starlight!” Applejack slammed a hoof on the table, getting a little more exasperated and angrier than she wanted. “And secondly Starlight was the type of pony who would force her ideals on others, she did it to me and my friends. She wasn’t perfect. All of her followers ended up rejecting her and embracing their Cutie Marks again. This whole book is nothing but gobbledygook!” Applejack threw it back down on the table, the other ponies besides Wool Dye staring slack-jawed at Applejack.
Applejack looked at their shocked expressions for a second and sat back, nervous smile spreading across her face.
“Uh, didn’t mean to attack y’all like that.”
Wool Dye leaned over to Wind Walk. “Wind Walk, go get Stout Shoes and tell him to bring some rope.”
“Heresy! Heresy most foul that seeks to corrupt our town and all we stand for!” Wool Dye said to the gathered ponies at the center of the town. “An agent of evil has been sent to test our faith in The Word of Glimmer. Luckily we found out this agent’s intentions of discord and chaos and have stopped her before she could cause any true harm. She sought to make us question our beliefs in equality and true harmony and friendship, but we did not allow it! The wicked pony is now being held captive for us to judge.” Wool Dye moved aside to let the ponies see behind him.
Applejack sat in a wagon, tied up with rope, looking more than a little peeved. She didn’t even want to ask these ponies if they had apples anymore, that’s how peeved she was at them. Now she could easily break out of this but that wouldn’t really help the town, and she didn’t want to accidentally hurt any of them if they tried to stop her from leaving.
“Not only did she reject The Word even upon seeing the happiness it brought but she falsely claimed to know Starlight Glimmer and tried to convince us that Starlight herself renounced her own ways.” As Wool Dye said that the crowd gasped and started angrily booing at Applejack, some ponies even looked like they were on the verge of crying.
“Yes.” Wool Dye continued. “We know Starlight would never go back on what is written in the book. The truth of equality and the evils of exceptionalism and Cutie Marks!”
The crowd started stamping their hooves and cheering in agreement while Applejack just rolled her eyes. She wanted to plug her ears so she could at least ignore this nonsense.
“Do you have anything to say in your defense, fiend?” Wool Dye turned to look at her.
Applejack blankly looked at him. “Yeah, you’re all nuts and ignoring reality. Now untie me.”
“Vile deceiver!” Solar yelled out at Applejack from the crowd. “Recant what you said about Starlight Glimmer!” Tears were welling up in her eyes.
“What I said was the truth. Look, it’s fine if this is all working for you. I guess. It’s not like you’re hurting anypony, before now at least, but you should still know the truth about things, about Starlight and what she really thinks now about Cutie Marks, friendship and embracing your own uniqueness, alright?” Applejack said to Solar and the other ponies standing with her.
“She’s a demon!” One random pony from the crowd shouted out.
“Maybe she was sent from Tartarus to destroy our town!” Brush Swipe yelled.
“Hey, I’ve been to Tartarus and-” Applejack started before getting cut off.
“She’s from Tartarus! She admits it!” Solar cried in fear.
Applejack would’ve buried her face in her hooves if she could right now. Instead she just leaned back and looked up at the sky as if to ask “Why?”. She ignored the increased shouting and accusations coming from the crowd, if things got more serious she’d just leave. For now she didn’t want to give up entirely on them. Even though it was looking like a fool’s errand.
The sudden jostling of her wagon snapped her back to the here and now. Stout Shoes, a large red earth pony who had helped tied her up, along with another pony were pushing her towards the smaller buildings on the other side of the town’s center while being led by Wool Dye.
“Alright, so where are y’all taking me now?” She tiredly asked Wool Dye.
“We’re putting you in the detainment room. I said we were going to hold a more official hearing and judge you but after what you’ve just said to us all there’s no need, we’re skipping right to the next part.” He answered, solemnly.
“Uh, and what’s the next part?” She was kind of hoping that her expectations about these ponies were gonna be proven wrong.
“The gallows. We’ll have them built by this evening.”
Applejack was disappointed in them to say the least. What Wool Dye said was probably something that should’ve made her more worried, or upset, and for a normal pony that certainly would’ve been the case. But Applejack was just annoyed. She just couldn’t be bothered to take this nonsense seriously anymore. She tried, she failed, they were planning on executing her. The thought of leaving grew stronger in her mind but since she wasn’t in a rush she figured she might as well keep trying to convince them to change. Or at least convince them that they shouldn’t execute ponies that disagree with them.
Even Starlight or Twilight would have trouble changing these ponies minds. Applejack thought about how this really wasn’t her forte, despite some good showings in the past.
“Look, you all really don’t want to do this do you? You all seemed so friendly and happy, is this really how you want to handle things? I’m not even saying how you live is wrong… sort of, I’ve just been giving you my honest opinion as nicely as I can. Barring a couple of outbursts.” Applejack gave an uneasy grin to the ponies around her.
Wool Dye and the other ponies glanced at each other for a second before he responded.
“Yep, we’re pretty sure this is what we wanna do.”
“Oh for crying out loud you didn’t even think about it!” Applejack banged her head on the back of the wagon.
“You should just quiet up before we decide to gag your heretical mouth.” Wool Dye shoved his hoof in her face. “Now you should just keep quiet and stop trying to cause us problems. Enjoy your time left or repent your heresy. If we think you’ve honestly changed your corrupting mind we’ll of course spare you and gladly welcome you as a friend.”
“And I assume that means no more talking about how I know Starlight Glimmer or how she’s changed or how Cutie Marks aint evil?” Applejack asked sarcastically.
“Yep!” Wool Dye answered, completely blind to the sarcasm, as cheerful as he was when Applejack first met him.
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Just throw me in the cell already.”
“Suit yourself, demon.” Stout Shoes said as they got to the detainment room and he lifted her out of the wagon.
Wool Dye opened up the door to the small building. showing a barren room with a single bed and a barred window. This was sort of bringing back memories for Applejack too.
“Look, doing this isn’t going to change anything. Starlight doesn’t believe in that book anymore, okay?” She tried to reason with them as Stout Shoes carried her in and deposited her on the uncomfortable bed.
“Enough of your lies!” Wool Dye spat before slamming the door shut. She could hear him lock it up after. “After we finish constructing the gallows we’ll give you one final chance to repent. Goodbye for now.”
Applejack groaned and laid down on the bed. Still tied up despite the ease with which she could break out of the ropes. She was trying to think of any way she could convince them that she was right. “This is all so stupid.” She sighed. “Give me a monster or something to fight instead. Ugh, now I sound like Rainbow Dash.”
Rarity probably would’ve lost her temper too by now, Fluttershy and Pinkie would probably be fairing better. These ponies don’t even like unicorns using magic or let pegasi fly at all, I wonder if that would’ve been too much for even Starlight’s old village.
Applejack started to hear noise coming in through her window. Sawing, hammering, pieces of wood being put together. And then her stomach growled and she wished she had actually eaten one of those muffins earlier. The gallows were less threatening than an empty stomach.
She stewed around in her room thinking about what she might say when they came to let her out. She certainly wasn’t going to lie but if she kept going the way she was nothing would change either. Maybe she could try and act a little more compassionate when breaking the truth to them.
Applejack frowned. “If they say I’m from Tartarus again though that’s it.”
She could see the sun slowly going lower and lower from her window, it’d be evening soon and she couldn’t imagine them not being finished with a single gallows by then. Nopony had come by to give her any food this whole time either. That wasn’t helping her mood. Execute her or not it was just common courtesy to feed somepony, this was just them being rude.
The light from the sun slowly turned oranger as day shifted to twilight and then eventually to dusk. All the while she heard the ponies hammering away at their makeshift gallows. Applejack took some solace in the fact that them having to make it right now meant they had never actually needed one before. Of course that could also mean that anypony who spoke bad of what they were doing were forced into changing their mind. Old Starlight would approve.
Starting to get bored enough where she was almost falling asleep she finally heard the ponies outside stop working. A moment later her door was being unlocked and Wool Dye, Stout Shoes and Solar were there to greet her. Solar looked especially hopeful, with a Pinkie Pie sized smile on her face.
“Well Applejack, we’d love to have you as part of our town. You seemed like a really nice mare, I think you’d fit in well here.” Wool Dye said as he walked in, almost cheerful. “But I still need to ask, will you embrace The Word of Glimmer?”
Applejack smiled. “Nope.”
Solar’s face fell. “Will you stop lying about Starlight Glimmer?” Wool asked, much less cheerfully.
“I didn’t say a single lie about my friend Starlight.” Applejack would’ve crossed her hooves over her chest if she could.
Solar again looked like she was close to crying. Wool Dye just sighed.
“Alright Stout Shoes, bring her to the gallows.” He left the room to allow Stout Shoes in, who proceeded to carry Applejack’s tied up body to the newly constructed gallows outside.
Any light from the sun was gone, instead lamps and lanterns lit up the center of the town and all the ponies that were gathered there. Applejack was certain that every last one of them was there.
The gallows was a pretty standard affair, a platform with some stairs leading up it and plenty of space below. A wooden beam went up from the back and had another beam emerging from its front where the rope was tied around. Wool Dye walked up first to stand by the trap door and lever, guess he was gonna be pulling it.
“Y’all are making a mistake.” Applejack tried to reason with them. “You should just untie me and we’ll talk things out, Starlight’s a very happy pony now and you can be too, you don’t need to follow this Word of Glimmer stuff.”
A lot of the ponies the crowd tried to cover their ears. Wool Dye just scowled at her.
“Quiet, you’ve made your choice. Stop trying to corrupt the town.”
Applejack, still completely tied up, had to be stood up by Stout Shoes so he could loop the noose around her neck. As he was getting it ready for her Applejack closed her eyes and sighed deeply.
“Well, you’ve made your choice too.”
Applejack sent a tremor into the ropes binding her, tearing them to pieces as they practically exploded off her body. As Stout Shoes and Wool Dye gaped at her in disbelief she used another tremor to obliterate the gallows, the debris flying out around the crowd.
Applejack easily landed on her hooves surrounded by the remains of the gallows with no problem but Stout and Wool ended up falling hard and covered in broken pieces of wood. The two groaned in pain while the crowd screamed in fear and confusion.
“She really is a monster!”
“Run for your lives!”
“I knew she was from Tartarus!”
That last one got another roll of the eyes from Applejack. She watched as the townsponies ran around screaming, a lot of them running into each other and collapsing into beat up heaps. She couldn’t help but take a slight amount of mean-spirited joy in seeing how chaotic everything had become.
Applejack shook her head and turned to Wool Dye. “Hey, there anypony inside those other two buildings?” She asked, pointing at the other small buildings that were next to her detainment room.
Wool was too shaken and scared to say anything so he just shook his head in fear.
“Good.” Applejack sent three tremors to the buildings and destroyed them, causing a fresh new wave of panic to erupt. She looked around to see Solar openly wailing, just sitting there alone in the center of town. Applejack felt a lot worse seeing that, she could feel her face fall. She really didn’t want things to go like this but she also couldn’t let this town keep on going the way it was. At first she thought they were nice and even if they had a warped view of things she was willing to live and let live. But that had unfortunately changed.
Applejack walked up to Solar while all the other ponies continued to run away.
“Hey.” Applejack put a hoof on the sad unicorn’s shoulder.
She opened her eyes through her sobs, she didn’t seem to be any more afraid just cause Applejack was talking to her, just upset and sniffling.
“You’re a nice, well-meaning, pony. But you and your town needs to learn that you can’t do stuff like this.” She gestured at the destroyed gallows. “I don’t agree with The Word of Glimmer or whatever at all and I have to tell you the truth about it and Starlight. Sorry. I just wanted to help you, and I honestly can’t say I’d want you all to go on living like this even if it was the choice you made after learning the truth about everything. But I suppose ponies have their own ways, I got family that are just about as different from me as I am from you. Just don’t hurt anypony or ignore the truth okay?” Applejack smiled and started to walk away.
It was a pretty easy walk out of town. Everypony was either running from her or had already shut themselves indoors. She hoped that she got through to Solar Streak even just a little bit, that would’ve made the past couple days worth it all. If Starlight could change then so could they all.
Applejack had been walking down a well-maintained road for a while now. Instead of just dirt cleared of any plants or errant rocks like the roads she was normally used to she was walking on paved stone that echoed loudly around her every time her hooves hit it. There were even solid stone guardrails on each side to make sure no grass or weeds started growing over the road. It was a bit interesting to her since you wouldn’t normally see this kind of quality so far out of town, or even in town if you were talking about Ponyville. Canterlot or Manehattan sure but the average little village in Equestria wouldn’t have a high quality road like this.
And she wasn’t even in a village yet, somepony had apparently just wanted to make some really nice and professional roads. But Applejack thought it still had to lead to a village or maybe even city. It was just too nice otherwise, and since there wasn’t anything where she started walking on it she must be going to where the road starts and thus the destination the road leads to.
Or somepony really did just wanted to make a nice road in the middle of nowhere that didn’t go anywhere.
But enough of negative thoughts like that. Applejack quietly enjoyed the trees along the side of the road, the leaves were a mix of yellows, oranges and browns, despite the fact that it most definitely was not autumn. Applejack chalked it up to just one more weird thing about wherever she was. The ground as well had a yellowish tint to it, the grass almost the color and appearance of wheat and the dirt a golden-brown under it. Beyond the trees Applejack could see rocky orange mountains in the distance, their color even more vibrant thanks to the rays of sunlight hitting them.
The day was a pretty calm one so far.
Applejack saw that the road went on for a long time right through this small forest before disappearing at the horizon, it probably started to gradually go downhill before leveling off again. Or there was a sudden cliff there. Either way Applejack couldn’t see what might be below her yet, she’d have to walk a little further.
Things were peaceful enough that she started humming to herself, she knew that days that seemed nice and calm had a tendency to end poorly for her but Applejack was going to stay optimistic. It was still fresh and early so if things kept up the way they were now it would be a well-deserved day of relaxation.
I think I’ll head to Ponyville spa pretty much right after I get back too. I’ll need it. Maybe I can organize a spa day for everypony.
As Applejack walked further down the road she noticed that it started to get even nicer looking. The road looked regularly swept clean without any dust or fallen leaves on it and the barriers on the side were painted a fresh sparkly white on top. She had to be getting close to somewhere, the place where the road dipped down a hill was coming up soon, she’d see what awaited her below.
Applejack picked up her pace a bit, she was pretty sure she could see the tops of some tall buildings now. More and more started to unfold in front of her as she got to where the road dropped until finally she was standing there looking out at a whole new town.
It wasn’t as large as Valley or Mountain Town but it was bigger than anything else she’d seen since then. The road Applejack was traveling on gently sloped down the hill and went right on into town. Most of the buildings seemed to be made of stone but painted with mixes of brown, orange, yellow, and red to match the leaves of the trees in the area. This was definitely a town that liked Fall colors. There were some buildings that looked a good five stories high and other short but wide dome-shaped ones with a tortoise shell pattern painted on them. Most other buildings were simple houses or business, the road Applejack was on went straight through the center of town, a large marketplace was at the center, a real town square. Applejack saw what looked to be a big statue of something in the middle of the town square but couldn’t make it out.
Delighted at what she was seeing, Applejack walked down the hill and into town. There were a lot of big oak trees planted around as well as all kinds of different maples. Applejack smiled, this really was a beautiful looking place.
The town was bustling with energy as it seemed just about everypony who could possibly fit in the town was crammed into the streets, Applejack found herself stuck in a crowd and pulled towards town square. She had wanted to look for a place to rest or eat first but oh well.
She could hear the ponies around her remark about how excited they were and how the big day they were waiting for was finally here again. Stuff like that that caught Applejack’s attention but made her a bit confused. Seems she arrived here on a special day, were they having a festival or something? Is that why everypony was out and about?
Dragged as she was to the center of town Applejack eventually was pulled to a stop with the rest of the crowd. She could now see above some of the pony’s heads, that big statue she had seen from afar turned out to be a large bronze statue of a tortoise.
There was a raised dais with a podium at its center in front of the statue, an older mare with a graying willowy mane stood behind it, ready to address the crowd.
“Ladies and gentlecolts!” Her voice was louder and carried a lot further than Applejack would’ve expected. “I am happy to once again ring in this most auspicious of days and occasions.” She paused for a second to look out at the crowd, all of them eagerly hanging onto her words. “In just one hour, it shall be here.”
The whole crowd erupted into cheers and stomping, so much that it took Applejack by surprise.
“For all natives and visitors, head to the cliffs shortly to find yourselves a spot. This shall be a great day!” The mare finished and stepped down from the podium.
The crowd started moving again to Applejack’s left and she was carried along with it once more. Having absolutely no idea what was going on she decided to ask a teal mare with a white mane next to her what this was all about.
“Uh, hey there.” She asked while they were still in motion, walking along with the rest of the ponies. “I’m not from around here, can you tell me what’s going on?”
The mare quizzically looked at her. “You mean you didn’t come here specifically because of today?”
Applejack shook her head. “Nope, I was just going this direction and ended up here. Do you live here or are you visiting too?”
“Oh, I live here! My name is Fall Breeze. In case you didn’t know this town is New Shellville.” She very friendly responded to Applejack.
“Well thanks, and it’s nice to meet you. So what’s so special about today? You got some kind of festival going on?”
“Oh it’s no ordinary festival. Every year on this day is when the big tortoise comes!” She was as excited as Pinkie Pie at a party when she told Applejack that.
“Big tortoise?” Applejack raised an eyebrow, not sure what to make of this all so far.
“Right! It’s amazing that you just happened to turn up here by chance on today of all days! You’re gonna see something incredible. Here-” She grabbed Applejack by the hoof. “Just stay with me and I’ll tell you all about it once we get to the cliff.”
The crowd filed out through the streets of New Shellville, Applejack saw building after building go by until they reached the town limits. Now with a lot more open space Applejack and Fall Breeze could actually move around and stop from being smushed and dragged around by everypony else. Applejack watched as everypony fanned out, walking through yellow grass and then onto dry dirt that kept expanding west.
Fall Breeze led her past many of the ponies. “You see those two mountains up ahead?”
Applejack looked, far ahead were two large mountains facing south and north separated by a wide valley. They were big but not so much that they had snow at the top, at least not at this time of the year.
“Today is the day, every year the big tortoise walks from the south mountain to the north mountain. Our whole town and ponies from all over come to watch its journey.” She happily told Applejack.
“Wait, that’s it?” It didn’t seem like something to be so excited for.
Fall Breeze giggled. “Oh, I know it might not sound like much but just wait and see. Also a lot of ponies will engage in a special ceremony while the tortoise is walking.”
“What special ceremony?”
“In honor of the tortoise, its peacefulness, slowness, steadiness, and dedication, we will sit still and not move for the entirety of its journey.”
Applejack looked at her in surprise. “Really? How long does it take for it to go from one mountain to the other?”
“Exactly twelve hours from when its head first appears from the south and its tail disappears past the north.”
Applejack stared slack-jawed at her. “You mean to tell me ponies just sit there staring at this big ol’ tortoise for twelve hours? And just do nothing?”
“Yes! It’s a test of endurance and inner strength.” Fall Breeze explained. “We do not move in the slightest, or eat, speak, or do anything else. Some ponies have mastered stillness so well that you would not even be able to tell they were breathing.”
“Wow, I guess that’s pretty amazing in its own way.” Applejack continued to walk with her until they came close to the edge of a cliff that looked out over the whole valley where the two mountains sat at opposite ends. Looking around she saw hundreds of other ponies gathered alongside the cliff, some of them had things like blankets, umbrellas, and food with them. Obviously not ones that would be partaking in the ceremony.
“There are only a few ponies from out of town who join in the stillness ceremony as well.” Fall Breeze said. “Pretty much all the ones who do it are those who live here.” She smiled at Applejack. “Would you care to try it as well? It takes a lot of mental and physical fortitude but it’s a truly rewarding experience. If you can do it you’ll feel so empowered.”
Applejack looked at Fall Breeze and thought about it. Compared to all the craziness she’d been through this would be like the opposite of everything else. Just sitting still and watching a tortoise walk from place to place. It would probably be difficult, or even impossible, for her to do it all the way but it seemed like a cool thing to try. Why not see how strong she was?
“Alright, I’ll join ya.”
“Great! It won’t be much longer before it arrives so you should probably stretch as much as possible now and get ready!” Saying that she started stretching and working the kinks out of her body while Applejack joined her.
Five minutes later it was finally time.
A low rumbling from afar and the smallest of shakes coming from the ground beneath their hooves told the gathered ponies that the big tortoise was coming. Instantly the ones who were planning to stay still got into formation, sitting tall and straight with eyes facing forward and already not moving in the slightest. Fall Breeze gave a final smile to Applejack before she too got into position, face becoming an impassive stone mask.
Applejack sat down next to her, focusing as much as she could to stay still. It would be tough doing this without any food but she would try. Since things hadn’t officially started yet she took a few glances at Fall Breeze and some of the other still ponies, they didn’t even look like they were blinking. That would be hard to keep up too.
And then it appeared.
She could see just from where the head was that the thing was gigantic. Big didn’t do it justice. It took almost a full hour of her sitting there waiting but as more of it appeared Applejack was certain that it was by far the largest creature she had seen in her life. The top of its shell came more than halfway up the mountain. But it looked surprisingly sublime, it wasn’t grotesque or a monster, it was just a really, really, big tortoise. And it slowly moved from south to north while Applejack stared at it with unblinking eyes and hoping that no other ponies would mind the noises coming from her stomach.
It was tough sitting there, just watching the turtle slowly walk. Not just staying still or fighting her hunger but fighting boredom too. It was hard for her to imagine ponies actually sitting like this for twelve hours when barely one had passed so far. She still stared straight ahead, trying not to blink or move her eyes either since that was part of it, but already she had memorized every last detail of what she saw in front of her.
I should’ve took tips from Pinkie when we had her watch paint dry…
Applejack’s mind started to wander. She probably was supposed to stay focused on the tortoise or clear her mind but she couldn’t help it. Her body was telling her it wanted to move and if she didn’t at least think of something to take her mind off that she’d never last the whole twelve hours.
Rainbow Dash would seriously lose it trying to do this. Starlight would never have the patience, Fluttershy would be amazed to see such a big tortoise, she might try to fly right up to it. Rarity would get too bored. Twilight could probably do it but she’d have a million questions to ask everypony else afterwards. Spike would start talking immediately. Same with Apple Bloom.
She felt a slight tremble in her lip as she almost laughed thinking about how her friends would handle watching the tortoise but she managed to clamp down on it and stop herself.
Each ponderous step of the tortoise sent out vibrations that could even be felt even from here. If she were right below it it would probably feel like an earthquake.
Still Applejack watched. It was well past noon now and considering when the tortoise started it would be sometime at night that it would be finished. Applejack admittedly failed to remain perfectly still, she had to blink a few times and she made a few slight, curious, glances to Fall Breeze and some of the other ponies sitting still. One time she saw a bird perched on the head of a pony and he wasn’t reacting to it at all, Applejack almost fell over when she saw that.
But for the most part she stayed strong. The growls of her stomach were an annoyance but she knew she couldn’t have been the only one to feel that way.
It was kind of… refreshing. Keeping still was strangely exhausting but this whole experience was so abnormal. Doing… nothing. She’d been through so many weird things and her days were usually packed with work or adventuring. And now here she was just sitting down watching a tortoise.
Fall Breeze was right. This was rewarding.
Applejack took the time to think about her sister, the rest of her family, her farm and her friends and everything else. Just quietly thinking about how much they meant to her and how happy she’d be to be back home. She wanted to close her eyes and almost just let herself drift off with those peaceful thoughts but more than that she wanted to complete the ceremony.
It would be fun to prove to herself that she could, and then she could take a nice long rest. It was strange how calm her mind was as she watched the tortoise compared to her protesting body. She was sore, hungry and a little itchy in places but it was actually getting easier to ignore all that and stay still.
The sun had started going down, it was evening now. The hours seemed to melt into each other and Applejack had no way of telling exactly what time it was. It was just getting dark out now. The tortoise had only just now barely reached the edge of the north mountain, it was on the last leg of its journey.
Applejack could appreciate the nice, even-tempered weather of the day. She and especially the ponies who lived in New Shellville must’ve been lucky that the tortoise came around today instead of on a hotter or colder day.
Wonder if it’s ever rained when it’s been walking…
Now that would be a test of endurance. Applejack thought back to Rainbow Dash, if the two of them were here together they could make a nice competition out of all this. Competing with Dash would make her even better at sitting still. Again she had to fight to stop herself from smirking at the thought of her and Dash sitting here stony faced and not moving a muscle.
Dash might enjoy it a lot more considering Tank though.
It was starting to get late now, there was barely enough light from the moon and stars to see the tortoise. If the sky was cloudy they probably wouldn’t be able to see it at all. It’s steps still reverberated all the way to them though. Applejack couldn’t help but blink, now she was just plain tired, the tortoise’s body was a little more than halfway behind the north mountain. The event was almost over.
She hadn’t taken any sneaky glances at the ponies around her in hours but they must be just as tired as she was. Applejack could hear noise coming from lots of ponies who weren’t partaking in the stillness ceremony, they must be getting ready to pack up their things and leave.
And finally, after twelve hours, the last little tip of the tortoise’s tail disappeared behind the northern mountain.
Applejack took a deep breath and relaxed her tense body. She heard a yawn from beside her and looked to see Fall Breeze getting up and taking a big catlike stretch. The other ponies that had been partaking in the ceremony similarly slowly got back up. All of them were taking things easy and slowly, as if still giving respect to the big tortoise even though the day was done.
Fall Breeze turned to look at Applejack and flashed her a smile. “That was great huh?”
Applejack found herself smiling back. “Yeah, you were right.”
“Since you weren’t planning to come here I’m guessing you don’t have a place to stay?” Fall breeze asked and Applejack shook her head. “That’s great, you can crash at my place for the night! I bet you could really use a nice bed and a good night’s sleep.” The friendly pony grabbed Applejack’s hoof again and started leading her back into town.
“Thanks for all this, and convincing me to join in with y’all.” Applejack saw the mare’s face brighten up at her thanks. “Maybe I’ll come back next year.”
The sun was shining, birds were chirping, squirrels darted about on the trees, and Applejack pleasantly trotted on by. The mountain pass was charming and full of life. It gave Applejack a nice feeling as she walked through it even though she’d been stuck in this mountain range for days. She jumped over a small creek that was flowing down from higher up the mountain, watching a spooked rabbit jump up and run to its burrow.
Once again on her journey Applejack didn’t really have an immediate destination in mind, the only thing that really stood out to her around here was one mountain in the distance much taller than the rest. So tall that its peak even went above the clouds. She figured she might as well go towards it, not like there was anything else, she saw no signs of civilization around. No roads or signs or even just a small walking path at all.
Lots of pretty wildflowers bloomed throughout the pass, she took a second to sniff some pretty azaleas before walking around the flower patch. No need to be rude and trample over them. It was nice that the flowers weren’t filled with bees this time either.
Applejack smiled at how nice things were. She knew that eventually the landscape would return to mostly being a rocky pass through the mountains but for now she was enjoying this oasis.
As the sun got directly overhead she made it to a short cliff wall that marked the end of this little valley nestled between the mountains. It didn’t bother Applejack, she’d scaled much worse in the past. All it took was a few minutes of climbing and she was up and over.
The next few hours were spent walking up the sides of mountains along winding paths that carried her around them. Every now and then there were more sheer cliff faces to scale or gaps in the paths to jump across, at one point she came across a canyon full of rock pillars that she had to keep hopping from one to the other to make it to the other side.
Soon the hot sun was setting and its rays fell across her back. One good thing about going east was that the sun wasn’t in your eyes for the last half of the day. That huge mountain was pretty much dead ahead at this point, not that there was likely anything there anyways.
Maybe it was because of how much she’d been doing stuff like this lately but Applejack didn’t feel as tired as she normally would after going over these mountains.
“Not like I need anymore muscle.” She said to herself. Rockhoof may have been an idol to her but she didn’t exactly want his physique. Let Yona do that.
Applejack found herself walking down the side of a mountain, the huge one stood on its own still further ahead on top of a large plateau with a forest along its base. As Applejack got closer to the plateau she saw the first sign of civilization in a while, a ramp had been dug into its side, allowing anypony to go up it. It was wide enough for three or four carriages to go up side by side at once. She saw no wheel tracks or anything else that signified recent or repetitive use though.
Now that she was actually on the plateau she could make out some more detail. A river flowed from some mountains to the south, directly into and through the forest at the base of the big mountain. And there was something… off about that forest.
It was small and “tidy” looking. Like the trees were kept in a specific area or any errant ones had been removed, instead of a forest all around the base of the mountain like Applejack thought it was it turned out to only be a small circular area of forest in front of the mountain. And there were curiously no trees touching the actual mountain itself, in fact, Applejack couldn’t see even the smallest amount of green on it even though the climate was perfectly fine to allow trees and plants to grow on a mountain here.
Really, she had just walked through mountains that had trees growing all over them, what was different about this one? Was it just a big jagged rock that didn’t have any soil on it?
It was still far away with a number of other hills and rock formations on the plateau that she had to get through first so Applejack continued to trudge on. She walked along a large rock wall and then in-between two huge boulders, Applejack stared up at the clear blue sky she could see through the narrow gap in the rocks. The light was weakening as the sun got lower, soon she wouldn’t be able to see much.
Applejack kicked a pebble and had it ricochet off the rocks around her. She was getting a little bored.
“Hope I can find something before sundown.” She had had enough of sleeping outside without any shelter the past couple days.
It was kind of weird to her that the sky above her was completely clear and devoid of clouds when the entire mountain peak was wholly obscured by them. Maybe some pegasus was messing around up there.
Coming out from between the two boulders Applejack found herself in a sparse woods made of pine trees with a green hill on her right going up into a rockier region that led to more mountains to the south. When she first started on the plateau she hadn’t been able to see this area thanks to the huge rock wall and boulders.
Applejack shrugged to herself and walked on. She was sure there had to be something at the base of that big mountain with all the oddities around it. Maybe a town or farm. Or it could always be some horrible monster. Applejack wouldn’t be surprised by that.
Rolling her eyes at her own thoughts, Applejack was about to start looking around for any fruit trees when she heard something.
“Look out below!”
Applejack turned to the hill to see a jumbled mess of ponies tumbling down it right in her direction. She played it cool and simply raised an eyebrow, gingerly stepping out of the way as the ball of ponies rolled right past her and smacked into a pine tree, the three new ponies bouncing away from each other and groaning in pain.
“Ohhh, my head… I told you that rock didn’t look steady.” A bright white unicorn mare said as she clutched her head while laying flush on the ground.
“It’s not my fault, I didn’t ask you to try and save me.” A dark blue unicorn stallion said as he sat up against the tree trunk, rubbing his head.
“That was fun, let’s do it again!” A giggly pink unicorn mare said as she laid down on her back, holding her stomach while she laughed.
The thought occurred to Applejack that it might be a better idea to slowly walk away and leave these unicorns before they noticed her. She had had enough silliness lately and these three just screamed silliness. But then again…
“Uh, are y’all alright? That looked like a pretty bad tumble.”
Curse her good nature.
The three unicorns looked to her in surprise. Quickly they picked themselves off the ground, the pink and blue ones looked friendly enough, walking to Applejack with a smile, while the white one looked at her with a thoughtful expression.
“Are you from around here?” The white unicorn asked, she also had a bright and straight yellow mane and tail with an orange streak running through it and a Cutie Mark of the sun peaking over the horizon.
Applejack shook her head. “Nope, and I guess you aren’t either then?”
“This isn’t somewhere ponies would typically travel to.” The white unicorn basically ignored Applejack’s question. “What are you doing out here?”
Applejack frowned. “I’m just passing through on my way home. Name’s Applejack, now what about you?”
Before the white unicorn could respond the pink one, whose mane and tail were a mix of red and purple streaks, spoke up. “My name’s Sugar Spirit! Hi!” She pranced up and down on her hooves, showing off her Cutie Mark of a sparkling swirl.
The white unicorn rolled her eyes but then smiled at Applejack. “Fine, I guess there’s no reason to put on a tough face. I’m Daylight Gleam.”
“And I’m Star Blaze.” The lone stallion said, his short black mane stopping right above his eyes. He had the Cutie Mark of a bright white star on his flank.
“Well okay, nice to meet you all I guess. So you aint from around here either right?” Applejack asked again, raising an eyebrow at the unicorns.
“No, we only recently got here. However, we’re going this way on purpose, I can’t imagine that we’ve stumbled upon another pony going to Greed Volcano at the same time so what are you doing here?” Daylight Gleam asked her.
“Greed Volcano? I don’t know anything about that, I’m just going home and ended up here. Is Greed Volcano that big mountain? I figured it was just a good place to walk to instead of wandering about aimlessly.”
“Figured as much, so you don’t know anything about Greed Volcano then?” Daylight Glean questioned.
Applejack just shook her head.
Daylight Gleam smiled. “Well first off then yes, that big mountain is indeed a volcano, from what we’ve heard those clouds constantly obscure the top so you can’t tell just by looking at it from far off. And why I’m so surprised that another pony would be going towards it is that it has quite the bad reputation. You must really not be from around here.”
Applejack sighed. “Unfortunately yeah, I don’t even know how I might get back on the road to home.” She thought about what Daylight had said to her before looking back over the three unicorns. “So what’s the bad reputation? And why are you going to the volcano too then?”
“Allow me to explain!” Star Blaze stepped in front of Daylight Gleam to speak to Applejack. “Long ago an evil unicorn king ruled these lands, that was centuries ago but a descendant or some other unicorn still currently has control of Greed Volcano and rules the city under it with an iron hoof. Any ponies who traveled to the city, or worse, inside the volcano itself, have never been heard from again. Either enslaved or imprisoned or who knows by the evil ruler. You’re lucky you ran into… or well, lucky we fell in front of you when we did. Or you would’ve ended up in a very bad situation.”
“Thanks then.” Applejack frowned as she heard about what was happening at Greed Volcano, it sounded really bad. “But then why are you going there?”
Daylight Gleam was about to answer when Star Blaze interrupted her. “For the treasure!” He shouted out, face a bit uncomfortably close to Applejack’s. “For you see, Greed Volcano is named after that old evil unicorn king. King Avarice! His greed knew no bounds, any treasure he heard of he had his minions steal. That volcano is a vault of treasure and all kinds of artifacts!”
“King Avarice?” Applejack scrunched her eyebrows together. “That his real name or did ponies just start calling him that?”
“Records are unclear.” Daylight said while Sugar Spirit shrugged.
“So y’all are looking to find his treasure or something?” Applejack’s impression of the three unicorn’s was waning. She didn’t care much for such materialism. Course not everypony looking to make a few bits was like Flim and Flam, she shouldn’t judge them just yet.
“Yes!” Star Blaze answered again. “The three of us are lifelong friends. We are a trio of treasure-hunters, explorers, and criminals!” As he finished up that last part his eyes widened while Daylight glared at him and Sugar Spirit bit her lip to stop from laughing. “Oops. I keep forgetting to leave that last part out.”
Applejack slowly backed away from the three, fixing them with an uncertain stare. “Okay then...”
“Wait, wait!” Daylight Gleam shook her hooves, trying to calm Applejack down. “Ignore this idiot, we’re not bad ponies. It’s true that sometimes our activities have brought us in conflict with the law but we never steal anything personal or hurt anypony.”
Star Blaze nodded along. “Yes, sorry for worrying you.”
Applejack, despite being tricked and lied to numerous times, still felt she had a pretty good sense for other ponies. She didn’t care much for how these unicorns apparently spent their days but they didn’t seem that bad. She scratched behind her ears for a second as she sized them up.
“Well, okay… I guess you seem alright.” Applejack gave a small and uncertain smile to them.
“Oh, thank you, I really didn’t want another pony getting the wrong idea about us.” Daylight exhaled, holding a hoof to her chest. “It was nice meeting you, the three of us should probably get a move on. You’re welcome to join us for now if you want but you’ll probably want to turn around or head somewhere else when we get close to the volcano.”
It definitely would’ve made sense to do that. Again she had no stake in any of this and it was just another distraction on her long journey home. But if there were really ponies being oppressed…
“Actually.” Applejack said, making Daylight and Star perk up while Sugar Spirit merrily stared at her. “I’d like to come with you all the way. I’m a pretty capable pony just so you know, and I can’t just let some cruel tyrant do what he wants to innocent ponies. I’ve fought against that kind of thing before.”
The three looked between each other, Sugar Spirit constantly shaking like a kid that couldn’t sit still, and looked back at Applejack.
“Well, if you’re up for it. We’re not gonna say no to another pony that can carry treasure.” Daylight said with a shrug. “I guess the danger doesn’t worry you but can you be sneaky? I mean, we’re not heroes you know? We’re not gonna just charge into the city and demand the ruler stop being an evil dictator or whatever.”
“That’s fine by me, I can do my thing and you can do yours. But after what you said there’s no way I’m not going there so I figure it’s better if we at least work together a little.” Applejack said to the three.
They didn’t have a problem with that. And so Applejack, Daylight Gleam, Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit walked towards Greed Volcano. The sun was almost down and night would be upon them soon. What better time to sneak into a city than the dead of night?
They crept through the forest under the cover of nightfall. It was dead midnight if Applejack’s estimate was right. She hadn’t seen any other ponies while they made their way through the forest but the four of them wanted to be sure they didn’t run afoul of any guards or soldiers that might work for the ruler of Greed Volcano. None of them really knew what to expect since all they had to go on were old anecdotes and the knowledge that nopony who went further than this ever returned.
What was worse for Applejack was that under the trees the moon and stars really didn’t provide enough light for vision. It was at the point where even after her eyes had fully adjusted she could barely make out more than shapes.
“Uh, any of y’all have a spell that makes a light?” She asked her companions.
They stopped for a second, Star Blaze answered her. “Yes but it’s risky. Making a light could completely give away our position.”
“I guess, I’m just worried that with us fumbling around like this we wont even see if somepony has caught onto us.” Applejack said. “Also how exactly are we going to sneak in to this city or whatever if we can’t even see it?”
“That’s true...” Daylight said. “We may have to take the risk or just get close to the city and then sneak in once the sun comes up.”
“Do we even need to sneak in? Is there a wall or something?” Applejack asked them.
“Old records say there was a stone wall with guard towers built around the city back when King Avarice ruled.” Star Blaze answered. “No reason to think it isn’t there anymore.”
As Applejack was mulling over what they should do, Daylight Gleam spoke up again. “I think I have an answer to our light problem.” Applejack looked at her, barely able to see a pearly white smile on her face in the darkness. “I’ve been working on some more useful spells for our adventures, stand close and give me a second.”
Applejack and the other two walked up next to Daylight Gleam as her horn glowed a light blue. A shimmering dome was projected over the four of them before disappearing, it looked like nothing had changed at all.
“Uh, what was-”
Before Applejack could ask, Sugar Spirit brushed past her and wrapped Daylight in a hug. “Wow! A real camouflage spell! You’re getting better at magic every day, Daylight!” She giggled at her little pun.
“Camouflage?” Applejack asked as she looked around herself to see if anything was different.
“I suppose it would be difficult for a non-unicorn to tell.” Daylight responded. “I just casted a special camouflage spell around us, the dome will move with us so we can also hide a light under it. During the day it would be pretty easy to see in motion but with how dark it is outside nopony should be able to tell.” She looked over at Star Blaze. “You can make your light now.”
“No problem.” Star said as a purple glow lit up around his horn. A second later a ball of light was made at the tip, Star moved it so it was in front of the four of them, right at the edge of the camouflage dome. Star proudly grinned at Applejack. “Something like this is actually my specialty, I got my Cutie Mark by sneaking around at night.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow at him. “That doesn’t really help your “We’re not criminals” case you know?”
Star’s grin vanished and he looked away, attempting and failing to whistle nonchalantly while Daylight glared at him some more.
“Let’s just get moving.” Daylight said and started walking. “And remember to keep close so you don't accidentally leave the dome. And we still need to be quiet, this doesn’t block out sound.”
Applejack, Sugar Spirit and Star Blaze quietly crept up close around her. The little ball of light now giving them perfect vision of the forest around them. The four quietly continued on to their destination, looking for any sort of landmark or watching for other ponies.
But the night was still. Applejack knew they had to be close to whatever city was at the base of the mountain since the forest was relatively small but they still hadn’t come across anything yet.
“Do you think we’re going in the right direction?” She asked the others. “We’re not going sideways or something are we?”
“Nope, don’t worry, I can smell a city in front of us.” Sugar Spirit said and smiled at her.
“Okay, guess I’ll take your word for that then.” Applejack decided not to press the issue, Sugar Spirit acted odd enough so Applejack might as well give her the benefit of the doubt.
What does a city smell like anyways?
The three treasure-hunters and Applejack walked for probably a good hour longer. It was slow going since Daylight wanted to be sure that none of them messed up the camouflage or that the light didn’t accidentally peek out. Star Blaze was fine guiding the light while Sugar Spirit clearly wanted to start moving around some more, Applejack could tell that she was not a pony who liked to go slow.
“Hold on, I can see something up ahead.” Star Blaze said as he squinted ahead.
Applejack looked too, it did seem like there was some sort of shadow or structure in the distance. The wall?
When they got closer the trees around them started to thin, it definitely wasn’t natural, much like back at Mountain Town Applejack could see the trees were removed by somepony. Unlike there though it wasn’t just the trees being cut down, Applejack could tell that the entire stump and all the roots of the trees were dug up too and the hole filled with dirt. Taking another few steps it was like they had crossed a border of some kind, there was no longer any grass beneath their hooves, just brown dirt, nor any plants growing and the trees all stopped in a straight line right before the dirt.
“How come nothing is growing here?” Sugar Spirit asked.
“It looks like the ground’s been repeatedly dug up and salted.” Applejack said. When the others turned to look at her she decided to elaborate. “I’m a farmer. The ponies that did this wanted to stop anything from growing too close to their wall. So they boxed the forest in, that’s why it looks so uniform.”
Star Blaze shrugged. “Works for me. Come on, the wall is right there.”
He was right, a large stone wall came up out of the darkness, only the tiniest section of it being illuminated by Star Blaze’s light spell. Craning her neck, Applejack would say the wall went up a good 30 feet, and just like she had heard there were big round towers built at even intervals along it that went up another 30 feet.
“Alright, we can follow along the wall now until we get to an entrance.” Daylight said, she started walking when Applejack told her to stop.
“Hold on, shouldn’t there be guards or something around? I don’t see anything on the walls or the towers. Not even any lanterns or anything for guards to use.”
Daylight stopped and looked up as well. “That is curious. You’d think that whatever pony has such a grip on this city would have guards on his walls. From the looks of things I don’t know if we even needed to bother with my spell.” She frowned, deep in thought.
“Well maybe...” Sugar Spirit said, getting the others to look at her. “Maybe they don’t care about ponies getting in. Maybe the walls are to keep ponies inside from getting out.”
That was something of a worrying thought to Applejack. Something just felt bad about this place.
“No sense worrying now. We can take things as they come.” Daylight said, a sentiment Applejack was more than willing to share.
Daylight started walking along the bottom of the wall, still keeping up the camouflage just in case, while the others walked with her.
The city must’ve been quite big since it took them a good thirty minutes of walking before they reached a gatehouse. Applejack presumed that it must’ve been built in the center of the wall, that just made sense after all. And if the wall and the city extended all the way back to the base of the volcano the city inside would cover maybe even more space than Canterlot.
“Well the door’s open.” Star Blaze said, looking at the gatehouse with its huge portcullis raised as if it was inviting in any ponies that wandered by.
With how dark it was out Applejack couldn’t see to the other end of the gatehouse but it didn’t look very far until it opened up to the city’s interior.
“So do we just… go in?” Applejack asked.
“There might be guards on the inside.” Daylight said. “If this really is all about keeping ponies in, and this is the only way in or out we’ve seen, we’ve gotta be careful, this camouflage spell will be pretty easy to see for anypony that’s up close. Even with it being this dark out.”
“Well we don’t have any rope to climb so there’s not really anything else we can do unless you know some teleportation or levitation spells.” Applejack said to the three, Twilight and Starlight could do that kind of stuff easy but they were hardly normal.
As expected the three unicorns just shook their heads.
Applejack sighed. “Okay, let’s just take it slowly.”
This time Sugar Spirit groaned and rolled her eyes but the four of them still proceeded, close together and walking slowly to try and make sure they didn’t give themselves away.
Star Blaze’s light lit up the inside of the gatehouse, the light shining off the stone ceiling and walls around them but nothing else. It was probably about a fifty foot walk, meaning that the wall was much thinner, not like that mattered much but still good for Applejack to know in case she had to get a little more physical. So it was that quietly they got to the end of the gatehouse, it would just be a few more steps before they emerged on the other side. Applejack didn’t see or hear any sign of guards but she wasn’t letting her guard down.
The moment she passed through completely she felt a little pinch at the back of her neck. Not even as strong as a mosquito bite but her hoof still reflexively went back to rub her neck. Nothing was there though so she just shrugged.
“Hm, so I guess there aren’t any guards here either?” Daylight said as all four of them stepped out into the city proper.
It was true, there wasn’t a single soul around the gatehouse even on the interior side.
But that didn’t mean the city was empty.
Applejack didn’t see any ponies wandering the streets but the massive amount of houses and buildings that sprawled out endlessly before her were filled with signs of life. Windows had light in them with shadows moving in front of them, the streets were well-worn and filled with shops closed up for the night. Smoke rose from chimneys that she couldn’t see from when they were outside. The city had a big classical look to it, the houses and other buildings reminding her a lot of Ponyville and Canterlot.
And all the way in the back, Greed Volcano shot up into the sky. The city seemed to pretty much be built all the way up to its base but as she was already able to tell from afar there definitely weren’t any buildings actually built on it or touching it. The wall around the city was probably the only thing that actually touched the volcano.
“Guess so, so now what do we do?” Applejack finally responded to Daylight, shooting her a glance. “Do we wait un...til… were you always wearing a choker?” Applejack asked in confusion as she looked at the black band around Daylight Gleam’s neck.
“What are you… you’re wearing one too!” Daylight said in surprise, staring at Applejack’s neck.
Applejack’s eyes widened in surprise, she couldn’t see it for herself but a quick look at Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit showed her that they had the same black bands around their neck.
“What are these?” Sugar Spirit said as she raised her hooves to her neck, rubbing at the band. “I don’t feel anything!”
“It’s like they’re painted on, or branded right to us like a Cutie Mark.” Star Blaze said as he rubbed Daylight’s neck.
“Okay great, so how’d they get on us?” Daylight asked in frustration.
Suddenly Applejack’s eyes widened. “That pinch… did y’all feel something like a mosquito bite when we walked in here?”
At their faces of recognition Applejack knew she had struck gold.
Daylight Gleam frowned, her face filling up with worry as she looked at the stone archway of the gatehouse they had just passed through. “We might be in trouble, I think I know what these bands do. No wonder there aren’t any guards.”
Sweat fell from Applejack’s brow as she pushed herself forward with all her might. Her hooves dug into the dirt beneath her, muscles straining as she tried to walk forward. But it was no good. No matter what she did she couldn’t take another step, it was like an invisible wall or force was pushing back against her.
The unicorns had the same problem, and no amount of prodding or studying the black bands with magic was getting them anywhere. They were harder to get off than molasses in fur.
Applejack let out a breath and fell backwards, giving up for now. She lay there on her back panting and sweating from the exertion while Daylight tried covering herself in a magic aura and walking through only to be repelled by the same force. Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit sat there frowning, unsure of what to do, it was clear that Daylight Gleam was the most gifted when it came to spells and general unicorn magic. If she couldn’t figure out how to get the bands off or get through the barrier then none of them could.
“It seems that these bands react with the magic placed around the gatehouse. When we get near we are automatically repelled like two magnets of the same polarity.” She rubbed her chin in thought. “I assume that this magical field covers the entire city, otherwise any pegasus or teleporter could leave. And another spell obviously works to automatically fix one with these bands when we pass through the barrier from the outside. How vexing, it’s invisible too. Whatever unicorn did this is exceptionally powerful.”
Applejack stuck her tongue out at the sky. Twilight or Starlight could make short work of this I bet. Ugh, why do I have to deal with more crazy magic?
Daylight Gleam and Star Blaze had long turned off their camouflage and light spells respectively, there was no real need to keep them up anymore. There was nopony around to spot them and there was enough light from the stars and other lights from within the city for them to see well enough at the moment.
“So what do we do now then? Just sneak through the city to the volcano?” Applejack asked the three.
They shared a look with each other and Star Blaze rubbed the back of his neck while Sugar Spirit started whistling and avoiding Applejack’s eyes.
Applejack stared blankly at them. “You… you all didn’t plan this far ahead did you?”
“Well how could we?” Daylight Gleam said, blushing indignantly. “Nopony knew what was in here.”
“Winging it has worked pretty well for us in the past too.” Star Blaze said.
“That’s not reassuring at all.” Applejack shook her head at the unicorns. “Good grief, I should’ve just walked away.”
Daylight walked up to her. “Look, I know we may not look like much but we’ve been on a lot of adventures and found a lot of lost treasures, sometimes that involves dealing with crazy magic or big monsters. We’re used to this kind of thing okay? We know what we’re doing. Most of the time.”
“Oh I’ve dealt with a lot of stuff like that too, I guess the difference is that I’d prefer not to do the kinds of things that get me involved with all that.” Applejack said back to her.
“Well none of us forced you to come with us.” Daylight scowled at her.
“I know, I knew I was just getting myself into trouble again. I really didn’t want to get involved in another big mess but if what you said about what was going on here was true I didn’t want to just leave innocent ponies to suffer either. That’s just how I am.” Applejack stood up tall and proudly.
“Yes, we know, you told us this earlier.” Daylight said. “Kind of weird to me, not used to seeing such a selfless pony where we’re from. But whatever, we’re still going to the same place.” Daylight looked down past the city. “Greed Volcano.”
Applejack looked at it too. “Yeah. Now we just gotta get inside.”
“How though?” Star Blaze walked over to them. “It would take too long to get there before morning, and even if there aren’t any guards around here maybe there are some guarding the way into the volcano. Also it would be pretty easy to get lost in a huge city like this and we have no idea just what the ponies living here are even like.”
“I have a suggestion!” Sugar Spirit shouted at them. Far too loudly for the middle of the night when they’re trying to be sneaky.
Of course though she needed to shout for them to hear her since she had wandered over to the nearest house.
“Sugar! What are you doing?!” Daylight said through clenched teeth.
“I’m knocking.” And the pink unicorn raised her hoof and banged loudly on the front door. “Hello? Anypony home? Sorry to bother you at night but do you mind if we come in?”
Applejack and the others just stared with their mouths wide open.
Lights turned on in the house, it was a small home built for a single family at most lying on the very edge of the city, the last house on the road before it ended and turned to the ground that eventually led to the gatehouse they had walked through.
Daylight, Star Blaze and Applejack ran up to Sugar Spirit, clamping their hooves over her mouth and grabbing her hoof so she couldn’t bang on the door anymore.
“Are ya nuts?!” Applejack whispered to her, trying to pull her away from the door.
“Who’s there? What’s the matter with you, banging on my door like that in the middle of the night!” A stallion’s voice called out from inside the house, it sounded like he was getting close.
“Let’s go already!” Star Blaze said.
But Sugar Spirit was having none of it. “Let go of me! I was curious about the ponies living here, let’s talk to them!” She bit Star Blazes hoof, causing him to yelp and fall backwards, accidentally tripping up Applejack and Daylight too. The three of them started to fall over together, in a last desperate grab Applejack reached out and pulled on Sugar Spirit’s tail, causing her to squeal and fall over with the rest of them.
THUD!
The four ponies lay there in a groaning, tangled heap. Which is how the occupant of the house found them when he opened the door.
“Just what in Avarice’s name is going on here?”
Applejack looked up to see an old beige colored stallion with receding white hair looking at them with a mix of confusion and annoyance. She also noticed that he had the same black band around his neck that they did.
“What got into you kids heads that you felt like bothering a poor old stallion in his sleep?” He grimaced at the unwelcome ponies on his doorstep.
Applejack was going to apologize but something about the stallion made the words die in her throat. His eyes were… empty. Like a doll’s eyes. Like a pony that never thought they’d feel joy again. She had seen those eyes in the mirror when she was younger.
“We’re sorry sir.” Daylight Gleam said as she tried to remove herself from the others. “We-” She looked at his band and then brought a hoof up to her neck, frowning in thought. “You know, I don’t think there’s any point in hiding things right now.” She stood up and shook herself off. “The four of us just came through the gateway, and now we’re trapped. We came looking for whatever treasure might be in Greed Volcano.”
“We? I came to help ponies.” Applejack corrected as she got up, Daylight mostly ignored her though.
He looked at them like they told him they were gonna go swimming in the volcano. “I think you just got yourselves in a whole mess of trouble then. Nothing leaves this city and nopony can cross King Avarice.”
Daylight Gleam’s nose scrunched up and she scowled at the old stallion. “What are you talking about? King Avarice lived hundreds of years ago, he’s long dead by now.”
The old stallion’s head hung low as he stared at the ground. “I think the four of you might want to come inside for a bit.” He turned around and walked back into his house, leaving the door open for Applejack and the unicorns.
Applejack walked in with the others following her, instantly she realized something was wrong with the house.
There was nothing personal in it at all, and nothing that wasn’t directly needed for it to function as a house. The floorboards were bare, there were no pictures of family members hanging on any walls, no flowers, in the living room there was only a single small table and one chair, no carpets or rugs of any sort, not even any paint on the walls.
This is the kind of house that Rarity sees in her nightmares. Applejack mused.
She saw her unicorn friends frowning as they looked around the interior of the house as well, they too noticed its strangeness.
“Is this normal here?” Star Blaze asked.
The stallion sat down in the one chair in the living room, leaving the rest to stand. “Everything in this city belongs to King Avarice. We get nothing but the barest essentials.”
Applejack sadly walked up to him and put a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “I’m sorry you have to live under a King like that, Mr.?”
The old stallion shook his head. “I don’t remember, my name belongs to the King too.”
Daylight Gleam frowned. “Just what is going n here? How can King Avarice be alive? Is he responsible for these bands and that spell around the city?”
“Alive?” The stallion glanced up at her words. “No, not alive, but not dead either. Nopony here knows exactly what happened since it was centuries ago. But King Avarice never died. His body may have, but legends say his greed was so powerful that he refused to pass on and leave his worldly possessions behind. He’s nothing more than a skeleton now, but he’s not dead. And he’s just as powerful and evil as he ever was.”
The unicorns, even the carefree Sugar Spirit, worriedly looked between each other.
“I take it you’re actually not quite used to something like this?” Applejack questioned.
“It’s a tad bit more worrying than usual.” Star Blaze admitted.
“Look, whatever, we just need to find a way to undo this stupid spell on us.” Daylight said.
“It’s impossible.” The old stallion told them. “Like I said, everything here belongs to King Avarice. Our whole lives revolve around giving to him.”
That didn’t sound good. “What do you mean?” Applejack asked him.
“Ponies in this city fulfill one of four roles. The first is as guards for Greed Volcano. King Avarice mostly uses unicorns for that, but they’re just as much of slaves as the rest of us. The second is miners, any pony in good enough shape is sent into the mines below the volcano to mine out any precious gems or minerals.”
“Whoa, hold up a second.” Daylight stopped him. “Mining under a volcano? That sounds incredibly dangerous.”
The stallion just shrugged. “You think King Avarice cares? He wants every last little piece of treasure he can get his hooves on. That’s all. Anyways the third group is craftsponies, they take any gold or gems found in the mine and turn them into jewelry and other works of art for the King. They may also paint or make sculptures or whatever, anything the King can deem a treasure. And of course it all goes to him inside Greed Volcano. Once a month everything gets sent into the volcano for King Avarice, if it’s not enough or not good enough for him he’ll wreak terrible retribution across the city. And the last group is ponies like me, farmers who help grow just enough food for ponies to survive in here. Pretty much nothing but the plainest wheat that makes low-quality bread.”
The stallion stared at the four new ponies with his old, empty eyes. “You four will be made to work soon enough as well, the guards will find you and force you into whatever job you look best at, and then you’ll do them until the day you die, just like me. That’s how this city works.”
“That’s… this is horrible!” Applejack growled out and turned to the unicorns. “We’ve got to stop him!”
Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit just chewed on their lips and tried to act like they hadn’t heard her. But Daylight Gleam was a different story.
“As much as I would like to avoid any such confrontation.” She said as she used her magic to twist her two friends ears to make them pay attention. “I think we’re going to have to do something about King Avarice if we ever want to get out of here.”
Applejack smiled in relief. But the old stallion just shook his head.
“There’s nothing you can do.”
Applejack turned to him. “Yes there is, I just don’t know what it is yet.” Her expression grew softer. “Uh, but pardon me for asking, can we stay here for the night?”
Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit grinned in embarrassment at the old stallion. He just shrugged and went upstairs, not having any extra rooms or beds to offer. It was uncomfortable sleeping on the floor but Applejack had dealt with worse. Tomorrow morning would come the real problem.
The next morning saw the four of them sneaking around through back alleys in the city. They had been warned by the old stallion that if they looked like they were just wandering around aimlessly everypony in the city would know they were new arrivals. So they tried to stay out of sight as best they could, Applejack was pretty confident in her ability to handle any guards that might try to stop them but she’d prefer to avoid any conflict if she could. And according to their host last night the guards were forced into their role just as much as any other pony here.
They had gotten lost a few times, the city was large and they had no map and it’s not like they could ask for directions either. Despite Sugar Spirit attempting to.
Now the party of four was stuck in an alley hiding behind some trash cans while ponies buzzed around on the street. Applejack couldn’t hear any talking or conversations going on, these ponies were going about their business and nothing else. Despite how large the city was Applejack didn’t see as many ponies as she suspected, she wondered just how many worked in the mines under the volcano.
“What do we even do now?” Star Blaze asked. “Do we just wait for night to fall again and put on your camouflage spell?”
“He said there were guards at the entrance to the volcano at all times, at best we’d get there and then have to figure out another way in.” Daylight Gleam answered. “I think we should come up with an actual plan for once.”
“That’s boring, let’s just go and ask a pony out there the quickest way to the volcano!” Sugar interjected.
“No, for the last time, no. We’re not doing that. If King Avarice has the power to automatically put these stupid bands on any pony who enters the city he might have other powers too.” Daylight said as she glared at her pink friend. “I am not going to walk out there, get attacked by guards, and thrown into a volcanic mine.”
Applejack nodded. “Yeah, I’ve gotta agree with Daylight on this one. I think it would probably be a bad idea to just start talking to random ponies here. That old timer said King Avarice himself would sometimes come out and do things if he was angry, and a bunch of foreign ponies causing trouble in his town might be a little upsetting.”
“Sorry Sugar, three votes to one for being incognito.” Star Blaze shrugged at her.
“Ughhhh.” She rolled her eyes and tittered on the ground, tired of standing still for so long. “Fine, so just what are we going to do?”
And so it was that the four of them walked down the street with the other ponies trying to look like they fit in as much as possible. Applejack and the unicorns walked with solemn, serious expressions and didn’t speak. They had no idea where they were going, just that it was in the direction of the volcano. Other ponies walking on the street with them looked despondent and had the same empty eyes as the old stallion, Applejack hoped that none of them looked at her too hard to see her eyes weren’t the same.
Many of the city ponies were carrying something like boxes or tools but there were enough that weren’t that made Applejack feel okay that she and her companions didn’t have anything either.
It was still depressing to her to see all these ponies forced into working for King Avarice, every single one of them had the black band around their necks. It was difficult for Applejack to keep from getting an angry expression on her face.
When I get my hooves on this King I’m gonna tell him what’s for.
They hadn’t yet come up with a plan for actually getting inside the volcano, Daylight said that until they saw what the entrance was like and how the guards were that there wouldn’t be much point. Applejack had to agree, she was used to winging things anyways if it came down to it. The three unicorns seemed to have winging it as their usual way of doing things too.
Passing by a large shop on the street, Applejack glanced inside its window to see ponies tirelessly working on making necklaces fitted with crystals and gemstones. They seemed unusually stressed until Applejack remembered that if what they made wasn’t good enough for the King he’d punish them.
As the group turned a corner Applejack saw what she assumed was a guard. They were a unicorn wearing a gray-blue armor with absurdly large pauldrons and a helmet with a small spike for their horn. The guard stood in the middle of an intersection and hawkishly watched the ponies around them for any sign of lollygagging or anything out of the ordinary. But even with his attentive eyes Applejack could see the depression and loathing behind them.
The guards were indeed slaves as well.
If that guard really looks at us he’d probably notice that we don’t normally come this way, unless he isn’t normally here either. Applejack stopped glancing at him and kept walking forward with the others in tow, trying to look as natural as possible.
They proceeded towards Greed Volcano, now close enough that it completely made up the background scenery of the city and they were unable to see around it by looking straight on. The party of four had wandered into a more industrial part of the city, large factory-looking buildings now lined the streets, busy smokestacks on top. This must be where the raw materials that are mined get forged. Among other things.
Applejack could see soot covered ponies walking between buildings, a pegasus guard flew in circles around the roofs to make sure things were proceeding as normal.
Unfortunately it seemed they had gone down the wrong street, where they were walking ended in a large brick wall. Applejack was worried that stopping and turning around would draw attention so not missing a beat she walked sideways into the factory yard, walking down the side of the large building next to the brick wall to the next street over, hoping that they’d find a way forward there.
“I don’t think we should be walking here.” Daylight whispered from behind her.
“There’s no place else to go.” Applejack whispered back, glancing up with one eye to make sure the pegasus guard wasn’t paying any extra attention to them.
The dirt and gravel crunched under their hooves, it was lucky that there weren’t any gates keeping them out of the factory yard but Applejack couldn’t imagine there was any crime in this city that needed to be prevented. As they passed through the yard and made it to the other side Applejack turned a corner to continue on to the volcano, only to just about walk right into a blue stallion.
“Whoa!” She backed up to avoid charging over him while his eyes opened wide and he glanced between the four of them in fear.
“Who are you? You shouldn’t be here.” He said nervously. The pony was wearing an engineer’s hat and his coat was messy with soot like the other ponies Applejack had seen.
“We’re trying to get to the volcano!” Sugar Spirit instantly responded.
“Sugar!” Daylight growled at her while Star Blaze exasperatedly shook his head.
Applejack looked into the sky but she could no longer see the pegasus guard from where they were standing.
“You’re new here aren’t you?” The stallion asked. “Well whatever, I don’t care what you get up to but I can’t be caught standing around.” He moved to walk past them when Applejack grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Wait, please! Can you just tell us where the entrance to the volcano is?”
He shot her a glare. “If you leave me alone then fine.” He pointed down the street he came from. “Go down here, turn right at the first intersection, then left, right at the second street, left at the third street, and then you’re heading on straight to the volcano’s entrance.” He shook off Applejack’s hoof and started to walk away.
“Thank you.” Applejack said to him.
He snorted. “Not like me telling you matters, there’s nothing you can do.”
Applejack and the others ignored his parting remarks and followed his directions. As they got closer and closer to the volcano they started to notice more guards walking around, but they were never confronted. It seems the guards were either willfully ignoring them or only looking for ponies that didn’t appear to be working. Maybe they did know Applejack and her group were new but figured they had already been pushed into their new jobs.
Finally making the last turn the earth pony and three unicorns found themselves on a straight road lined with large brick walls painted a foreboding black. At the very end of the road was an ornate golden gate that was left open, the end of the actual city. Beyond that gate were huge slabs of hexagonal stones all put together to make up the ground all the way to the base of the volcano. And at the base of the huge volcano an entrance had been built out, it looked like the mouth of a lion with large stone steps at the bottom and fangs carved at the top with reinforced columns of stone lining it. There were two guards just like they had expected standing watch outside it.
“So what do we do now?” Star Blaze asked. “There’s no other way in and we’d never get past those two guards without them noticing, in fact they definitely already see us walking right now.”
He was right, Applejack had continued to just walk down the walled-in road so as not to ruin their “disguise” but now they had very little time to figure out what they would actually do when they would get to the guards.
“Well there’s no place to hide and we can’t just stop, that’d get them onto us real quick.” Daylight said. “There’s only two of them, let’s just keep walking forward like everything is normal and then knock them out.”
“But what if there’s some kind of password or magical alarm or something we don’t know about?” Star shot back to her.
Applejack was getting a little nervous, they had already passed the golden gate and now it was less than a hundred feet before they’d have to explain to the guards just what they were doing here. Or suddenly attack them if it came down to it. Whichever.
“Let’s just talk to them! Come oooon, you haven’t been listening to me at all.” Sugar Spirit said from behind them all. She was starting to whimper and bounce around, a surefire signal to the guards that they were abnormal ponies for the city.
“Sugar, that’s crazy, these are guards enslaved by an evil, crazy, unicorn king. We can not just walk up to them and say “Please let us into your king’s volcano so we can put a stop to him and steal all his treasure”, okay?” Daylight tried to express to her.
Sugar was about to respond but Applejack beat her to it.
“Actually, that aint a bad idea.” She said as she kept walking along over the hexagonal stones, all their hooves making a loud thunk with each step.
“Excuse me?!” Daylight incredulously asked. “What are you thinking?”
Applejack kept her face forward as she walked towards the entrance. “Look, these guards are just as empty and broken as all the other ponies in here. They’re doing their job purely out of fear and routine. You notice how everypony has said that what we’re doing is pointless? Well then what point is there in these guards stopping us? If we can’t do anything to King Avarice then they might as well just let us on through, right? That’s what I’m gonna ask them.”
Daylight quickly walked up beside her and stared her in the eye. “That. Is. Stupid.”
Applejack just smiled back. “Oh, believe me, I’ve seen stupid. This aint even half stupid.”
The unicorn just threw up her hooves and kept walking.
By now the guards were fixing them with a long stare, any sort of ruse would be impossible now. Applejack saw that they were both unicorns from the spiked helmets they wore.
So Applejack just walked up and greeted them like she would any other ponies. “Howdy! Name’s Applejack and these are my friends Daylight Gleam, Star Blaze, and Sugar Spirit. How are you two doing today?”
They just blankly stared at her with the same empty, defeated, eyes that every pony in the city had.
“New? You should go to one of the guards on patrol and have them find jobs for you. We can’t leave our post.” The one on the right said.
“Sorry, no can do, we’re here to take down your king and free you all from his enslavement.” Applejack said cheerfully while Star Blaze and Daylight Gleam both facehooved, but Sugar Spirit also nodded happily along.
Both guards sighed, this time the one on the left spoke up. “You’re not the first newcomers to say that. And you wont be the last. It’s always the same at first, some adventurer gets trapped in here, thinks they can just defeat King Avarice and save everypony. It never happens.” He looked despondently at the ground. “The city and everything in it belongs to King Avarice. Forever.”
“And we can’t just let you into the volcano. King Avarice wouldn’t like that.” Right guard said to Applejack.
“Well isn’t that exactly why you should just let us pass? Cause it would be bad for him?” Applejack replied.
The guards just looked at each other before Right responded again. “We hate the king as much as anypony living here, but we don’t want to face his wrath if he learns we let you in. Besides it’s not like you can do anything, any resistance is pointless.”
“Then isn’t it pointless for you to be guarding here and stopping us from going in?”
Daylight Gleam facehooved again. She couldn’t believe the conversation was actually going like this.
The guards again looked at each other for a moment. Left answered Applejack. “I guess, but still, King Avarice...”
Applejack stepped forward and put her hoof on his shoulder, giving him a sympathetic look. “Do you really have anything to lose? The four of us are trying to do a lot of good here. We want to help.”
Left fidgeted a little, clearly uncomfortable. He glanced at Right for a second and then turned back to Applejack, finally his face loosened up and he stepped back, gesturing towards the steps that led up into the lion’s mouth.
“Fine, you can just go in, we wont stop you or notify any other guards. But it’s pointless. I had hope once too, we all did. But it’s all gone now.”
“Thank you.” Applejack started walking up the steps with her comrades following her. At the top of the steps she looked back over her shoulder at the two guards. “And it’s not pointless. We’ll save you, I promise.”
It was hot inside the volcano. Even just walking through the outer layer it was far hotter than Applejack would’ve thought. It felt almost like walking through the desert with the sun bearing down on her. At least they hadn’t had to walk over any pools or rivers of lava.
“Oof, I don’t think I can stand this heat all day.” Star Blaze said from beside her.
“I know what you mean, it’s sapping away all my energy. I don’t even want to bounce off the walls anymore.” Sugar Spirit said, her thick mane drooping over her head.
The hallway they walked through was made of smooth dark stone that strangely made no sound when stepped on, every ten feet or so on the ceiling a glowing light-green crystal was stuck in for illumination. It made for an eerie experience and the heat just added to the uncomfortable atmosphere. After walking through the lion’s mouth of an entrance the party had walked up what must’ve been about ten-thousand stairs that wound around the whole interior of the volcano before stopping and opening up into this hallway. Applejack had no idea how high they were now or how deep in but there hadn’t been any branching paths so far so they must’ve still been going the right way.
“King Avarice must have other ways in and out of this volcano.” Daylight mused out loud to herself. “It would be far too much of a hassle for anything. Maybe he just teleports? Do ponies deliver what they make to him directly?” She started to scratch her chin, lost in her own thoughts.
It wasn’t really anything that Applejack cared to think about, she was focused purely on how they were going to stop King Avarice. To be honest though she wouldn’t really care about the other stuff even if they didn’t have an evil unicorn to stop. Applejack just wasn’t the kind to bother with such things.
“Hey, there’s a light coming from up ahead in the tunnel, and it isn’t green.” Star Blaze said.
He was right, they were coming to the end of this hallway, it must open up into a new chamber soon. They hadn’t seen hide nor hair of any guards or any other ponies so far, it was like the volcano was just for them at the moment. Applejack thought maybe there would be some ponies in here to keep things tidy but maybe King Avarice didn’t want any others in his domain. Maybe the only other ponies in the volcano were in the mines they had heard about. And it wasn’t certain that those entered the main part of the volcano at all.
“Please let there be something up there.” Sugar whined.
“Yeah I’d be fine with pretty much anything except for coming face to face with King Avarice. That I could do without.” Star Blaze said. “In fact thinking about that I kind of want to just run out of here and ditch you three.”
“Shut up.” Daylight scowled at him and slapped him on the back of the head.
“Ow! You didn’t need to do that!” He grumbled at her and rubbed his head while Applejack fought back a giggle.
“We should probably try to be quieter, we don’t know what might be up ahead.” Daylight said to them.
Applejack agreed and nodded along with Daylight’s suggestion. The four continued onward to the light at the end of the tunnel. As they got closer to it Applejack quickly realized that the temperature was rising even more. And this being a volcano she had a good idea about what was coming up ahead.
“It feels like fire is being blown in my face.” Star said as he held a hoof up to wipe the sweat off his forehead.
Once they exited the tunnel into the next chamber it was quite obvious to see why.
It was a huge circular pit, the ceiling was covered in dozens of sharp, hanging, stalactites. Two large stone bridges spanned the pit, both of them meeting at the halfway point and forming a cross over the pit. The tunnel Applejack’s party had just walked out of led right onto one of the bridges. Looking around the chamber Applejack saw three more tunnels, one at each end of the bridges. As Applejack walked onto the bridge she peered over the side to confirm her suspicions.
About a hundred feet below her was a pool of hot, bubbling lava.
“Oh boy, don’t wanna fall in there.” Star Blaze said from next to her as he looked down at the lava pool.
Applejack looked back up around the chamber, it wasn’t just the lava that had been responsible for the extra light but dozens of torches that lined the walls. The place was unsettling, it was like they were in the middle of an inferno already.
“So is this like, the center of the volcano then?” Sugar Spirit asked.
“How could it be the center? The ceiling is enclosed.” Star Blaze responded, giving her an incredulous look.
“Not every volcano is open on top!”
“Oh yeah, like you’re a volcano expert.”
“Can you two be quiet?!” Daylight finally snapped at them. “At least we’re getting somewhere now, the only question is which direction we take.”
“Should we split up?” Star Blaze asked.
“No we’re not going to split up you moron!” Daylight yelled like that was the stupidest thing she ever heard.
“Gotta agree with Daylight on this one, again, I think we should stick together. And let’s just go straight, why not?” Applejack decided to put her two bits in. She wasn’t entirely sure what they should do either but splitting up really sounded like a bad idea. “I think we should put on your camouflage spell again, guards aren’t a problem but we don’t know how close we are to the King or his throne room or whatever. Better safe than sorry.”
“Alright, just get close to me again then.” Daylight Gleam concentrated and her horn glowed as the others stood close around her, the dome of magic camouflage flowered over and covered up the party. “Let’s get going, it’s hot enough in here.”
They easily walked across the intersecting bridges under her camouflage. Applejack could feel the waves of heat rolling up to them from the lava, it still wasn’t the hottest she’d ever been but she’d be glad to get out of this pit. The four of them walked straight on past where the bridges intersected in the middle to make it to the other side and over the pit. The new tunnel they found themselves in was of a gray stone archway, the ceiling vaulting high over their heads with torches lining the walls for light and pairs of columns every ten feet for support.
“Getting fancier in here.” Star said.
It was a little bit, making Applejack think this direction was the right choice.
The hall they had been walking down soon opened up into another large chamber, the walls, ceiling, and floor made up of an unusual light-red stone. Two huge carriage-sized chandeliers hung from overhead, made of either gold or brass with thousands of shiny translucent crystals dotting and hanging from them. On the far end of the chamber was a wooden door inlaid with black steel, white spikes that pointed out from every piece of steel and flanked by two large torches, a foreboding doorway if there ever was one.
“I’m just gonna take a guess but that’s probably the door we’re gonna go through next, right?” Sugar Spirit “asked” the others.
“You know it.” Applejack replied.
But aside from that door there were eight other paths leading away from this central chamber, four on each side but all blocked by heavy iron bars with only small gates on the bottom that clearly needed keys to open. Not like that would stop Applejack if she really wanted to get through them but for now they were heading to that spiked door. The other tunnels must just lead to random parts of the volcano.
“You know if these other gates in here are locked then you’d figure that big door is gonna be locked too.” Daylight said, snapping Applejack out of her thoughts.
“Or maybe the king isn’t worried about any ponies that are dumb enough to come right to him.” Star Blaze ventured, pessimistically.
Daylight glowered at him before turning her eyes back to the door ahead. “Possibly.”
The four walked down the length of the chamber, under the chandeliers that wouldn’t look out of place in the fanciest Canterlot mansion, and made their way to the spiked door. There were two large golden door knockers, one for each side, that could be used to pull open the door.
None of them were sure they wanted to open it.
Applejack finally wiped the last bit of sweat off her brow, from the heat she’d stubbornly insist, before clasping one of the rings.
“Alright, let’s do this.” She pulled open the door.
And looked down another hallway.
Sighs of relief broke out from the ponies. Applejack still frowned that they had more to go through, she was a little worried but she still wanted to find King Avarice already and put a stop to him. Daylight Gleam was also annoyed and wondering if they were going the right way.
“Guess we just keep going down here?” Star Blaze asked.
“Yeah, let’s go.” Applejack answered.
The new hallway felt more like a dungeon than anything, the ceiling was lower and it was nothing but cold stone with very few torches lighting it up the whole way through. Applejack could see it opening up into another chamber in the distance but that was it.
It was strange though as she gazed down to the end of the hallway, she saw something red but it clearly wasn’t lava, it was standing up straight and there was no extra heat. It almost looked like part of the back wall had been painted a deep blood red.
“Y’all see that too?” She asked her companions.
“Yes, what is it?” Daylight Gleam said.
“We’ll find out.”
Applejack kept walking with them as the red… thing… grew bigger in their vision. When they had finally gotten to the end of the hallway and were about to walk into the new room Applejack finally realized that they were looking at yet another door.
An immense door on the back wall of the chamber, it looked like solid metal and was painted a vibrant red. If the last door was foreboding then so was this one. It was so eye-catching that Applejack almost missed the two dark tunnels on the right and left walls of this chamber that led who knows where. The only source of light for them now was a large metal bowl suspended by chains from the ceiling with a blazing fire burning from in it.
“I think we may have reached the end.” Daylight Gleam said nervously as she walked up to the red door, the others following quickly behind her so as not to leave the camouflage dome.
“I think you may be right.” Applejack agreed as she looked over the door. There were two large silver bars at pony height on the door. Just like the wooden door it seemed like they could easily pull this one open. “We doing this?”
Daylight reached a hoof around one of the bars. “Yep,”
Applejack grabbed the other and nodded at Daylight. “Count of three. One… two… three.”
The two ponies pulled the large red doors open.
“Wow.” Was the only thing Sugar Spirit could say as she looked into the room. The other three ponies completely silent at the sight.
It was a truly gargantuan room, Applejack couldn’t even see how far back it extended into the volcano. But that was hardly what made it special.
Mountains and mountains of gold, jewels and other treasure filled the room. Applejack saw enough gems to feed Spike for a hundred years, more jewelry than all of Canterlot could wear, silver and gold coins that if piled up would overflow out of Ghastly Gorge. Besides that there were all sorts of fancy clothes too, the most ornate, puffy, and flowing dresses she had ever seen. Fancy hats and impeccable suits hanging on racks lined up with the mountains of treasure. There were beautiful hoof carved chairs and tables made from the finest lacquered wood. Applejack saw piles of ancient looking scrolls and tomes, enough that would even satisfy Twilight for a while. There were crowns and scepters, fancy silverware, goblets, tiaras, necklaces, and earrings, paintings and sculptures and other miraculous works of art. Applejack had never seen such opulence, such treasure.
Front and center of the magnificent chamber, only a few dozen feet from the door, stood a golden throne lined with all manner of diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires. And a strange pile of bones on the seat and lying around it. Next to the throne stood a pedestal with a large dark green crystal floating over it and a golden crown at its feet.
“Hold on a second.” Daylight said, words finally coming back to her as she walked into the room and undid her camouflage spell while charging up her horn for some new spell.
“What are you doing?” Applejack asked her, following her in with the other two close behind.
“I’m getting a weird feeling from that crystal.” Daylight pointed her horn at it and gritted her teeth, her horn glowed brighter before calming down. “Yes, I’m sure of it. That crystal has something to do with these bands and the barrier around town.” She pointed at the black band on her neck. “I knew it couldn’t be such a simple spell, that crystal must be some sort of artifact or magical amplifier. We need to destroy it.”
“Well let’s smash it then already.” Star Blaze said, walking towards it with a big smile. “And look at all this treasure, we can grab all that we can carry and run out of here right after. This is amazing!”
“You cannot take my treasure. Everything belongs to me!”
The bellowing voice made Applejack and the others stop in shock. It seemed to come from all around them. But that wasn’t it, with an ethereal glow the bones around the throne all floated together, connecting and forming up into the skeleton of a pony with the skull being the final piece to snap into place.
A low growl seemed to come from the skeleton as Star Blaze ran back to Daylight Gleam’s side in fear and a bright white light came from the formerly dark eye holes of the skull. The unicorn king’s horn lit up with a sparkly silver color and the golden crown at the bottom of the pedestal was levitated up and landed on the skeleton’s skull. The bones stopped glowing and King Avarice sat upon his throne, unnatural radiant eyes staring down his intruders.
“Oh, right. That old guy said that King Avarice was just a skeleton.” Applejack gulped as she stared down the king. “I kind of forgot. I mean, I thought he was just telling us a legend or something and the king wasn’t actually going to be just a living skeleton.”
“Applejack, I’m pretty sure he can hear us talking.” Daylight Gleam said from beside her as beads of sweat rolled down her face.
“You cannot take my treasure. You cannot destroy my crystal. It all belongs to me!” That deep booming voice came out of the skeleton again even though the jaw never moved and he shouldn’t be able to speak at all like that to begin with.
The pressure and fearsome aura he gave off was stifling. But it wasn’t enough to scare Applejack off.
“King Avarice?” She took a step towards the throne, the three unicorns standing behind her.
A rumbling thunder like growl came from the skeleton as she approached, its eyes seeming to glow brighter.
“I’m going to ask you this once. And I’m going to ask it as nicely as possible.” Applejack stood up straight, not letting any sweat or trembling mar her features, trying to look as strong and in control as possible. “Let the ponies in the city go free. Undo your spell, stop enslaving them all, stop forcing them to work for you. Please.” She added extra emphasis on the end there, hoping against hope that she could reason with the skeleton king.
Applejack couldn’t tell but Daylight Gleam stared disbelievingly at her, wide eyes boring into the back of Applejack’s head.
King Avarice’s jaw opened and his bones shook, the rumbling growl growing louder. “Everything in the world belongs to me!” His horn glowed so bright it almost blinded Applejack and a shockwave of magical energy knocked her backwards into the unicorns.
Star Blaze caught her so they didn’t fall over but they had been pushed back almost outside the door.
“Uh, I don’t think his mind is all the way there anymore.” Daylight Gleam said.
“It is all my treasure forever! My subjects serve me forever!” King Avarice yelled and stepped off his throne.
“I think you might be right.” Applejack grimaced. “Time to do this the hard way. I’ll distract him, you destroy that crystal and then we get out of here.”
Daylight Gleam nodded as Applejack ran to her left, trying to catch the attention of King Avarice. Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit both stayed back, clearly neither of them being the fighting type. The brightness that substituted for King Avarice’s eyes followed the apple farmer.
“You slaves are mine as well!” His horn glowed and a set of silvery snapping jaws like a bear trap formed from his magic, connected to his horn by a thin thread of magic. With a roar the wide open jaws sped towards Applejack.
“Gah!” Applejack jumped out of the way of the magical jaws, instead they collided with a pile of gold behind her.
Daylight Gleam meanwhile was charging up a spell to destroy the magical crystal, her horn glowing fiercely as she put every last bit of energy she had into it.
“Hn?” King Avarice looked away from Applejack to Daylight Gleam, seeing the powerful magic building up in her. “Magic. Delicious magic!”
“Uh oh.” Applejack saw his focus leave her for Daylight. “Hey stupid! I’m right over here and I’m taking your gold!” She swatted some gold coins onto the ground to try and grab his attention but his glowing eye-holes were purely fixated on Daylight now.
“Give it to me!” The conjured up jaws disappeared and the silvery glow around King Avarice’s horn was replaced with a deep black. “Magic! Everything!”
Daylight suddenly felt a strong tug on her horn. “Wha-”
She couldn’t even finish her sentence as the magic was sucked out of her, flying towards King Avarice’s horn. It left her spent and she collapsed onto her knees, weakly trying to draw up more magic but getting nothing more than a few weak sparks.
“My… my magic… he took it.” She muttered, breath coming out faintly.
“Magic! More!” King Avarice yelled out as Daylight’s magic flowed into his horn. “All the magic in the world belongs to me!”
That’s really not good.
Applejack grimaced at King Avarice as his skull swung to face the other two unicorns in the room.
“More unicorn magic! Give me everything!”
Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit tried to fight back but the same strong tugging sensation quickly overcame them and a large cloud of glowing magic was pulled out of the both of them. They didn’t look as wiped out as Daylight Gleam but it was clearly uncomfortable.
“What do we do?!” Star Blaze yelled to his friends.
“Run!” Daylight said, trying to push herself to her hooves.
“Magic! Power!” King Avarice walked towards the unicorns struggling to get away from him. “My slaves cannot leave me!”
Applejack ran towards him, it was like he completely forgot about her existence. She was coming in from his right side where he could easily see her but his focus was purely on the unicorns and the magic they possessed. Applejack drew up a tremor in her hoof, normally she wouldn’t want to do something like this but a skeleton wasn’t really alive anymore in the first place soooo…
She brought her hoof up and struck him on the shoulder blade. Her Hoof of the Earth tremor instantly shattered it as a loud growl came out from King Avarice. The tremor further traveled to his ribs, spine, and right leg, blowing them all to pieces and reducing King Avarice to a broken mess on the ground as the bright light went out of his eyes.
Daylight and the others stared at Applejack in surprise, trying to catch their bearings.
“What was that?” Sugar Spirit asked.
“Nothing, now come on, let’s-”
Before Applejack could finish a low rumbling came from King Avarice’s bones again. That strange ethereal glow appeared around them, even the shattered ones and all the tiny pieces, and they started to float together.
“Uh oh.” Applejack said again as she nervously stepped back from the floating bones.
The bones started to mend themselves, all the little bits going back into place, the cracks disappearing and every last piece going right back to the way it should be until a perfectly normal looking unicorn skeleton was standing there again in front of Applejack. Well, you know, normal aside from the magical part.
The skull of King Avarice turned to face her, the brightness from his eyes like a flashlight beaming onto her face.
“Slaves do not strike their master.” King Avarice grumbled out.
Applejack tensed up and was about to jump forward to hit him again when a silver, shimmering, noose appeared around her neck.
She looked down at it and then back up at King Avarice. “Dang.”
“Raaaaghhhh!” King Avarice roared and threw her over his head with his magic, spinning her around like he was getting ready to throw a lasso. When that thought occurred to Applejack she felt vaguely insulted.
Dizzy, in pain, and struggling to breath from the noose Applejack was finally let go from his magic and thrown into a large pile of gold coins and jewels. She bounced off of it with a hard thud and fell to the ground, landing roughly on her side.
The unicorns saw her get hurt and not immediately get up and struggled to think of what they should do. Running was probably the best option even though escape was likely impossible in their state and with King Avarice right there. Fighting was totally out of the question, none of them were warriors and Daylight Gleam was the only one remotely competent in offensive spells. Plus, King Avarice had drained them of their magic and it still didn’t feel like it was coming back yet.
Daylight Gleam’s eyes widened in fear as she realized that what everypony in the city had been telling them was correct. They couldn’t do anything.
“It would’ve been nice if somepony in the city could of at least told us that he can drain our magic.” Star Blaze said in frustration, equally unsure of what to do but slowly backing up to the doorway.
King Avarice swung back to look at them, that low rumbling like distant thunder coming from him again. He said nothing but slowly started to walk on skeleton legs towards the three unicorns.
“You know I really wish,” Applejack said as she unsteadily got back to her hooves, catching King Avarice’s attention as he stopped approaching the unicorns and looked back at her. “That if I had to fight, it could be against a normal pony again for once. Green Field and now you, this is getting ridiculous.” She stared the skeleton down with her sharp emerald eyes.
“Strong slave. You will do well in the mines.” King Avarice said to her.
“Aint happening.” She replied back, cracking her neck.
“You belong to me! You cannot defy me! All of you belong to me!” King Avarice created another set of jaws that he shot towards Applejack.
Applejack put a tremor into the ground in the same moment she jumped back, causing the huge pile of gold, jewels, and who knew what else to fall over at King Avarice and his magic jaws.
The king roared as the avalanche of treasure collapsed onto him, smothering out his magic jaws and likely crushing him to pieces again.
Applejack let out a long ragged breath and walked around the pile towards the king’s throne and the pedestal with the large crystal hovering over it. Taking her hoof she put as much power into it as she could and slammed it into the crystal.
Green sparks erupted out of it and a high pitched shriek came from the crystal, causing Applejack to cover her ears. It shook for a few seconds but soon calmed down, looking completely unharmed.
“Ugh, of course. It just can’t be that simple can it?” Applejack groaned as she turned away from the crystal.
“I can destroy it.” Daylight Gleam said as she falteringly walked towards Applejack, still drained from having her magic forcibly taken out of her. “But it will take time for my magic to recharge. He took all of my magic but not permanently, it’ll come back for all of us.”
“Alright, we should get out of here for now then.” Applejack said as she grabbed Daylight’s foreleg and helpfully put it around her shoulder. “Come on you two, we’re leaving!” She shouted at Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit who nodded along and were already halfway out the door.
“YOU TRIED TO TAKE MY TREASURE!”
The knocked over pile exploded, raining its treasure onto the ground and the unfortunate ponies that were in the room.
As Applejack held up a hoof to block the stuff from hitting Daylight’s head she looked to the former clump of treasure to see King Avarice already standing up perfectly fine and staring at her again. Their chance to run was gone.
“Guards!” King Avarice shouted as his horn glowed and several portals appeared in thin air.
Most of them were around Applejack and Daylight but a few were even behind Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit. Out of them stepped or flew dozens of blue armored and dead-eyed guards that quickly surrounded Applejack and the others, waiting for their next orders from King Avarice.
Looking around at their situation Applejack scowled, eyes losing their anger and just turning to worry. She was tired and the whole right side of her body was still throbbing with pain. The unicorns were exhausted and couldn’t do anything. With a sigh, Applejack carefully removed Daylight’s hoof from her shoulder and let her sit on the floor. Sitting down herself she held up her hooves in surrender.
Applejack sat with her three unicorn “friends” in a warm but dark cell. Only a single lantern was lit in the whole room, giving her barely enough light to see more than a few feet in front of her. It was the first of five identical cells built against one wall of the dungeon, big enough to comfortably fit maybe ten ponies in it. She could only see their vague outlines but she knew two guards stood by the heavy wooden door to the right of the cell that was the only way in or out of the dungeon.
The four of them were chained up with iron shackles around their hooves that were nailed into the back wall of the cell. None of them were sure where exactly they were in the volcano now, being out of it after their fight and dragged through one of the tunnels that started in the room with the spiked door. Applejack couldn’t remember which of the gates they had gone through but it hardly mattered since the guards took them up and down a bunch of other tunnels and stairs before finally getting to this dungeon. Her memory and knowledge of the volcano wasn’t good enough for her to know how far away from either the entrance or King Avarice’s throne room they were anymore.
Either way they were stuck here for now until the guards decided what to do with them. Seems King Avarice didn’t bother with personally watching over them even after they fought. Applejack wondered just how much he was even aware of what went on. Like Daylight said his mind hardly seemed to be in the best condition.
“So now we sit here until they come to separate us and force us into whatever job they think we’ll be best at?” Star Blaze complained, unhappily lying on the stone floor.
“Yep. I hope I don’t have to work in the mines.” Sugar Spirit whined as she tugged at her messy hair.
“Eh, I don’t think you have to worry about that. Unicorns are probably for making something out of the stuff that comes out of the mines. Or working as guards.” Star Blaze answered. “Applejack on the other hoof...”
He was right about that, she was definitely going to the mines and would have to deal with whatever horribleness that included. From what they had heard it seemed by far the most dangerous thing to be forced into doing in this city. She was plenty used to hard work and dangerous situations but being slave labor for a crazy unicorn king was not something she was looking forward to doing.
So it was good that she had no intention of actually going into the mines.
“You can all relax. Nothing’s going to happen to you, we won’t be separated and I’m not letting the guards or King Avarice himself make us do anything.” She said to the three unicorns, sitting up straight and unworried by their situation.
“Uh, what are you talking about Applejack?” Star Blaze asked skeptically. “We’re caught, it’s over.”
“It aint over at all.” Applejack said, smiling at him. “Yeah, we got in a bad spot and that King’s a real doozy but the four of us are fine aren’t we?” Applejack glanced at Daylight, who had stayed curled up facing away from them the whole time they were in the cell. “And if Daylight here decides to stop sulking I’ll tell you exactly why we’re all going to be fine.”
Daylight shifted slightly, not getting up but moving her head so she could lazily look at Applejack as she kept her head lying on the ground. Her eyes were filled with disinterest, clearly she didn’t believe in Applejack.
“First of all how’s your magic doing?” She asked them.
“I can feel it weakly coming back, but it’ll be a long time before it’s back to normal. Like a day or two probably?” Star Blaze answered while Sugar Spirit nodded with him, Daylight didn’t acknowledge the question at all but Applejack figured it was the same for her.
“See? It’s not like anything permanent happened to any of us. Daylight still knows how to destroy the crystal that’s running this barrier spell and putting these bands on us. We just need a little more time.” Applejack smiled at them.
“The second reason we’re gonna be fine is that we’re not really caught in the first place.”
Sugar Spirit looked at her in puzzlement. “What are you talking about?”
“Well I’ll show you if I need to but I want to talk to our guards first. They’ve probably been listening to me jabber on this whole time anyways.” Applejack said and stuck her head against the bars of the cell, peering at the two guards by the door. “Hey y’all, can I ask you a question?”
The two guards didn’t react at all from what Applejack could see, no surprise there, she’d just ask them anyways.
“Can you let us go?”
“What.” Daylight Gleam said, rising from her position on the floor. “I knew you were thinking something stupid again.” Applejack turned to face her and raised a questioning eyebrow. “Why would they just let us go because you asked them?” Daylight started poking her in the chest. “Do you have any idea just how bad of a situation we’re in.”
“It’s not half as bad as you think.” Applejack replied. “But I didn’t think they’d let us go just because I asked, I just wanted to ask nicely before resorting to force.” At that the formerly stoic guards did glance at each other, wondering just what the orange earth pony was up to.
There was a creaking sound and Daylight Gleam felt a tiny vibration crawl up her hooves, in the next second the shackles around all four of the captives hooves shattered, freeing them.
The guards gasped in shock and turned to either yell or run out and tell any other guards around but a sudden shaking beneath their hooves caused them to tumble and clunk their heads against the hard stone wall of the dungeon. Their helmets kept them from being knocked out but they were still hurt and seeing stars.
“Right. Time to go.” Applejack placed a hoof against the lock of the cell and sent a tremor through it, the metal screeched and twisted until the lock snapped and fell to the ground. She casually pushed the door open and held it for the unicorns.
The three of them just looked at her with their mouths hanging wide open.
“Are you going to explain how you did that?” Star Blaze finally asked.
“Naw, we gotta hurry things up. Come on.” She let them out and then trotted over to the disoriented guards.
“Hey fellas, sorry about that, I know you’re in just as bad a situation as any other pony in this city.” She said down to them. “But we’re here to help you and fix that. I know that might’ve hurt a bit but it’s nothing serious.”
“So we’re getting out of here now?” Sugar Spirit wondered.
“Nope!” Applejack cheerily replied. “We’re getting these guards to take us to wherever the rest of them are.”
“WHAT! Applejack, have you-” Daylight Gleam yelled but Applejack quickly paced forwards and put her hoof over her mouth.
“Sugarcube, you need to calm down and trust me.” She turned back and spoke to the two guards again who were nervously sitting there, a little bit afraid of her now. “I want you two to take us to wherever you guards stay when you aren’t doing something in here. We’re gonna have a talk. Do you have a leader or captain of the guards or anything?”
The two shared a look and one of them decided to speak up. “Not officially, but King Avarice doesn’t hardly ever give us any real direction, so we set up our own system. We do have a leader, I guess.”
“Alright, what’s his name? Can you take us to him?”
They shook their heads, both responding at once. “King Avarice owns our names.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Right, forgot about that. But you can still take us to him and the rest of you, right?”
“But we’d be disobeying King Avarice.” The other one of them said, terrified of the thought. “We can’t do that.”
“Okay, that’s fair enough.” Applejack nodded and started to rub her chin. “Now though you’ve put me in a predicament. Ya see, I don’t want to have to hurt or threaten you, cause you aint bad ponies. But we really need to do this. So you can either take the possibility of King Avarice doing something to you. Or right now I could do to you what I did to those shackles and lock.” She glared down at them, putting on her most intimidating face.
The two guards gulped and nodded.
Shortly later the six of them had left the dungeon and were walking through one of the many tunnels of the volcano.
“I don’t even get what we’re doing anymore.” Daylight whined, head hung low and staring at the ground as she walked along. “We couldn’t do anything to King Avarice or the crystal and then you just give up to those guards and let them throw us in the dungeon. But now you’re all chipper and optimistic and acting like you have some grand plan. I don’t get this at all.”
“There’s just a few things I realized back when we were in that throne room.” Applejack said to her, not bothering to turn back and try and look her in the eyes. “Why do you think we’re still alive right now?”
“Huh?” Daylight looked up at Applejack with a questioning look on her face, not that Applejack could see it.
“Think about it. Why didn’t King Avarice kill us? He easily could have.”
“Cause he wanted to put us to work?” Daylight ventured.
“Exactly.” Applejack responded, finally turning her head back to meet Daylight’s eyes. “We’re his slaves, we belong to him, you heard him keep saying all that right? He doesn’t want to kill his citizens. He wants to keep us forever. He doesn’t get anything out of killing us, he only loses some of his belongings. In fact I’m willing to take a guess,” She turned to the two guards walking with them. “King Avarice has never executed anypony has he?”
Their eyebrows shot up and they looked at each other in realization before turning back to Applejack.
“Now that you mention it, no, he hasn’t.” One of them answered.
“Yep, I bet he does stuff like has ponies thrown in the dungeons or terrorizes them in some other way, but he’d never kill what he thinks belongs to him.” Applejack got a hard look on her face as she thought about the king’s tyrannical ways.
“Okay so what?” Daylight said, still frustrated. “Even if he won’t kill us we still can’t do anything to him!”
“It’s important for later, trust me. Another thing I realized while we were fighting him is that even though he’s got these magic bands around all our necks they still don’t do anything else but keep us from leaving the city.” Applejack explained. “They don’t let him stop us or sense us or anything. If they did he would’ve done it back there. That means we can still fight back.”
Daylight rubbed at the band on her neck, still uncomfortable to have it on her. “Okay...”
“And now the last thing. When’s the next tribute day? When everypony is supposed to give the stuff they’ve made or mined to King Avarice?” Applejack asked the guards.
“Um, it’s in three days I think?” The same guard told her.
“Perfect!” Applejack’s face lit up. “I was worried we were gonna have to wait for like a month.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Daylight Gleam’s annoyance was rising by the second as Applejack just continued to confuse her.
Applejack smiled back at the unicorn. “You know, no one would ever say I was that smart of a pony or anything. Sure, got plenty of common sense I’d like to think, but I aint no genius or smartypants like some ponies I know. But even I still come up with a good idea every now and then.” She winked at Daylight. “Trust me.”
Daylight Gleam rolled her eyes. “Fine, you know what? Fine. I’m exhausted, I’m scared, I can barely feel my magic, and I’m sweating like crazy because I’m in the middle of a stupid volcano. I’m just gonna stop complaining and take your word for it. It’s the only way I might get out of this with my sanity.”
“I gave up on questioning things after our shackles exploded.” Star Blaze unhelpfully said from beside her.
“For me it was when she started talking to the guards.” Sugar Spirit added in.
Applejack meanwhile was taking all their comments in stride. For once she was coming off as the weird one in the group. It definitely felt different.
For a while longer they continued in silence, the guards leading them down the hot tunnels of the volcano. It would’ve been an impossible to navigate labyrinth without them as guides so it was good in hindsight that Applejack didn’t just have them knock out the guards and run off. Unlike the more decorative and expansive rooms that led directly to King Avarice’s chamber all the hallways and rooms in this section of the volcano were the same. Tunnels dug and carved as simply and practically from the stone as possible without putting any extra work or furnishings in them. They fulfilled their duty as passages for ponies to get around in and nothing else.
“We getting close?” Sugar Spirit asked, clearly tired from the heat and walking. “I haven’t felt like myself in ages. I wanna get out of this heat.”
“It’s close, the barracks are just up ahead.” The guards said to them.
“Huh, no wonder we thought there weren’t any guards in the volcano, you’re all way far away from the main part.” Applejack mused.
“Well King Avarice doesn’t like his slaves to be close to him or his treasure.” One of the guards responded. “And as you saw back in his throne room he can just call us to him whenever he wants anyways.”
The blue armored guards led them around one more corner and the tunnel finally widened up a bit into a larger room. The ceiling went high enough for three or four ponies to stand on each others shoulders now and at the end of the room a large wooden door stood.
“Here we are.” One of the guards nervously walked up to the door before stopping. “Uh… you know they might attack you right?”
“It’ll be fine.” Applejack said. “I can handle it if it comes to that, even though I’d prefer not to. You go in first so they can see you’re okay.”
The two guards nodded and put their hooves on the door. With a final gulp they opened it together as Applejack and the unicorns prepared for however this next confrontation went. Applejack had a smile on her face, optimistic and confident that it would be okay. Daylight, Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit had nervous frowns. Not quite as confident.
There were a lot of guards in this one room. Five rows of cheap, wooden, rectangular tables filled up most of the floor space, going from one wall to the other. Dozens of guards sat or milled around them. Earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, all of them young and in-shape looking stallions. Not a single mare in the whole group. Most were out of their signature blue armor but there were still a few wearing it. Apparently this was their mess hall as a lot had bowls of soup in front of them, there was a big set of double doors at the opposite end of the room that most likely led to their sleeping quarters.
And when Applejack and her group walked into the room all eyes turned to them. There had been no friendly discussion going on that was interrupted, like everypony in the city the guards were depressed with the same empty eyes as any other. But the three unicorns were still a bit unnerved to have all that attention suddenly focused on them from who were basically their enemies.
Applejack on the other hand just smiled and waved.
“Howdy y’all.”
Soup dripped from spoons and the eyes of the guards darted back and forth, none of them quite sure how to take this new development. The two guards who had led Applejack and the others here nervously shuffled around, ever so slightly inching away from their former prisoners.
After another moment of silence a single yellow earth pony still in his armor got up from the center table and walked towards Applejack, stopping in front of her and giving the two guards with her a questioning look. “What’s going on here?”
Found the leader.
“Um, well, they escaped and made us come here to talk to you.” One of the guards replied, sweating more than from just the heat.
The yellow pony looked at Applejack. “You didn’t just try to run away?”
“Nope, cause I’m here to rescue all of you as well.” She replied, still happily smiling at him and making sure to look behind him and smile at the other guards too.
The yellow guard just raised an eyebrow while all the rest seemed completely disinterested. These were not ponies who had much hope left in them.
“I know you’ve had others who said stuff like they’d defeat King Avarice and save you too, some of them may even be in this room right now, but I’m still completely serious. Bet on me.” Applejack spoke plainly, not dressing things up at all.
The yellow guard closed his eyes and shook his head at Applejack. “There’s no point, King Avarice can’t be defeated. Just return to your cell and wait for us to decide what job you’re getting.”
“Not going to happen, pal.” Applejack reached a hoof forward to hold him by his chin and make sure he was looking at her. “I’ve dealt with a lot worse than him, it was never on my own, but I’ve gotten through worse. And I’m not alone here either.” Applejack looked over her shoulder to Daylight. “Daylight, tell them about the crystal.”
Daylight Gleam nervously stepped forward, obviously annoyed at this whole situation. “I can destroy the crystal that keeps the barrier spell up around the city. These bands will go away and everypony will be free to leave.”
Murmurs of shock and surprise rippled through the guards, even the leader Applejack was talking to was taken aback for a second before responding.
“But that doesn’t matter. As long as King Avarice is there he can just eat your magic before you cast any spells, or stop you some other way.”
“And that’s why we’re gonna go in there when he’s gone.” Applejack said matter-of-factly.
The guard gawked at her for a second before realization dawned on him. “Tribute day. You know how it goes?”
“I guessed. Seems I was right? He leaves his room to see everything and then teleports it all back himself doesn’t he?” Applejack questioned.
“Yes.” The yellow guard nodded. “Normally no pony is allowed to touch his treasure or enter his throne room. I was surprised he even called us into it earlier.”
“I figured, walking through the volcano and to his room I realized that there’s no good path or way to transport a bunch of stuff by normal means. And when I saw him open up all those portals for you to come out it all clicked.”
“Well Applejack, now that you’ve dazzled us with your astute mind maybe you can actually tell us your plan?” Daylight Gleam impatiently said.
Applejack grinned back at her. “When we first came to this city and that old stallion told us about how everypony here gives him stuff, I thought it meant they traveled into the volcano to present their stuff directly and if King Avarice didn’t like what he saw he’d punish them right then and there. But that’s not how it goes. King Avarice leaves and takes everything back with him and then if he doesn’t like his new trinkets or whatever he’ll attack his ponies.”
Applejack looked out at all the guards in the room. “What I’m about to suggest is dangerous for all of us. But I want you to sabotage the upcoming tribute, or just get rid of it all. King Avarice needs to be stalled outside while me and my friends here destroy the crystal.”
Instantly there was an uproar as the guards started shouting at her.
“Are you crazy?!”
“No way!”
“He’ll kill us!”
At that last one Applejack held up a hoof. “Nope, you can stop there. I know it’s dangerous, I’m not asking this lightly, it’s risky. But he won’t kill you.” She turned to her two guard “friends”. “Care to tell them what we figured out earlier?”
The two guards did, conveying to the others their belief that it wasn’t as dangerous as they thought. Slowly the rest of the guards started to quiet down, now more willing to listen to Applejack.
“And if all of you are fighting him together you’ll be safer. I can tell you after fighting him that he aint really so tough, he just doesn’t stay down. You can cover each other’s backs.” Applejack’s tried to reassure them.
“It actually isn’t that simple.” The yellow leader guard spoke up again, catching Applejack’s attention. “On tribute day King Avarice will also steal the magic of all the gathered unicorn’s.”
Applejack frowned. “Okay, that does cause a few more problems.”
He wasn’t finished yet either. “And there’s the fact that the door to his throne room automatically locks when he leaves.”
“Well that’s not a problem for me, I can definitely force any door open. And if it’s something magical I’m sure Daylight can help with it.” Applejack smiled at the white unicorn.
Daylight just rolled her eyes at Applejack’s optimism.
“But look, let me lay out my whole idea for all of ya.” Applejack walked around the yellow guard so she could speak to the whole room. “In three days King Avarice will leave his room to go get his new tribute. I want you to fight him there and stall him until we can destroy the crystal, once he sees that the barrier has fallen I’m sure he’ll teleport right back into his throne room. He’ll think somepony is trying to steal his treasure or something. After that you don’t have to do anything, in fact, once those bands around your neck disappear I’d prefer it if you all ran off. You’re free, you won’t have to stay here anymore.”
A lot of the guards pinched at the black bands on their neck, some looked about morosely, afraid to become hopeful.
“I’m not some general or anything but I’m thinking now that maybe you could get all the civilian ponies to stay away from wherever the tribute is gathered?” Applejack asked.
“The regular city ponies are too terrified of King Avarice to agree to something like this.” The lead guard said to her. “We may be the guards but they won’t listen to us about something as drastic as this. And they’ll know we’re lying if we try to tell them that King Avarice has changed the way he’s doing things this time.”
“Then let me talk to them, we’ve still got three days. That’s plenty of time for me to go through the city and spread the word to other ponies. I know I can convince them to resist King Avarice. They all want to be free too.” Applejack said to him.
“You say you can convince them but you haven’t even really convinced me.” The yellow pony skeptically looked at Applejack. “What you’re saying may work but King Avarice can still never be defeated, he’s too powerful, too horrible. I’ve had to listen to so many ponies like you saying they’ll free us… you were right about all that, I don’t feel like listening to the same spiel again.” He shook his head.
“But what do you really have to lose?” Applejack pleaded with him.
“It hurts. It hurts to have your hopes dashed again and again.” He looked at her with those sad empty eyes that the rest of the guards in the room shared.
“But there’s so much for you to get back. Don’t you really want to live again, to be free?” She addressed the rest of the guards in the room. “Don’t you all want to live your own lives again? He even took your names from you, don’t you want them back too?” She turned back to face the yellow guard. “What’s your name?”
He hesitated, fear and sorrow written on his face. “I… I don’t have one anymore.”
Applejack grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved her face into his. “What’s. Your. Name?”
Tears started to well up in his eyes. “Sunflower...”
Applejack leaned back and smiled. “Feels good to say that don’t it?”
Sunflower could only nod.
The rest of the guards were reacting similarly. Applejack and the unicorns could see the fire slowly start to return to their eyes. They did want everything back that King Avarice stole. They wanted to believe in Applejack, believe that they could stop King Avarice’s reign of terror.
“Guess they just needed a strong voice.” Star Blaze said.
Applejack heard him and glanced back. “You know I never really considered myself the type for this kind of thing, it all just sort of came out. Guess Twilight is rubbing off on me.”
“Who?” Daylight asked.
“A friend.” Applejack winked at her.
After that it was more or less just time to wait. Daylight’s magic still hadn’t returned to its remotely normal levels and the guards told them that it was well into the middle of the night anyways so it would be better if everypony got some sleep before they started work on getting the rebellion in the city ready for tribute day.
Now Applejack was resting on a ratty old cot in the middle of a volcano. Weird way to cap off a weird day. But it still made for a good enough rest for her, she was still feeling a bit sore from being smacked into a really hard pile of treasure earlier so a pillow and thin bedding did wonders.
Sugar Spirit was enjoying her rest as well, she had finally gotten back a little bit of her bounce and energy after their talk with the guards. Star Blaze was the same as usual and Daylight Gleam was being grumpy and kept trying to draw up some magic even after Applejack and the others told her to just get some sleep already.
Applejack was right to assume, and had the guards confirm, that King Avarice didn’t really pay any attention to how things were run or what became of his latest prisoners as long as he got all the treasure he wanted. So she didn’t need to worry about the king suddenly finding out about them escaping, she wondered if King Avarice even really remembered what happened earlier or if his mind had discarded it as being unimportant.
Applejack frowned as she turned over in bed. It bothered her that the king was apparently at one point just an ordinary unicorn, evil sure, but still a unicorn like any other. But now he was so corrupted by his own greed and his mind so shot she didn’t think she could reason with him at all. And Hoof of the Earth did nothing and he can just absorb any magic that Daylight might use against him. She didn’t want to make her worries known to the others, especially the guards, but she honestly was a bit concerned over how she was gonna deal with King Avarice.
Cause he’s gonna know the moment that crystal is destroyed and he’s gonna teleport right back into his room, and we’re the ponies he’s gonna find...
There was a series of tunnels in the lower section of the volcano that led to the mines and then directly to the city. This way the guards and the city ponies who worked in the mines could get around without ever having to go into the main part of Greed Volcano, King Avarice didn’t want his subjects to enter his domain willynilly. Sunflower now led Applejack, Daylight, Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit through those tunnels so they could speak with the miners and tell them of their plan. After that it would be on to the factories, shops, farms and other parts of the city to spread the word.
The heat was absolutely sweltering now, if any of them thought that it was hot higher up in the volcano they quickly changed their minds. Of course to Applejack it still wasn’t half as bad as having her hoof caught on fire but that wasn’t a very big consolation.
Sugar Spirit was again down in the dumps since it was just too hot for her. Star Blaze had been complaining like normal and Daylight was grumbling like she had been for the past day.
The three of them had kind of grown on Applejack.
“I know it’s a real pain in here but the most dangerous part is over.” Applejack said to her three unicorns. “Come on, we survived against King Avarice and we convinced the guards to go along with all this. From here on out it’ll be smooth sailing.”
“Applejack. Shut up.” Daylight spat out through clenched teeth, thoroughly set on being miserable.
“Well fine, you can just stay a negative filly all you want.” Applejack rolled her eyes at the white unicorn.
“I feel like I’ve sweated off ten pounds in here already.” Star Blaze said. And with the waterfalls of sweat dripping off him he may have been right.
The stone that made up the lower tunnels was much darker, almost black, like the ones leading to the guards barracks they were the simplest tunnels possible. Not even smoothly carved, the ponies traveling through them had to watch out for any jagged edges. Weak magical crystals were embedded into the ceiling of the tunnels at uneven and basically random intervals, giving poor lighting and only the smallest amount of visibility. It would’ve been good if Star Blaze had the magic for his light spell but even if he did Applejack would’ve worried about him exhausting himself thanks to how hot it was.
“We’re below the surface of the ground now.” Sunflower said from up ahead. “We still need to go down a little further before we actually reach the mines.”
Soon enough the tunnel opened up into a larger chamber, this one with torches lining the wall. There were two other tunnels leading from it, both on opposite sides.
“The tunnel to our right-” Sunflower said, pointing at it. “Leads to the city. The one to our left-” He said, again pointing at the tunnel. “Leads into the mines. There’s a much larger chamber there where the lava flows freely, that’s where the heat’s coming from.”
He was right, Applejack could feel the heat pouring out from that tunnel.
“Oh joy, I can only guess where we’re going next.” Sugar Spirit complained.
“Yeah, yeah, none of us are enjoying this heat, let’s just go on already.” Applejack said back to her.
The travel down that tunnel was a relatively short one, it was tilted at a much steeper angle than the others and it was far wider too, enough for the whole party to walk side by side. Applejack figured it needed to be so big considering it was the main entrance into the mines. There was a glow coming from the end of the tunnel too, it wasn’t the same kind of light that the magic crystals or torches gave off. Applejack had a pretty good idea of what it was.
Her suspicions were confirmed when they reached the bottom of the tunnel and stepped into the largest area yet. A massive underground chamber that looked like it could’ve fit the entire city inside of it. Jagged black rock made up the entirety of the interior with rivers and lakes of lava running through it all. At the back of a chamber Applejack could see a huge pool of lava that bled into the wall, back beyond it was likely the center of the volcano.
The tunnel bottomed out on a higher section of rock that had been leveled and smoothed out on top to make for easy travel. At the far end of the rock from the tunnel the group stepped out onto a ledge that overlooked the rest of the chamber. Sunflower guided them to a series of lifts and stairways that had been built to ferry ponies down to the actual mines. While Sunflower minded the simple rope pulley, Applejack took a closer look at the lava chamber and saw dozens, maybe even hundreds, of ponies working all throughout it.
Some were pulling wagons full of rocks, others smacking pickaxes, chisels and hammers against the ground, and still others wearing mining helmets heading into deeper tunnels. Numerous small buildings were built through the chamber, Applejack guessed they were for storage or entrances to other mines.
“Well, here we are.” Sunflower stated simply as the lift came to a stop, depositing Applejack and the rest of the group on the ground floor of the mine.
There were mine ponies out working in the area, some of them were surprised to see the new arrivals but many more just kept going about their own business. Too busy or apathetic to pay any mind. A ways off in front of Applejack a lava river flowed freely, almost pushed right up to its bank was a long and narrow building that came nearly all the way back to where the lifts and large rock they entered on were.
“That’s where we’re heading.” Sunflower said as he led them towards the building, a door was built into the side facing the lifts.
“What’s it for? There gonna be a lot of ponies in there?” Applejack asked him.
Sunflower glanced back at her from over his shoulder. “Of course, that’s some of the housing for ponies down here.”
Applejack stopped. “Housing. Did you say housing? Ponies live down here?!”
“Sometimes things are busier. Like especially before a tribute day. They need to maximize their time.” Sunflower just shrugged in defeat. “Everything for King Avarice after all.”
Applejack turned to the unicorns, whose faces showed them being just as upset at learning this as she was. Even Daylight Gleam took some time out of being grumpy to look around at the despondent and horribly mistreated ponies down here.
Sunflower opened up the door into the large housing building for them. As Applejack looked inside she saw that the living conditions for the miners down here was of an even lower quality than the guards. Bunk beds stacked four high in two rows went from one end of the building to the other and their “mattresses” were even thinner than the cots Applejack had just slept on. There weren’t even any pillows or blankets, although considering the constant heat in here blankets were probably unnecessary.
Dozens of eyes turned to the entrance.
“They work in shifts.” Sunflower whispered into her ear. “So that the mines are always moving.”
“Um, hi.” Applejack waved at them all.
As expected, they didn’t react.
“I’m here to rescue you.” Applejack put it as simply as possible. Daylight Gleam facehooved from behind her.
This time most of the ponies just sighed and shook their heads, going back to what they were doing before Applejack came in. Applejack watched as a lot of them lied down in their beds and turned away from her, trying to get a little sleep.
“You seemed more charismatic earlier.” Sunflower said from her side.
“Oh stow it, I never said I was great at the whole rousing speech thing or anything.” Applejack glared at him. “Why don’t you help me convince them?”
“They aren’t even paying attention to us anymore.” He sneezed. “Excuse me.”
“Ugh, alright, I don’t feel like taking a lot of time here. There’s still a lot for us to do.” Applejack raised a hoof into the air. “Hey y’all, listen up!” She slammed it back to the ground and sent a tremor throughout the entire building. Causing it and all the beds to shake but controlled enough so she didn’t break anything.
Now the ponies were squawking in surprise and all of them trying to talk over the others as they asked Applejack just what in the hay was going on here.
She held a hoof up for silence. “Hold on, calm down now.”
The dozens of ponies got down from their beds and milled about on the floor, filling up the narrow hallway between the two rows of beds.
Considering how much worse these ponies had it than the guards Applejack had a feeling they might be even easier to convince. Sunflower thought they would be too scared of King Avarice, but Applejack felt that they had even more to get back. Their eyes were empty but Applejack was sure she could light a fire behind them again.
“I’ll say it again.” She said to the assembled ponies, who were still eyeing her with confusion and a little bit of fear. “I’m here to rescue you and put a stop to King Avarice. And you’re gonna fight back against him too.”
The ponies again reacted as expected, this time yelling at her and calling her crazy and generally doing a lot of the same stuff the guards had done. It was getting a little hectic so Applejack had to put a stop to it with another light tremor.
“Sunflower and I will explain everything.” She said to the once again cowed ponies. “I just need you all to believe in me, look at who I’ve already convinced, look at how I’m still fighting, listen to me. Listen to what I have to say about King Avarice and how you can get your lives, and your freedom and your names back. Sunflower, isn’t it great to hear your own name again?” She asked to the yellow guard.
He nodded, looking straight ahead at the mine ponies.
“What I’m going to ask you to do might be a bit dangerous, but no more than what you’re already doing. Or do you want to spend the rest of your lives down here, giving every last part of yourselves to King Avarice?” She asked them.
There was a lot of muttering, some of the ponies tried to avert their gaze in shame from Applejack. Some of the others blankly stared straight ahead at either the haunting thought of angering King Avarice or of actually working in these mines for the rest of their lives.
“Anypony can fight back.” Applejack told them. “But I know that sometimes things can seem hopeless, I don’t blame you for being afraid of King Avarice. You don’t have to worry about me thinking any less of you.” Applejack walked forward to turn some ponies heads to her and put a sympathetic hoof on their shoulders. “My name’s Applejack, I’m here to save all of you and you can help me do that.”
Applejack smiled wide at the big group of ponies. “Now, what’re your names?”
“I can’t tell if you’re crazy, stupid, or both.” The old stallion said to Applejack as she and her friends once again stood inside his house.
“Yeah I’ve been getting stuff like that a lot lately.” Applejack replied, not bothering to deny it.
After getting the miners to agree to her plan and revolution Applejack took her group back out to the city. The miners she talked to were now left to spread the word to the others, she had faith that they could do it. It just took a little push to get things rolling she found. Even ponies who looked as hopeless and broken as these ones, who had learned to not trust hope after seeing so many others fail, still had it in them to fight. A strong, unwavering, pony like Applejack could do a lot to move others.
Sugar Spirit rocked back and forth on her hooves, fully back to her normal exuberant self after leaving the mines. Daylight and Star Blaze were both even looking a little more optimistic as well. Sunflower and some other guards had gone throughout the rest of the city to speak to the other guards that weren’t in Greed Volcano.
“Look, I’m sure you think you can do this but nothing is gonna change.” The old stallion shook his head and went to walk back upstairs.
“Hold on a second.” Applejack grabbed his shoulder to keep him from leaving. “I know you’ve seen a lot of ponies fail but is there really any harm in trying?”
“Who cares?” He glared back at her. “I know what you’re getting at but I just don’t care anymore, do whatever you want but it’s not going to amount to anything in the end. King Avarice can’t be defeated.”
“Sure he might be unstoppable but that doesn’t mean we can’t win against him.” Applejack said. “In fact I know we can. He has weaknesses and I’ve found them, we know what to do against him. And besides, I aint asking you to fight him or even stick around after we destroy his crystal, you can run off after for all I care. You have that right after being forced to live and work in here all your life. I’m just asking you help us a little bit. You and every other pony. Just spread the word, tell the unicorns not to go on tribute day. Just do whatever you can and we’ll handle the rest.”
The old stallion unsteadily shifted in place, chewing on his lip and glancing between Applejack’s eyes and the unicorns standing in his home. Finally he shrugged off Applejack’s hoof and started to head back upstairs. At the final step he stopped and looked back down at them.
“Do what you want… I’ll tell any unicorns I meet what you said, but don’t hope for much.” He turned back to keep on walking before stopping again and looking back down. “My name’s Gear by the way.”
The engineer’s hat wearing factory worker stared back at Applejack. Not even the slightest bit of amusement showing on his face.
“I’m not sure if you’re-”
He was cut off as Applejack placed her hoof over his mouth. “Crazy or stupid, yeah I get it.” She removed her hoof and gave him a grin.
“Right.” The same factory worker Applejack had nearly bumped into before raised an eyebrow at her and the unicorns. “You say you want us to stop working and face the wrath of King Avarice just so you can try some nonsense scheme to get rid of these bands and the barrier around the city?”
“That’s exactly it!” Sugar Spirit said cheerfully.
“Okay. I’m going to say no and hope that King Avarice doesn’t take his anger out on me when the tribute for him isn’t good enough.” He turned around and started to walk away from Applejack.
“I guess you shouldn’t be surprised that it’s going like this again.” Daylight Gleam said to her.
“Got another epic speech? I’ve already forgotten how the last one went.” Star Blaze chuckled at Applejack.
Applejack for her part just sighed and rubbed her head. She had talked to and roused up so many ponies lately, she wished it could be a little easier for once. “Give me a few minutes to come up with something compelling. I’m running out of ideas.”
“I could write a speech for you!” Sugar Spirit shoved her face into Applejack’s. “I bet I’d be good at getting ponies excited!” She said, far too enthusiastically.
“It’s alright, I’ve listened to enough of Twilight’s speeches and what have you to come up with something on my own.” Applejack cupped her chin with her hoof, thinking hard for a few moments. Finally she smiled. “Okay! Got it!” She trotted after the factory worker. “Hey you, wait up!”
“How’s your magic doing?”
It was the most important question of the day.
Both Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit focused for a second before answering Applejack, faint sparkling auras appearing around their horns.
After the glowing stopped, Star Blaze answered her, a few beads of sweat dripping down his head. “It’s not quite back to normal but almost there, it’s just a little more stressful than normal to build up my magic.” Sugar Spirit nodded along with him, she was in the same boat.
Daylight Gleam’s situation was still a little different. Her magic was taken much more forcefully and she had far more of it to recharge. “I can feel it returning faster.” She said to Applejack. “But it’s still not good enough, I’ll need at least till tomorrow.”
Applejack frowned. “Well that should be alright at least. A good night’s rest will serve you well, I don’t want to chance anything. Without you this all falls apart.”
The whole party was sitting outside the lion’s mouth entrance to Greed Volcano, joined by Sunflower and a few of his guards, including the two who had been here when Applejack’s group first entered the volcano. Now she knew them as Lustrous and Bright Mind. They only had one full day left but now there was nothing to do but prepare, rest, and wait. And hope.
“So this is where the tribute is gathered? Just this empty area right outside the volcano?” Applejack asked the guards.
“That’s right. King Avarice will teleport out here early in the morning, expecting his new tribute.” Sunflower replied.
“And instead he’ll fly into a rage and we’ll fight him...” Lustrous said, not in a very enthusiastic tone.
“Actually I think it will be best if you and the other unicorn guards stay away, help protect the other ponies. We don’t want King Avarice getting stronger off of another unicorn’s magic.” Sunflower told them.
Lustrous perked up at that. “Can do.”
Applejack rolled her eyes at him, though she couldn’t blame him for being afraid of facing King Avarice. Applejack was afraid too although she wouldn’t show it, she needed to appear completely unafraid for the other ponies. She needed to be their rock.
“Okay, so this is it then.” Applejack said to the assembled group. “I know we barely know each other but I’m glad you’re all willing to trust me and fight back against King Avarice. I promise you we’ll destroy that crystal. Tribute day will be the last day you’re ever enslaved to King Avarice.” The formerly empty and broken ponies actually started to smile a bit at Applejack’s words. “It’ll be rough and dangerous, but we can do it together. I know it.”
Applejack hopped up the stairs to the entrance of Greed Volcano. “Get ready, it’s almost rodeo time.”
Applejack, Daylight Gleam, Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit were all hiding by the one main entrance into Greed Volcano. It was still early and King Avarice hadn’t come out yet, but the moment he did they would run inside and head straight for his throne room and the crystal. There was no tribute gathered in this empty area between the city and the volcano, Applejack was sure he would fly into a rage immediately. The guards were gathered and she hoped that they were going to be okay. She was certain King Avarice wouldn’t kill any of his slaves, a large part of her being able to convince the ponies here to fight back hinged on that, but she was worried that a situation like this may make that crazy king even more erratic. She wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of guards just ran the moment he appeared, she wouldn’t hold it against them but she hoped they would still distract King Avarice enough for Applejack’s group to succeed at their mission.
Sugar Spirit was humming and shaking her head back and forth along with her made up music. If Applejack hadn’t seen how exhausted she’d gotten in the heat she would’ve though the unicorn never had a care in the world. Star Blaze was lying down and trying to act disinterested but Applejack would bet a million different pessimistic thoughts were flying through his head. Daylight Gleam sat with intense focus behind Applejack, eyes shut tight and a thin aura of magic over her horn, preparing for the powerful spell she needed to use to break that crystal.
Sunflower was standing tall and proud right outside of that golden gate that led back into the city. He was doing a good job of looking fearless for his guards but Applejack knew he was afraid too. All of them were decked out in their blue armor, the pegasi ready for aerial support while the earth ponies would directly charge at King Avarice. She felt bad that the unicorns just had to stay away and couldn’t contribute to the big fight but they were probably fine with that anyways.
The sky was cloudless aside from the ever roiling ones gathered at the peak of Greed Volcano, the sun had fully risen over the horizon now and signaled the true beginning of morning. According to the ponies of the city it would be any minute now.
Star Blaze grumbled and got up off the ground, getting ready. Applejack allowed herself a small nervous gulp. Sugar Spirit stopped humming but was prancing up and down on her hooves, finding it impossible to stay still. And last of all, Daylight Gleam’s horn stopped glowing and she opened her eyes.
“I’m ready.” She said to Applejack.
Applejack nodded to her. “Me too. It should be starting soon.”
“Uh, do me and Sugar Spirit even need to be here?” Star Blaze asked, rubbing his cheek. “Seems like you two are the ones really doing everything, can’t we just go and hide?”
“No, you’re here for moral support.” Daylight said to him. “And we may need another set of hooves at some point, you never know.”
“I am going to steal so much treasure when this is all over.” Star Blaze sighed and shook his head.
Applejack shot him an angry look. “No, that treasure should go to the ponies in the city. Not only did they make most of it but they deserve it more than anypony. No stealing.” She looked at Daylight and Sugar Spirit as well. “And that goes for the both of you, too.”
Star Blaze was about to give a big sarcastic sigh and complain some more.
But there turned out to not be any more time for that.
With a single sharp crackle King Avarice appeared on the ground in front of the entrance to Greed Volcano. Sugar Spirit nearly squeaked at how close he was but luckily his back was turned to them as he was surveying the area where his tribute should have been. Star Blaze took a few hesitant steps back and was about to say something again when Applejack placed a hoof over his mouth and shook her head. She quietly motioned for all of them to immediately head into the volcano, not running full speed yet in case King Avarice heard their hooves against the ground and turned to see them.
As they made their way into the volcano Applejack heard a booming voice erupt from behind her.
“WHERE IS MY TREASURE!”
Applejack and the unicorns ran as fast as they could through the tunnels of the volcano. Or to be more accurate the unicorns ran at full speed while Applejack slowed her pace down to match them. She didn’t want to think about what might be happening outside, hoping for the best for Sunflower and the guards. The unicorns were panting heavily from the heat and the exertion it took to run up all those stairs earlier but they didn’t have the time to rest.
Now they were in the tunnel made from that strange soundless stone and coming up on the lava pit with the crisscrossing bridges. Once they got there it was pretty much a straight shot to the throne room.
“This… really… sucks.” Star Blaze panted heavily, each word a struggle to get out.
“Well then why don’t you save your energy instead of forcing yourself to complain?” Applejack said back to him and rolled her eyes. “Come on, it’s not even gonna be too long before we’re there and you don’t even have to do the hard part.”
It didn’t take too much longer before they reached the lava pit and crossed the bridge again, the increased heat was annoying but they pushed through it, and after that they passed through the next chamber and then the next one into the light-red room with the spiked door. Luckily that door wasn’t locked so they had no problem opening it and going right through.
And it was now just one final door before their goal.
They sped down the dark, dungeon-like, hallway towards that red steel door. Applejack gulped and wiped the sweat from her brow, this was really it.
Getting to the door Applejack tried to pull on the silver bar to open it but it didn’t budge this time, King Avarice did indeed lock it when he left. But Applejack wasn’t about to let anything like this stop her.
She put a hoof to the door and focused, trying to think back to some of her old lessons and sending a minor tremor into the door. It was like a picture appeared in her head, she could see through and inside of the door and the locking mechanism used on it. With a smirk Applejack gathered a much stronger tremor and sent it straight to the lock. The whole door started to vibrate, much to her unicorn companions confusion, and Applejack saw and felt the lock snap in two, unlocking the door for them.
“Easy as apple pie.” Applejack said, pulling on the silver bar again and opening up the door to King Avarice’s throne room.
The treasure that had been thrown about and the pile Applejack knocked over were back to normal, King Avarice wanted his hoard immaculate. His throne still sat there with the pedestal and floating green crystal next to it. And luckily for the ponies that had just entered, the king and his bones were nowhere in sight.
"Okay, Daylight. Time to shine.” Applejack said to the white unicorn.
“Right.” Daylight Gleam walked forward, her horn glowing with more power than Applejack had ever seen from it before. “Star, Sugar, keep the door open. We’re gonna bolt once I destroy this thing.”
“Good luck.” Applejack told her.
Daylight paused. “Wait, what do you mean by that?” She asked as she turned back to Applejack.
“Daylight we don’t have time, destroy the crystal!” Applejack frowned at her, anger rising in her voice.
Realization dawned on Daylight Gleam’s face. “You’re going to stay and fight him...”
Applejack didn’t answer.
“Are you crazy?!” Daylight yelled at her. “You can’t fight that thing! Just run away with us after we destroy the crystal, he can’t keep us trapped anymore.”
“I can’t just let him keep doing what he’s doing. Even if he can’t keep all the ponies here his slaves anymore he’ll still keep on making others suffer. Stealing from them, forcing the ones he can to work, and who knows what else. I have to stop him.” She said to Daylight. “Now please, hurry up and destroy the crysal.”
Sugar Spirit and Star Blaze looked between each other, eyes full of worry.
“You can’t defeat him Applejack.” Daylight said. “Are you going to sacrifice yourself for some ponies you don’t even really know? Who cares if he still goes about doing whatever nonsense he wants after this. We need to escape and survive.”
Applejack closed her eyes for a brief moment before opening them again and giving Daylight a bright and sympathetic look. “I want to get out of here and get home more than you know. I have the greatest friends and family a pony could ever have. And I want more than anything to see them again. But I couldn’t live with myself if I just ran away and let King Avarice keep doing what he pleased.” She looked over at Sugar Spirit and Star Blaze as well. “You three are all free to leave once the crystal is destroyed, I’ll be fighting King Avarice and holding him off.”
Daylight glowered at her, teeth gnashing. “You are so difficult.”
Applejack just chuckled and winked at her. “Now there’s the pot calling the kettle black.”
The white unicorn rolled her eyes and went back to facing the green crystal, charging up her horn some more. “Fine, have it your way.” She glanced at Applejack out of the corner of her eye. “I’ll stay and fight with you.”
This time Star Blaze gawked and yelled at Daylight. “Are you really doing this?!”
Sugar Spirit nervously tittered back and forth, not sure what to do.
“You two can, and should, still run. But I’ll at least attempt to fight King Avarice with Applejack.” Daylight said as she marched to the crystal. “Now enough of this, Applejack was right, we didn’t have the time for all this talk.” The light blue glow around her horn grew brighter until it was almost a white flash of light. Daylight Gleam squinted and sweated as she held onto the powerful magic.
As she touched her horn to the crystal an amazingly loud and shrill shriek broke out through the room. Applejack and the other two unicorns covered their ears while Daylight Gleam enveloped the green crystal in her magic. Daylight gritted her teeth as her magic attacked the crystal, cracks appearing on its surface and tiny pieces flaking off. The screeching got louder and with it flashes of multicolored light shot across the throne room.
Green and blue sparks shot off from the crystal. Applejack was worried that Daylight would get hurt but the unicorn was still holding strong and putting everything she had into destroying the green crystal.
Finally, over all the screeching, bright lights, and sparks, Daylight’s magic won out. With a loud thunderclap the crystal shattered, knocking back both Applejack and Daylight. The two of them skidded along the floor of the throne room towards the hooves of Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit.
“Are you two alright!” Sugar Spirit asked as she helped Daylight to her hooves while Star Blaze did the same for Applejack.
“Yeah, we’re fine.” Applejack said as she stood up and shook her head. Looking at Star Blaze in front of her, her face broke out into a wide grin. “We’re all fine.” She said, pointing at Star Blaze’s neck.
Star Blaze’s eyes went wide as he also looked at Applejack’s neck and then at his other two companions.
The black bands were gone.
“There’s probably a lot of celebrating in the city going on right now.” Daylight Gleam said. “I don’t think we’re gonna have the time to join in. King Avarice will have definitely noticed what just happened.”
Sugar Spirit got an inquisitive look on her face. “You know considering he can teleport-”
A blast of silver magic exploded in front of the throne and King Avarice appeared, growls like thunder rolling off his bones and bright magic eyes piercing the ponies in front of him.
“WHAT HAPPENED TO MY TREASURE!”
Star Blaze attempted to whistle nonchalantly as he backed away to the door, Sugar Spirit was frozen on the spot and Applejack and Daylight Gleam shared a single look with each other as they started to walk towards King Avarice. The skeleton king’s horn lit up black as Daylight got ready to fight back against his spell and Applejack tensed her muscles, ready to attack.
King Avarice’s skull swung to stare down Daylight Gleam. “Give me your magic!”
She felt the same tug on her horn but this time she was prepared for it, she knew what he was doing and could fight back against it. King Avarice had unusually powerful magic for a unicorn but he was still no god, Daylight Gleam knew she had the skill and strength to maybe not completely overcome but at least partially resist his spell.
As her horn shimmered between her natural light blue glow and the black of King Avarice’s the king noticeably became impatient. Despite his lack of facial features Applejack could see the way he splayed his hooves and was pulling back harder with his horn, he was surprised that Daylight Gleam was able to fight back against him.
“All the magic in the world belongs to me! Give me your magic!” King Avarice yelled at her.
“It’s mine! You can’t have it!” Daylight yelled back at him.
Applejack rushed forward, not allowing this to go on any longer, she wanted Daylight to not have to lose any of her magic. But as she ran at him from the side again, looking to temporarily disable him with Hoof of the Earth, the bright light in his eye socket swiveled towards her. Maybe he remembered, consciously or subconsciously, what Applejack did to him. A sparkling silver wall popped up right in front of Applejack and she smacked face first into it.
“Oof!” Applejack grunted as she bounced off it and fell onto her back. “That smarts.”
Still her action worked to a degree, the focus and extra bit of magic King Avarice had to put into blocking her allowed Daylight to snap his spell off of her horn, the black glow disappearing.
King Avarice’s attention fully turned back to Daylight Gleam. “You cannot disobey!” His horn glowed bright silver-
And a blue ball of magic smacked into his skull, blowing it to pieces and making his crown fly off and knock over the pedestal.
“Hey, good shot.” Applejack said to Daylight as she got up, rubbing her pained nose.
Daylight’s legs were a little wobbly and sweat dripped down from her horn. She had clearly over-exerted herself fighting back against King Avarice’s drain and then firing that magical blast but she still managed to smile at Applejack.
She then turned to Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit. “Okay you two, I want to see you out of here, you’re not fighters. Applejack and I will deal with this.”
“But, but...” Sugar Spirit started. She was scared but she didn’t want to leave her close friend.
“We’re not leaving you. We’ll fight too. Or something.” Star Blaze said, a look of dismay etched on his face.
Daylight and Applejack smiled. “Suit yourselves.” Daylight said. “But stay back and try to stay hidden, I don’t want him draining your magic.”
“Right.” Both of the other unicorns said at once.
It was just in time too as the bones of King Avarice started to rumble and glow, his skull piecing itself back together from even the tiniest little specks of bone dust. Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit both quickly backed away, hiding behind the door frame while Applejack and Daylight Gleam stood by each other, ready to start the fight again.
“So do we have an actual plan to stop him?” Daylight whispered to Applejack.
“You’ll be the first to know when I think of one.” Applejack replied back.
“Good to hear.”
King Avarice had fully revived but instead of attacking them instantly he looked around the ground for something. Eyes like searchlights trying to find his target.
“Crown. Where is my crown?” King Avarice growled out while Applejack and Daylight watched on with slight amusement.
Finally the crazy king turned around and spotted his crown lying by the knocked over pedestal.
“My crown!” King Avarice bellowed and walked over to it, using his magic to grab it and place it back on his head. And then he stopped, noticing the bits and pieces of the magical green crystal that formerly kept up the barrier around the city. “My crystal! My treasure!” His yell was thunderous as he swung around, an intense aura of anger radiating off him as he looked at Applejack and Daylight, crackling electricity coming from his horn. “YOU DESTROYED MY TREASURE!”
Applejack and Daylight didn’t have the time to brace themselves as a powerful shockwave from the king knocked them back, this one carrying them all the way outside the throne room and into the dark hallway.
“Guards!” King Avarice yelled, creating several glowing portals around his enemies.
Portals which nothing came out of.
“Guards!” King Avarice yelled again, even louder. “Guards! Guards! Guards!” Repeatedly he continued to yell for his guards.
“Do you think he forgot that his guards betrayed him or did he not even really get what was going on in the first place?” Daylight asked Applejack as she stood up, wiping dirt off of herself.
“I dunno.” Applejack replied, cracking her neck while she got up. “But this is a good opportunity to get some distance, you need to rest up for a second. Take Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit and go back to that red room with all the tunnels leading from it, I’m gonna draw King Avarice down one of the side tunnels here.”
Daylight furrowed her brow and narrowed her eyes at Applejack. “You better not be sacrificing yourself and ditching us.”
“I aint.” Applejack honestly answered. “I just want the three of you in perfect shape, you’re all a lot more tired than I am from running through here. Besides I can find my way around the tunnels and back to you with my vibrations, trust me.”
Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit came running from their position behind the door to the two talking ponies. Upon spotting two fresh new unicorns King Avarice finally stopped calling for his guards.
“More magic! More power! Mine!” He yelled with a booming growl that seemed to shake the walls around them all. His horn sparkled with fierce energy and crackling bolts of silver lightning erupted from it, arcing towards the four ponies right outside his throne room.
“Whoa!” Applejack yelped as she jumped away from the lightning, the ground scorched and cracked right where she had been standing.
Daylight was barely able to put up a shield in time to deflect the lightning from her and the others. It bounced off the shield and hit the ceiling above them.
“Okay, that’s it. You three run to that room!” Applejack told the unicorns before running back towards King Avarice. “Hey king!” She yelled to get his attention. “I’m the one who destroyed your crystal and freed all your slaves! Come and catch me if you can!” She tipped her hat at him and ran down the right side tunnel next to the king’s throne room.
“My treasure! My slaves!” King Avarice yelled and ran on bone legs after her, conjuring up his silver jaws.
The other three unicorns watched this and shrugged. “Well, better do what she says.” Sugar Spirit said and started heading back to that other room. Daylight shakily walked with her. But Star Blaze got a grin on his face and headed into the throne room.
Daylight saw this and narrowed her eyes at him. “Star, we really don't have time for looting right now.”
“Look, this is the biggest hoard of treasure we’ll ever see, if I don’t at least take something from it I’ll never be able to forgive myself.” He quickly ran in to the nearest pile of coins and picked a sparkling golden coin off the top. “Ah, now I’m happy.” He tucked it behind his ear and ran back to his friends.
Applejack ran from King Avarice as his magical jaws snapped at her from behind. This side tunnel was dark and narrow but Applejack had no problem with that thanks to her Hoof of the Earth. She kept sending out scouting vibrations to see the tunnel around her as well as any other ones near her or any branches. Now she could run at full speed without worrying about running into a wall or getting lost.
Still had to worry about King Avarice though.
“My slaves cannot leave me! Everything in the world belongs to me forever!” His booming thunder of a voice echoed down the tunnel. Applejack was getting kind of tired of it.
“Watch me leave you right now!” Applejack yelled back and sent a tremor out behind her, shaking the floor of the tunnel enough to make him trip and fall to the ground in a jumbled mess of broken bones.
That’ll stall him for a second, now I gotta find my way back to the others.
A second later King Avarice teleported directly in front of her, magical silver jaws going right for her head.
Applejack ducked beneath them and jumped back as they came down and bit into the ground. The jaws disappeared and King Avarice’s horn started to crackle with lightning again. Not liking her chances of dodging that in this narrow tunnel, Applejack sent a tremor through the ground and into his legs, obliterating the both of them and causing King Avarice to yell and fall over again, the lightning from his horn shooting out wildly against the walls around him.
“I will have everything!” He rumbled as the bones quickly healed, even quicker than before, while he continued to randomly fire lightning from his horn.
“This aint going well.” Applejack muttered to herself as she ran away from him.
This time she used her tremors to scout out a side tunnel that branched away from the one she was inside. She could tell there were a few pathways that would take her back to the red room where the others should be. If she could just lose King Avarice for a second she could regroup with them.
A loud howl from behind her told her she needed to work a little harder at that.
A wolf made of silver lightning came running down the tunnel at Applejack, quickly catching up with her. She wasn’t sure if the thing would bite her or electrocute her but she didn’t really want to find out. Applejack pushed herself harder and came out into a larger room, the stone making it light and gray like the tunnels the guards had transported them through previously. She was closer to making it back to her friends.
Applejack turned around as the wolf leaped at her, but she was prepared for that. A single tremor blew apart part of the floor and sent a shower of rocks and dust into the lightning wolf, dispelling it.
But right out of that kicked up cloud of dust ran King Avarice, skeletal body smashing into Applejack.
The two rolled across the ground with King Avarice coming out on top when they stopped. His skull and the intense light from his eyes staring into Applejack.
“None can take my treasure!” He growled as Applejack felt another silver noose begin to tighten around her neck.
“Not this time!” Applejack grunted and shot a tremor through her whole body, and with King Avarice practically lying on top of her it spread throughout all of his bones as well.
The king shook and rumbled as his magic failed and his horn shattered, followed by the rest of his bones exploding. Applejack held a foreleg up to shield her eyes from any bone dust or pieces and quickly clambered back to her hooves. As she looked around at his scattered remains there wasn’t a single bone left whole, most had been blown to bits no larger than an apple core.
But that still didn’t stop him.
The same rumbling and ethereal glow as always came from his bones as King Avarice started to piece himself back together.
Applejack grimaced and stepped away. “Is there really no way to beat you?” She said, mostly to herself as King Avarice probably didn’t hear or would care to answer in the first place.
He was almost fully back together, Applejack wasn’t sure if she would have another chance to escape so she ran towards the way she knew would eventually take her back o the others, but that wasn’t all. Getting into the new tunnel Applejack turned back to the room, she watched as King Avarice rose up for a second before closing her eyes and focusing on the walls and stone around her. She heard King Avarice growl as he was certainly coming at her again, but Applejack didn’t move. Instead she sent out a powerful tremor that cracked and shook the entire area, causing chunks of the walls and ceiling to fall out as the room King Avarice was still in began to cave in. She heard him yell wildly and opened her eyes to see an avalanche of rock burying the room she had just walked out of, almost blocking the path to the tunnel she now stood in entirely.
That’s the best I can do for now. Applejack thought and turned away, running to her friends.
It took some twists and turns but she finally made it to a tunnel that went straight to the red room with the spiked door and the eight other tunnels leading away from it. Applejack could see the closed gate that blocked off this tunnel in the distance. Running a bit harder she skidded to a stop right in front of the gate, Daylight, Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit were standing in the middle of the chamber, heads snapping to her as soon as she approached.
“Hey y’all.” Applejack grinned.
“I’m glad you’re okay.” Daylight said as she ran up to the gate, the other two in tow. “Is it over?”
Applejack shook her head. “Sadly no.” She pressed a hoof against the gate and blew the lock to pieces, stepping through it into the red chamber. “I stalled him for a couple of minutes maybe but he’s gonna keep coming.”
“There has to be something we can do!” Sugar Spirit said.
Applejack began pacing through the center of the chamber, trying to come up with a plan.
“We could, you know, keep running away?” Star Blaze unhelpfully suggested.
Daylight and Applejack both rolled their eyes at him. Applejack turned to say something to him but stopped before she got any words out, her eyes fixed on the gold coin tucked behind his ear. Her eyes went wide and she looked down towards the pit with the crisscrossed bridges, then back down the direction to the throne room before finally settling again on Star Blaze’s newly acquired coin.
“What is it?” Star Blaze said as he backed away from Applejack, unnerved by her actions.
Slowly a smile formed on Applejack’s face and she looked at her three unicorn friends.
“Is it a good plan for once?” Daylight Gleam asked her.
“Probably not, but it’s the best I could come up with.” Applejack admitted, but still sported a confident grin. “Don’t worry, things have gone pretty well so far haven’t they?”
The unicorns weren’t exactly filled with as much confidence as Applejack after that but Star Blaze at least had to admit that since none of them had died yet things were going better than he expected. Sugar Spirit was too hot and scared to complain and Daylight somewhat trusted her now.
“Okay, fine. I’ll believe in your plan again. Not like I have anything else to offer.” Daylight said to Applejack, getting a wink in return from the apple farmer.
“So what is the plan?” Star Blaze asked.
Applejack took a deep breath. “Alright, first off I want you to give me that gold coin you have.” Star Blaze sighed and would’ve fought that were it not for the situation they were in, instead he just hoofed it over to her. “Great, now, I want all of you to go back to his throne room and get as much treasure as you can.” At that all their eyes lit up. “Now don’t get too happy, once King Avarice makes it to this room I’m gonna lead him on a chase again, when I do you take all that treasure and pile it up on the middle of the bridges above that lava pit, okay?”
The three unicorns nodded, following along so far.
“And that’s it for you, I’ll handle everything else. Once you’re done moving that treasure I want you to get out of there, okay?” Applejack told them.
“Okay but you’re not going to sacrifice yourself are you? I know we just went over this but...” Daylight trailed off, frowning at Applejack.
“Nothing like that, I promise. And I don’t lie.” Applejack looked them all in the eyes as she said this. They knew she was speaking the truth.
“Good, now go hide by the big door. I don’t want to take any chances with him seeing you.” She told the unicorns.
The three ran off to the spiked door, Daylight even giving her a small salute as they went, when they got to it they opened it up and kept it slightly ajar so they could hide behind it but still watch for when King Avarice came and Applejack led him away again.
It wasn’t long before they all heard the thunder-like rumbling coming from the same tunnel Applejack came out of. Applejack stood in the middle of the chamber, waiting for King Avarice. The walls around her began to shake as he got closer and a bright light started to come from the tunnel as well. Sparks and bolts of lightning shot out from it, twisting the metal gate and scarring the stone walls. But Applejack still stood firm, waiting for him.
At last a silver glow surrounded the metal bars of the gate and tore them to the sides, creating a large hole for King Avarice to jump through, horn crackling with violent energy and voice constantly emitting a loud growling noise.
His bright eyes quickly found Applejack and he turned to attack her again, only to stop when she held up the gold coin she took from Star Blaze.
“My treasure!” King Avarice yelled at her.
“Oh yeah, it is. You don’t mind other ponies taking your treasure do you? I forgot.” Applejack grinned at him, flipping the coin in the air.
“THAT IS MINE!” He bellowed louder than ever before and ran at Applejack.
“Heh.” Applejack gave a short laugh and ran down the hallway towards the lava pit, she hoped the unicorns would start working as fast as possible, she really didn’t want to have to keep running away from King Avarice for too long.
She heard his rumbling screaming from behind her and looked over her shoulder to see him conjure up his magical jaws again, they darted forward at Applejack, biting at her hooves and tail. She kept dodging and ducking out of their way but eventually she was going to get tired, meanwhile King Avarice didn’t seem to ever slow down.
“Is that the best you can do?!” Applejack taunted him. “I’m stealing some of your gold you old nutjob!”
“Gold! Treasure!” King Avarice yelled and aimed the jaws right for Applejack’s head.
But that was easy enough for Applejack to duck under, he didn’t even get her hat.
“You’re like a broken record.” She said to herself, shaking her head as she ran from the crazy king.
It wasn’t far to the lava pit, Applejack still had the energy to outpace him for now, she felt the extra heat that bubbled up from it start to buffet her and a new wave of sweat started pouring down her face. Applejack could see the bridges now and the stalactites hanging above them, smirking to herself she got a second wind and started running harder. Everything was coming together.
King Avarice rumbled from behind her and started to fire more bolts of lightning but Applejack could easily keep an eye on him and dodge the blasts in a wide area like this. His bones and her hooves made loud clacking noises as they ran across the stone, at last making it to the bridges.
Applejack wasn’t just running across it to escape from the king though, she was constantly sending out tremors to inspect the strength and make-up of the bridge while she ran over it. If she wasn’t careful things could end very badly so she wanted to “feel” things out as best she could before she really put her plan into action. Applejack nodded to herself as she jumped away from another hastily thrown lightning bolt, taking a hard left at the middle of the bridges this time and going down one of the tunnels she hadn’t been in before. But Applejack knew there were multiple branching paths going off of it that would eventually take her back to the red room, and by then hopefully she could finally end things with King Avarice.
“Give me back my treasure! It all belongs to me!” King Avarice’s bones rumbled even louder and a shockwave exploded out from his horn.
Applejack was far enough away when it hit her that she was only launched forwards a little bit and still managed to stay on her hooves instead of being knocked to the ground. Applejack decided to pay the king back in kind and shot a tremor behind her, shaking and breaking apart the ground in front of him, causing his bony legs to stumble and fall over it.
Once more the king ended up in a twisted heap but something like that would hardly delay him for a moment. Applejack didn’t stop to smirk or taunt him any further, this was the final stretch and she needed to keep serious.
She ran down a side tunnel that would loop towards another bigger tunnel that went straight to the red room, she hoped she could get there quickly, with how narrow this tunnel was it would be difficult to avoid King Avarice’s attacks.
You know, why don’t I just...
Applejack waited until she could hear the roaring of King Avarice behind her, his voice echoing off the walls of the tunnel, and then she kicked a hoof against the tunnel wall as she ran through it, sending a strong tremor into it. Cracks shot up in a ring across the walls, floor and ceiling of the tunnel. If King Avarice wasn’t insane he would’ve recognized what was happening again, but luckily for Applejack his mind was more than just a little foggy. King Avarice kept charging ahead as the tunnel shook harder and began to collapse around him. He tried making a shield around him but it didn’t stop the tunnel from caving in on top of him, stopping him dead in his tracks for a few moments longer.
He’ll probably teleport out of all that once he gathers his wits again but that should give me enough time. I hope.
After a few more twists and turns and minutes that passed by in a flash thanks to the adrenaline that coursed through her veins Applejack made it to another tunnel that directly went back to the red room. Not taking any time to stop or slow down this time, Applejack ran towards the gate and shot out a preemptive tremor to knock the metal door completely off its hinges. Charging through it she skidded to a stop in the middle of the room and looked down at the lava pit and crisscrossing bridges.
“Perfect.”
Several mounds of gold, gems, and other treasures were piled up in the center of the bridges. Applejack felt pretty warm inside knowing that her friends actually did all this instead of just running off with the treasure like they could have. And also just like she asked they were nowhere in sight, hopefully hiding or watching from someplace safe.
A deep rumbling from the tunnel she came from told Applejack it was time to move, she ran back to where she had just gone previously, stopping in the middle of the bridge and surrounded by all the piles of King Avarice’s treasure. She took a deep breath and steadied herself, waiting for him.
And this time King Avarice just straight up smashed through the metal bars of the gate. Broken bones quickly knitting back together, his skull swiveling all around, searching for the pony that stole from him.
If King Avarice still had eyebrows they would’ve shot into space when he finally saw Applejack standing around all that treasure.
“Mine!” His horn lit up and he galloped along the floor, practically leaping with each step as he ran at Applejack. “My treasure! My gold!”
His silver magic grew into that familiar set of jaws, tied to his horn by a wispy string of magic. The king seemed even wilder than normal as he charged at Applejack, pushed beyond franticness by seeing so much of his treasure taken from his throne room and with some pony poised to steal it all away from him. The jaws snapped again and again as King Avarice ran out across the bridge to the center. Through all this Applejack stood still, bracing herself.
With a guttural cry and a thunderous rumbling, King Avarice jumped at Applejack, the silver jaws going right for her head again.
This time Applejack didn’t dodge completely, she turned her head to the side and allowed the jaws to clamp down on her shoulder. Wincing a bit from the pain but holding strong.
King Avarice’s jump still carried him into her, bony legs cracking into her chest and skull headbutting her. Applejack was pushed back slightly but braced herself with her superior physical strength, digging her back legs into the stone, getting the both of them to stop directly in the middle of the crisscrossed bridges.
“You are my slave! You obey and work for me forever! Everything in the world belongs to me forever! Magic! Power! Gold! Treasure! EVERYTHING!” King Avarice’s howling voice roared in Applejack’s face.
Applejack narrowed her eyes and stared back at him with pure defiance. She raised her right hoof in the air over both their heads. “Fine! You want it all so bad? Then take it with ya!”
She slammed her hoof back into the ground, cracking it right between them. But that was just the start, the whole chamber started to rumble as Applejack sent the strongest tremor she had ever used through the bridges. King Avarice growled in confusion as more and deeper cracks spread out from where they were standing and the ground shook violently beneath his hooves.
With a single loud crack the bridges broke apart beneath them, the rocks, treasure, and ponies now starting to fall towards the lava below.
“My treasure!” King Avarice yelled, dispelling his jaws and gathering what he could of his treasure in his telekinetic grip as everything fell around him.
Applejack didn’t pay him any more bother, jumping up from the bit of rock she was standing on she leaped high towards the ceiling of the chamber, as close to the hanging stalactites as she could get.
King Avarice madly yelled and roared as he fell deeper into the pit with the rubble of the bridges and his treasure. Applejack couldn’t make it far enough to the stalactites with her jump so she pulled out her trusty lasso from under her hat and swung it towards them, everything depended on her good aim.
She heard a final unnatural wail from below her and the bubbling sound of rocks plummeting into the lava. But she didn’t dare take her mind off her lasso, her aim was true and Applejack threw it right around a stalactite, she pulled the rope hard to get it to tighten completely around the hanging rock and not slide off. She was worried her weight when she stopped falling would pull it loose but it stayed on.
“Whoo… finally.” Applejack said as she hung there, swinging in the air a couple hundred feet above the lava. The apple farmer looked around at the rest of the chamber, bridges completely gone, impossible to climb from stalactite to stalactite. She bit her lip and laughed a little at her situation. “Really hope somepony comes to rescue me soon.”
The timely return of Daylight Gleam, Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit saw Applejack rescued before she too ended up in the lava. After crying for a second over all that destroyed treasure Star Blaze remembered there was still a gigantic room full of it and promptly ditched the others to grab as much of it as he could, Sugar Spirit decided to join him and Applejack was too tired to put a stop to it. While waiting for them Applejack took a nice rest and finally caught her breath, resting with the similarly exhausted Daylight Gleam.
“So, pretty crazy week huh?” Daylight said.
“Yep, even by my standards this has been a weird one.” Applejack nodded her head, lying on the ground. “We gotta walk through a lot of tunnels to get out of here now, sorry.”
“Meh, I’ll live. I already made the choice not to just run away so I think I’m fine with a little more walking. And unlike those two stooges-”. She said, glancing down the hall to the throne room. “I won’t be lugging around any heavy treasure.”
Applejack chuckled before yawning and taking a big stretch, rolling over onto her back she looked up at the ceiling. “I hope all of the ponies outside are okay. I mean, it’s not like they were fighting King Avarice for that long but that king was nuts, I wanna get out here soon and make sure everything is alright.”
Daylight Gleam actually started laughing a little bit as she listened to Applejack.
Raising an eyebrow the farm pony looked at the white unicorn. “What’s so funny?”
Daylight was still giggling as she answered Applejack. “It’s.. it’s you. Everything about you. You just almost died fighting some crazy undead monster! And you did it for like, no reason! You had no personal investment, you didn’t have to do it at all, you risked your life for all of this and the first thing you worry about after it’s all over is whether a bunch of ponies you don’t even know are okay! You’re too much, it’s like you’re from a fairy tale.” Daylight kept giggling at it all, it was just too funny to her to meet a pony like Applejack.
Applejack for her part just shrugged. “That’s just how I am. My friends are the same way.”
The two ponies rested for a while longer until they heard their two other companions coming back. With the clinking of coins, heavy hooves clacking on the ground, and labored breathing, both Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit pushed past the big spiked door and back into the red room. Daylight and Applejack both had to resist rolling their eyes when they saw them.
Huge bags filled to bursting sat on their backs with others hanging off their sides, a trail of gold coins and small gems led from them back to the throne room, between the two of them an even larger bag full of treasure was levitated by their magic.
With wobbly legs they walked towards Applejack and Daylight, dropping a few coins and other bits of treasure from the massive haul they took with each step. Star Blaze’s eyes were bugging out of his head at the exertion and Sugar Spirit had an insane smile plastered on her face, the heat and workout making almost rivers of sweat fall from them.
Applejack walked towards them with a smirk and looked at the sacks of treasure the both of them were carrying. “Think ya got enough? I said no looting remember?”
Sugar Spirit’s face fell while the air wheezed out of Star Blaze’s lungs like a deflating balloon.
After a second, Applejack allowed herself a giggle. “Oh fine, I suppose you two can at least ask the other ponies if you can have a cut of the treasure.”
A very long while later after traversing through the tunnels of Greed Volcano again, Applejack and her party came back outside to the city. The journey was sped up slightly thanks to Applejack offering to carry quite a bit of their treasure but at the same time it was still quite a bit slower than it could’ve been thanks to the narrow tunnels causing some problems along the way.
But now Greed Volcano and King Avarice were truly behind them all.
“I. Am. Beat!” Star Blaze said as he collapsed to the ground, taking a long breath of fresh open air.
“I. Am. Ecstatic!” Sugar Spirit yelled as she jumped around all of them, wearing a set of necklaces, earrings, tiara’s, and any other kind of jewelry you could think. “This has been the most amazing treasure hunt ever! Parts of it were kind of scary but just look how it’s turned out! We’re never gonna have to steal or rob from other ponies again!”
Applejack was somewhat dismayed to hear Sugar Spirit so freely admit to doing that in the past but she wasn’t going to press the issue at this point. It was time for her to get up and leave pretty soon, she heaved the large sack she was carrying off her back and let it sit on the ground.
Seeming to sense how she was feeling Daylight came up to Applejack and put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Look, we really won’t be doing anything bad anymore. This is it for the “criminal” part of our careers. Right?” She said as she looked at Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit.
“Right!” They both replied in unison.
Daylight smiled and turned back to Applejack. “We’ll stick to wholesome adventuring and treasure hunting just for fun now. We won’t be hurting for money anymore after all this.”
“Well, that does make me pretty happy to hear.” Applejack smiled at the three of them.
“Hey! There they are!”
The four ponies looked to the sound of the voice, a blue-armored guard was standing at the end of the street, pointing at them. Instantly Applejack and the others heard a rush of running hooves and voices as a huge crowd of ponies came barreling over from the next street, practically plowing over the guard that had found them in the first place. Sunflower was out front and center but there were so many other random ponies she didn’t know, likely ones that just lived and worked somewhere in the city, as well.
“How did it go? Are you alright? What happened to King Avarice?” Sunflower yelled while he ran towards them.
Applejack held up her hooves to calm them down, signaling them to slow down a bit and not run the four ponies over.
“Now we’re alright, y’all don’t need to go crazy or anything.” Applejack said to the crowd of ponies as they slowed down and stopped in front of them. “As for King Avarice you don’t have to worry about him anymore, and the spell keeping you trapped here is gone for good too.”
The crowd started cheering and celebrating like crazy after hearing that.
“I guess everything went well on this side.” Daylight Gleam said to Applejack, almost drowned out by the noise from the city ponies.
Sunflower walked up to them while the other ponies continued their wild celebrations. “I really don’t know how to thank you, this is incredible, I never thought anything like this could happen.” He said, eyes almost vacant as if he was still processing the fact that they were finally free from King Avarice.
“You really don’t need to thank me.” Applejack said, smiling as she shook her head. “And these other fellows already got plenty enough for themselves if you’re fine with that.” She pointed at Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit protectively watching over their hoard. “But what are you going to be doing now? What’s gonna happen to this city?”
Sunflower shrugged. “Well most ponies were born here, I suppose the ones that were trapped and captured like you will go back home but the rest of us will probably just continue living on here. We won’t have to work the mines anymore or be forced to make endless treasures for King Avarice, we can find our own lives to lead. We’ll do something with this city, I just don’t know what yet.”
This time even Daylight Gleam smiled at the yellow earth pony. “Best of luck to you. Me and my friends will be leaving soon, Applejack too I believe.”
“Yep.” Applejack confirmed. “I’ll be heading out tonight.”
“Oh, I was hoping you would at least stay another day.” Sunflower looked a little dismayed by their choices.
Applejack put a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “I really would like to but I’ve already spent so much time away from home, I wanna get back on track as soon as possible, been sidetracked enough lately.”
“I guess this is goodbye for us too.” Daylight said as she looked at Applejack. “I’ll go grab those two idiots so they can say a proper goodbye to you, hold on a second.”
Applejack waited as she brought the two over. Sunflower was standing patiently as well, waiting for the real goodbye. The apple farmer was a little sad that she had to say goodbye to another group of ponies, as always, moving on was bittersweet. But she did all she could for them and now the ponies that lived here could start happy lives. She’d miss Daylight, Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit a bit too, even with their eccentricities and not entirely honest profession.
“Well, guess this is goodbye Applejack, time to go on our separate ways now?”
The apple loving pony was snapped out of her thoughts when Star Blaze came up to her. She quickly put on a smile for him.
“Guess so. It was nice getting to know you three. For the most part.” She winked at him.
“It was super great getting to know you!” Sugar Spirit said, boundless energy fully returned she ran up and tightly hugged Applejack. “You were awesome! I’m really going to miss you!”
“Thanks...” Applejack wheezed through the tight hug.
“Alright, alright, enough of all that.” Daylight said, using her magic to separate the two. “And besides, what’s all this nonsense about goodbye anyways?”
“Huh?” Applejack said, looking at the white unicorn in confusion.
“Who says this is goodbye? Maybe we’ll see each other again someday.” Daylight Gleam smiled at her. “I’ll be saying “See you later” if that’s alright with you?”
Applejack’s face broke out into a wide smile, this time she stepped forward and gave Daylight a little hug too. “Yeah, that’s alright with me. See you later.”
The celebrations and farewells to the other ponies went on for a little while longer but finally it was time for Applejack to head out. Late at night she left the city under Greed Volcano, her three unicorn friends heading the opposite direction and carrying enough treasure to buy a town. She stood on top of a hill waving to them almost until they were entirely out of sight and then she turned around and continued her long walk home. She didn’t know how much longer it would be till she found her way back to Ponyville but she felt happier and more fulfilled than she had in a long time.
It was almost midnight when Applejack paused, a sudden thought striking her.
The five ponies sat around the table, lamp swinging above them to cast shadows across all their faces. The mood was dark, the expressions on the ponies faces darker still. Things were serious now. It would all come down to this.
Applejack’s cool nerves helped keep her from sweating. She didn’t want to let the other ponies see any weakness. She looked across the table at the lone adversary left, the other three already defeated and watching in silence, watching to see which of the two ponies would come out victorious. Her opponent took a long drag on his cigar and puffed the smoke out the side of his mouth, his steely black eyes betrayed nothing. If he was nervous she couldn’t tell.
With a slight lick of her lips she waited for him to make his move.
His salt and pepper mustache twitched. It was finally time.
“Got any threes?”
Applejack slammed her face onto the table and weakly offered up the lone three in her hand. With a smirk the opposing stallion took it and laid his last cards on the table.
“Looks like I win.”
Applejack groaned as all the stallions chuckled good-naturedly.
“I thought I was gonna win for once!” Applejack said as she pulled her face off the table. “Find a card game that I don’t need to bluff in and I still can’t win!”
The victor, an older stallion named Card Sharp, smiled at the farmer. “No need to feel upset, sugar pie. Not everypony is a card player.”
It was the third day of Applejack’s trip on the barge Melody’s Pearl. In that time she had befriended the rest of the passengers going downriver and had made a name for herself as “The pony who couldn’t bluff to save her life”. But it was all in good fun. Card Sharp and the other gamblers enjoyed having a fun new gal around that they could relax with and try to teach a thing or two about cards to. And Applejack appreciated having something to do to kill time with while the trip went on.
She liked just being able to kick back and relax for a few days after… everything. She might not have been actively looking for a way back home while she went down this river but everypony needed to take a break once in a while. And being able to just sit around chatting with new ponies and playing card games was a nice way to get rid of any stress.
“What say we go up to the dining room and have some grub?” Silver Tongue, a fat earth pony who had also been playing cards suggested.
“Eating in these rocky waters?” A unicorn by the name of Sapphire responded. “You’ll end up throwing it back up in an hour, wait till we get out of the rapids.”
Sapphire was right, Applejack thought. The barge was big but the choppy waters were still making it sway back and forth. Every second the room they were all sitting in tilted one way and then the other. Applejack was thankful that she didn’t get sick from this even though she wasn’t used to it. Must just be her strong constitution.
“Well I’m hungry. And I’ve had enough of Card’s smoke filling up the room.” Silver Tongue said as he got up and stepped to the door. “If anything it’ll be nice to get some fresher air.”
The rest of the ponies in the game room grumbled in agreement, Card Sharp putting out his cigar as well as they all packed up their things and cleaned up. Applejack got out of her chair and stretched, following them out the room and up the stairs. The dining room was on top of the barge, situated right behind the bridge. You could walk outside along the deck of the boat or just eat inside, the dining room had plenty of windows one could open for fresh air either way.
As the five card playing ponies made it into the dining room from the stairs the last member of their group, a midnight blue stallion called Paint Tin, yawned and headed right for the bar.
“The cards have been fun, now it’s time for me to really relax.” He gave them a salute as he sat down and ordered his first of many drinks.
“Drinking myself under the table doesn’t sound very fun with the ship moving like this.” Sapphire said as he raised an eyebrow at Paint Tin’s choice. “I believe I’ll go out on deck and watch the view go by, farewell for the moment my friends.” Sapphire waved to Applejack and the others before doing as he said and walking out the door near the front of the dining room.
That left Card Sharp, Silver Tongue and Applejack to take a seat at their own table. Card Sharp opened up the window next to him and pulled out another cigar, lighting it with a match and taking a few long puffs on it.
“I don’t know how you can stand those.” Applejack said as she scrunched her face at the cigar. “The smoke and smell alone were getting to me in that room.”
He just smiled knowingly at her. “It’s something for a bit more mature ponies to enjoy.”
Applejack frowned in annoyance and waved a dismissive hoof. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
After gesturing for the waitress to come over, Silver Tongue decided to open up a new conversation. “So where are you two getting off on the river anyways?”
Card Sharp puffed out a circle of smoke and decided to answer first. “Next stop actually. Visiting my sister and her good for nothing husband. Money problems. Again.” He rolled his eyes to himself. “Nice town at least, plenty of folks that love a good card game. Plenty that are actually good at cards too.” He winked at Applejack.
Applejack ignored him. “Well, I figure I’m just gonna go to the end of the line. Didn’t have much of a real destination in mind when I came on board.”
Before the conversation could continue the waitress came up to their table. “What’ll you have?” She was an older, heavy-set, mare with thick lipstick and a curly auburn mane. “Coffe? Tea? Anything harder?”
“Actually I’d like to eat something.” Silver Tongue said. “How you doing for pies?”
“Scuse’ me, sorry to interrupt.” Applejack said as she put out a hoof to cut Silver Tongue and the waitress off. “But do you have apple pie?”
The waitress, who Applejack now realized was actually a mule and not a pony at all, looked to think for a second before answering. “Sorry, but we don’t got any pies like that.”
Applejack sighed and reclined in her chair. “Figures.”
Card Sharp and Silver Tongue both shared a look and shrugged before Silver Tongue turned back to the waitress.
“Got any strawberry pies?”
After a staunch refusal to eat any strawberry pie Applejack instead ordered a slice of pear pie. That was alright. The rocking of the boat wasn’t so bad that any of them lost their meals afterwards and in a few hours the waters calmed down and the sun was starting to drift below the horizon. Applejack stood at the bow of the barge, watching as they sailed down the river. It had widened up quite a bit, almost enough that from cruising down the middle one would have trouble seeing either shore.
It was a nice view. The surface of the water was so calm and placid, aside from where the barge was disturbing it, that it perfectly reflected the light and the sky above it. She almost wanted to inflate an old inner tube and just lazily float downstream.
Getting some exercise she jogged a few laps around the top deck. After that she decided on a change of scenery and stayed by the back of the boat for a bit, watching the huge rotating paddle push the barge along. So maybe “sailed” was the wrong word.
“Whatcha thinking about?”
She heard the voice of Card Sharp behind her and turned to see him puffing on the last bit of his cigar.
“Nothing much. Just trying to enjoy myself for now.” She responded, looking back out over the stern of the barge and the waters being churned up by the paddle.
“You seem like the kind of pony who needs a whole month of a boat ride to nowhere.” He said as he came up to stand alongside her.
“What do you mean?” Applejack glanced at him.
He chuckled, almost coughing slightly thanks to the smoke. “I just mean that I can’t remember the last time I’ve met a pony as stressed as you.”
“Mm.” Applejack just hummed. “I’ve been on a long trip.”
“I figured as much from what you said earlier. Where ya headed?”
“Home.”
It was so simple to think about, even though she had come out here to not think about anything serious here she was talking about it with some pony she barely knew. Well in some ways it felt nice to just talk with a random pony about it, especially since they would be going their separate ways soon and she wasn’t planning on getting dragged into anything else.
Applejack thought a bit about what he mentioned earlier, it may not have been her place but she decided to speak up.
“So, sounds like you don’t get along the best with your family.”
He frowned slightly, rolling the cigar stub around in his mouth. “Well, I’m not fond of my sister’s choice of a husband, nor much else she does.” Card Sharp closed his eyes and puffed out another ring of smoke. “But they’re family, I’ll be there for them even if we don’t get along.”
Applejack smiled up at him. “That’s good at least.”
Card Sharp looked down at her, returning her smile with a happy grin. “Hope you get home to your family soon too.”
The two of them stood out there for a while longer, watching the river and whatever else came up pass by until the sun fully set.
Applejack walked through the beautiful grove with nothing more than a look of contentment on her face. It looked like she had just walked into the definition of spring itself with all the of the colorful, blooming flowers surrounding her. Numerous squares of flower patches were separated from each other by small, white, picket fences. Applejack trotted down the dirt paths between them, taking in the sights and scents. The whole garden was arranged in a square grid of one hundred separate little patches that Applejack could see, each fenced-in square held its own type of flower.
Roses, lilies, carnations, petunias, sunflowers, and so many more that Applejack couldn’t name. Wherever it was that she was now it wasn’t hard to guess what the local community must’ve revolved around.
It was peculiar to her that she didn’t see any ponies tending the flowers at the moment, perhaps they were on a break. But there hadn’t been any guards or outer fences blocking her from coming in here at all either. Maybe the local area was just that peaceful and they didn’t worry about thieves or anything else happening to their flowers.
“Wonder where the town is? Or if there even is a town.” Applejack thought out loud to herself. “Guess it could just be a couple of ponies that take are of all this.”
Applejack continued walking by the flowers, at the far end of the garden from where she had walked in a line of birch trees stood flanking a dirt path. It was the only sign of civilization around so she figured she might as well take it instead of wandering aimlessly.
The scent of flowers was almost overpowering even just walking down the tree-lined path. Everything around here was so bright and colorful, she saw a swarm of pink and blue butterflies fly overhead, it was simply the prettiest place she had seen in a very long time. It almost made Applejack want to whistle along as she walked and see if any songbirds responded.
With a second more of walking the path opened up into another section of little gardens, it was far smaller than the previous one, only twenty individual gardens separated in four rows of five but with the same small white fences built around them.
To Applejack’s eyes there didn’t seem to be any difference in the types of flowers here. But what was different was the cozy looking house situated at the far end of the garden. It was practically picturesque with the stairs leading up its porch, the spotless white paint, flower-printed curtains in the window, and the single red brick chimney along the side.
“Well isn’t that just about the nicest looking house I’ve seen.” Applejack said as she walked down towards it in-between the gardens.
She saw another path that led off somewhere behind and to the right of the house but she wanted to see if there was anypony home here first.
The boards of the stairs creaked as she walked up them, if anypony was sitting in the living room they’d have already heard her coming but naturally Applejack still knocked on the door. She could hear a pony moving around in there so she put on her best smile to make for a friendly greeting.
“Coming! Just a minute!” A light and honey-sweet voice called out from inside the home.
Applejack stood there and waited as she heard the hoofsteps finally make it up to the door. She could hear that it wasn’t locked as it swung open, revealing a light-brown mare with a wavy mane and tail that had numerous daisies thrown about inside it. She wore a green apron and looked at Applejack with warm, golden eyes.
“Well hi! Welcome to Gold Daisy’s home!” The mare friendly said to Applejack. “Gold Daisy is wondering what brings you here?”
Applejack was a little confused at what she just said but decided to tell this mare why she came by.
“I was just walking through and I wondered if there was maybe any town or place I can rest at for a bit? I’ve been stuck on the road for a while.” Applejack figured it was best to cut things short.
“Oh, but of course, this house is on the outskirts of the town, Botanica. Gold Daisy goes there for gardening supplies all the time. It’s only a short walk down the path out behind the house.” The friendly mare told Applejack.
“Thanks a lot, pleasure meeting ya.” Applejack tipped her hat and waved goodbye to the mare as she went back down the stairs to the porch.
“You’re welcome, Gold Daisy is happy you stopped by!” The mare waved back at her.
Now Applejack was still a little confused and weirded out by how that mare kept referring to this “Gold Daisy” pony as if they were right there but she decided not to dwell on it. Maybe the mare was just a bit weird and if Applejack could live in the same town with Pinkie Pie then she could deal with something as trivial as this.
Applejack walked down the path that she had seen earlier now, a short ways along it the birch trees started to thin out and the land around her opened up. Rolling green hills stretched out on either side of the path, Applejack saw a number of buildings and houses spread out all over the place. She wasn’t sure this exactly qualified as a town but it was pretty. Each building seemed to have at least one or two flower beds and gardens around it. Most of the homes had plenty of room between each other, like family farms that had their fields right up next to each other. Except instead of any crops it was all healthy green grass and flowers. Applejack was thinking of leaving the dirt path and taking a walk through the hills but thought better of it, some ponies might not appreciate her just walking onto their land, even if this seemed like a really peaceful and friendly place.
So she kept walking, looking at the sparsely populated town with the infrequent houses and buildings situated along the way. At some points if she looked out it almost seemed like there was an ocean of flowers, they had been so thickly planted.
Near the side of the dirt road she was walking on a big stallion was watering some of the flowers. He was a bit of a beige color and wore tattered farmer’s overalls. When he saw Applejack coming he nodded politely at her.
“Hello there.” Applejack said back to him. “Lovely place you’ve got here.”
“Big Moonflower thinks so too.” He said, giving her a smile.
Applejack almost stumbled a bit but kept walking. “Uh, yeah.” She said, a little unsure.
Do these ponies not like talking about themselves or something? Applejack thought as she kept walking through.
There was a cottage coming up on top of the next hill on the right side of the road, not only did it have the same white picket gardens behind it but dozens of potted plants and flowers decorated its front. It was a lovely two-story home with a deep red double door and the same immaculate white paint as the others. While Applejack was walking past it the front door opened and two mares walked out, carrying baskets.
Applejack almost did a double-take, the mares were twins. Bright yellow pegasi with leaf-green manes. The only differences between them were their Cutie Marks, one had a camellia and the other a poppy, and one had her mane just a little bit shorter than the other.
As they walked down the brick path from their house that led to the dirt road they spied Applejack and waved hello to her.
As polite as ever Applejack waved back. “Howdy you two. Having a nice day?”
The mare with the camellia Cutie Mark and slightly shorter mane nodded in answer. “Morning Spritz and her sister are about to go enjoy a picnic.”
The poppy Cutie Mark sister happily smiled along. “Summer Shower is looking forward to spending some quality time with her sister.”
Applejack blankly stared at them for a few seconds. Now it finally clicked for her.
“How come y’all are talking in the third person?”
The two sisters tilted their heads at Applejack in the exact same way.
“Morning Spritz talks as Morning Spritz talks.”
“Summer Shower also talks as Summer Shower talks.” The longer maned sister nodded eagerly as she spoke.
“Right, so that pony who lives back down this road a ways is called Gold Daisy? And that big stallion watering flowers on the side of the road is named Big Moonflower?” Applejack asked the two of them, trying her hardest to not roll her eyes or show any other signs of exasperation at the way ponies around here communicated.
“Yes, Gold Daisy and Big Moonflower are wonderful ponies, Morning Spritz and her sister talk and have lunch with them all the time.” Morning Spritz said.
“Summer Shower thinks Big Moonflower likes Morning Spritz.” Summer Shower said, grinning at her sister and nudging her in the side with a wing.
Morning Spritz blushed and pushed her sister away. “Please!” She covered her face with a wing and started to trot away.
Summer Shower giggled and waved to Applejack. “Summer Shower enjoyed meeting you, goodbye!” And then she went off after her sister.
“What a kooky place.” Applejack said as she finally allowed herself a shake of the head when the sisters weren’t looking in her direction anymore.
The apple farmer continued back on her walk down the dirt road, it was slowly going up a hill now, she took in the sights some more, spotting a lot of new flowers that she had never seen before and waving at whatever ponies she saw off in the distance. She hadn’t spied any sort of hotel or place she could rest her hooves yet but that wasn’t so bad. Weather was good enough where if worse came to worse she could just camp out outside. Although Applejack may still have actually been on the outskirts of the town, or the main part could’ve been over the hills somewhere.
But as she crested the hill all her worries were for not, just down a little bit was the town proper. A small circlet of buildings and a few outliers that made Ponyville look like Manehattan. The whole town was ringed by a fence covered in flowering bushes with a large white arch with roses and vines woven around it built over where one would walk in.
“Just gets prettier and prettier, it’s almost weird.”
Applejack made her way down into the town, walking under the pretty arch and taking a look around. A fountain with stone flowers spraying out water stood in the center, the buildings circled around it looked like an assortment of businesses and supply stores mostly for farming and gardening materials. She did see one flower shop that was actually selling some of the many flowers that were produced here.
It took a few more minutes of searching and walking, and a few awkward hellos and conversations, but eventually Applejack did find what passed for a hotel around here. It was a small bed and breakfast close to the opposite end of the town from where she had come from. Applejack could see another pretty arch that she would walk through tomorrow on her way out of town.
“Howdy, good day to ya.” Applejack said to the inn-keep as she stepped inside.
“Good day to ya ma’am. Flytrap welcomes you to his inn.” The older purple stallion said in reply.
Applejack almost said something cheeky like “Say thanks to him for me” or something like that but decided to just smile nicely and get a room to sleep in for the night.
The next morning Applejack walked her way out of town, taking things slowly to enjoy the pleasant scenery a little more before she ended up at whatever her next destination may be. The arch at this side of town was covered in hydrangeas, Applejack smelled a few before walking past it. But as she did something in the corner of her eye caught her attention.
A tiny sign had been placed in front of the arch. Applejack was sure the other arch had nothing like this around it so she took a peek to see what it said.
Hello Our Lovely Guests, Welcome To Botanica!
The Ponies Here Refer To Themselves In The Third Person
Just FYI, Please Enjoy Your Stay And Our Beautiful Flowers!
Applejack walked by the side of a slowly flowing creek, despite the plentiful amount of water the land around her was rather desolate. It looked like it was at one point farmlands but any crops had either dried up or weren’t maintained. It annoyed Applejack to see such apathy to farming. But there was nothing she could do about it, just keep walking until she found something or somepony new. The creek at least gave her plenty of water to drink so she was never dehydrated.
The clouds were rolling overhead and the temperature outside was nice and even. It was definitely what one would call a nice day but without any scenery to enjoy Applejack was just bored as she continued her walk.
“Best not to wish for something exciting to happen.” Applejack said to herself. “Didn’t I already do that before and something crazy happened like right after? Probably.”
The apple farmer shook her muddled head and kept walking. The crazy events of her journey away from home were almost like a dream to her now, it seems amazing that it all actually happened to her. But if she ever needed proof she could just obliterate a stone with Hoof of the Earth or look at the tiny bite mark still healing on her shoulder. Now as she looked up at the sky she wondered how much longer she’d be going on, how many more aimless days like this would she travel? She wasn’t the type to give up but it was frustrating. If there were just apples on this journey she could at least cope, but this was the longest she had ever gone in her entire life without biting into a juicy apple. If she could just have an apple everything would be okay, Applejack was sure of it.
Applejack started kicking a pebble along to take her mind off things. Nudging it slightly and counting how many times it bounced, trying to hit it one way and then the next, seeing if she could make it bounce a certain number of times. Her little game continued until she almost missed the gopher hole right in front of her.
“Woah! That could’ve been nasty.” Applejack hopped over the hole, paying harder attention to the ground. “I’ve had enough of falling flat on my face thank you very much.”
The rain came out of nowhere.
Drenching her body as if she had just been swimming in a lake, the heavy downpour beat on her coat and hat relentlessly. Her mane was a sopping mess as it clung to her neck so Applejack minutely adjusted it to get any errant strands out of her face.
She looked up into the sky which, while it did have a good number of clouds floating about above her, looked far away from about to rain just a few minutes ago. The heavy drops poured onto her face, if she was a turkey she’d be in a lot of trouble but Applejack’s blank stare at the sky was one of pure annoyance and resignation at the universe.
Not bothering to sigh or say anything she turned her head from the sky and started to walk on again. Looking straight ahead and doing her best to ignore the insane weather.
The cacophony of the rain was deafening, louder still due to all of the drops hitting the creek right next to Applejack, and the powerful torrent was quickly turning the ground beneath her hooves into mud. Now she was wet, dirty, annoyed, and she occasionally struggled to lift her hoof out of the thick mud she was forced to walk through.
She was a little worried at how soaked her hat was, and the wind was picking up and starting to blow the rain directly into her face as she walked. Applejack brought up one of her forelegs to block the rain coming at her and tried to push forward through it all, but it was mighty tough going. The fierce rainstorm she was now caught in was doing all it could to crush her spirits and probably knock her down into the mud at the same time too. But she wasn’t about to let something like that happen. Applejack kept pushing hard against the wind and the rain coming at her face, eyes squinted and steps decisive she walked down the road.
Since it was already raining the hail was a little less out of nowhere.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow...” Applejack muttered as the apple seed sized balls of hail pummeled her body. She wasn’t sure just how many hundreds of times she had been hit already in these few moments but it was probably already going to leave her sore and a little bruised later.
The muddy path she walked on was covered in those little pieces of ice now, all of it crunching and melting under her hooves. She was lucky at least that the hail wasn’t any bigger, her hat was enough to deflect most of it from her head and face.
“I didn’t let vampire fruit bats or Discord or Flim and Flam stop me, I sure as hay aint letting some measly hail stop me!” Applejack kept charging on. “This is the kind of thing where I can put my stubbornness to good use, stupid hail!”
And just as she was getting riled up the hail stopped, the storm broke, the clouds disappeared, and it returned to being a nice sunny day.
Applejack looked around at the muddy and rain devastated ground before looking back up at the sky and shaking her hoof at nothing in particular. “Yeah, you heard me!”
Her walk continued.
After going a bit further she started to see a tree rising up in the distance, as she steadily got closer she realized that the tree was practically giant-sized. It was way taller than any in the Everfree forest and it was thick enough around at the trunk that she and her friends wouldn’t have been able to form a ring around it if they tried.
There was also a sign in front of the tree but Applejack ignored it, even putting up a hoof so she wouldn’t see what it said at all.
But beyond the tree the formerly desolate farmlands turned much greener. In fact the land turned into rows upon rows of little leafy green bushes on the ground. It was such a stark contrast it seemed almost unnatural. The leafy green bushes looked familiar to Applejack, apple farmer she may have been she still knew what most other fruit plants or trees looked like, but she couldn’t quite place exactly what they were at first.
Past the rows Applejack could see a farmhouse with a big green barn rising up. Kind of weird to her to paint a barn green and not red but on the other hoof it was a really nice sight to see.
“Well not only do I finally find a sign of some ponies but it’s a farm.” Applejack said happily as she walked her wet body to the farmhouse. “Always nice to meet other farmers.”
Closer to the farmhouse she made out a few picnic tables spread out in front of it along with a few tents and wagons that made it look like some big event was being planned. Shrugging, Applejack walked on by all that to knock on the door and say hello to anypony that might be home. It would be good if she could get a place to clean up and rest for a bit. Especially if that weird weather might return anytime soon.
“Hello? Anypony home?” Applejack said as her hoof rapped on the front door a few times.
It sounded like a stampede on the other side of the door.
A short second later and the door swung open, what looked like a dozen or so ponies were jammed into the doorframe, each one of them clearly having tried to be the one to open it and greet whoever it was that knocked.
Applejack stepped back, surprised at so many bright smiling faces.
“Why hello there!” A red coated and green maned mare said with a country twang even heavier than Applejack’s own as she pushed through the mob of other ponies and caused them all to collapse backwards onto the floor of the entryway with a groan. “And just who might you be to wander on to our Delicious Strawberry Fields?”
The poor apple farmer’s pupils shrank.
“The what fields?”
“Why the Delicious Strawberry Fields! Owned and farmed by us, the Strawberry Family!” She grinned and winked at Applejack. “My name’s Silk Strawberry, current head of the household. And boy howdy did you come on by at the right time, got a whole bunch of the family here for our annual reunion!”
She grabbed Applejack by the shoulders and pulled her inside with one swift motion, not giving her a chance to talk back or speak up.
“Let me introduce ya to everyone!” Silk Strawberry said as she stood Applejack in front of the other ponies, who had gotten back up and were now standing at attention, smiling wide at the stranger. Applejack noticed that all of them had coats and manes that were varying shades of red and green.
“So this here be my sister, Chocolate Strawberry.” Silk gestured to a very dark-red mare that was quite a bit younger than her who gave a short wave of hello to Applejack. “These are her two kids Alba and Albion.” She pointed at a young filly and colt, clearly twins, who also enthusiastically waved at Applejack.
“Daybreak, my cousin.” A tall light-red mare.
“Jewel Strawberry, my other cousin.” A very thin and short stallion.
“Red Ruby, my aunt.” An older and rather fat mare with a warm smile.
“Valley Sunset, my uncle.” A stallion not quite as old looking as Red Ruby but with a wiry looking frame.
“And of course, the ones who built this farm in the first place, my parents, Ma and Pa Strawberry Bush!” An ancient pair of ponies on par with Granny Smith in age.
They were all very happy to say hello and welcome a stranger into their house, even her dirty and untidy appearance didn’t seem a bother. And despite her inner feelings Applejack just didn’t have it in her to be honest right now. It annoyed her but she learned her lesson with Rarity back then, if they loved strawberries then that was fine. Even though she had been so long without an apple she wasn’t about to start something with a perfectly nice clan of ponies. Again it felt like the universe was playing a joke on her but oh well. She didn’t need to start complaining about strawberries to ponies who valued them so much.
I am going to buck Strawberry Sunrise in the face when I get home.
She did allow herself that thought though.
As Applejack was lost in thought she didn’t notice the little messy-haired filly walking up to her.
“What’s your Cutie Mark?”
Applejack’s ears perked up and she looked down to see a filly maybe right around Apple Bloom’s age looking up at her with inquisitive eyes and a somewhat furrowed brow. Whoever this pony was, Silk Strawberry didn’t introduce her.
“Well now, look who came out of her room and decided to stop being a little pouty pony.” Silk Strawberry came walking up and nuzzled the filly’s head to her annoyance.
“Stop it, mom!” The filly angrily pushed her hoof away and ran off to hide around the corner of the hallway, just barely peeking out.
Silk Strawberry giggled at her daughter’s behavior. “You don’t mind her none, my little Wild Strawberry is always in one mood or another.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Applejack replied to her, sparing a glance at the filly in question.
“By the way, what’s your name? I got so enthusiastic seeing a new face I just had to introduce her to the family! Sorry about that, sweetie pie.” Silk said in her very overly affectionate way while the rest of the family gathered around Applejack.
“That’s no problem at all, my name’s Applejack. I’m also a farmer too you know.” Applejack said to the Strawberry clan, smiling proudly.
“Ooooh, it’s always wonderful to meet another farmer.” Daybreak said to her.
“Yes, quite so.” Chocolate Strawberry said. “So what do you farm?”
“Well, uh, like my name and Cutie Mark implies, I farm apples.” Applejack told them, pointing at the trio of apples on her flank.
Silk Strawberry took a closer look at her Cutie Mark. “Looks like another kind of fruit if I do say so myself! Well aint that just great! I love meeting ponies who grow other fruits.” She said with a big genuine smile to Applejack.
“And it’s a real pleasure to meet your family too.” Applejack said. And it was the truth.
Really.
“It’s just about the perfect time that a fellow farmer could’ve wandered around here too.” Silk said with a wink. “Tomorrow’s harvest day! We’ll be out early in the morning and gathering up a whole new batch of fresh strawberries, as our guest we’ll treat you to all sorts of meals!” Before Applejack could respond Silk began leading her to the stairs. “And don’t you worry none about imposing, even with the family here we’ve got plenty of room, I’ll lead you to a spare!”
Applejack was grateful for Silk Strawberry and the rest of the clan’s hospitality, even if it made her feel a little awkward. Maybe she could help them out tomorrow to pay them back but that would probably go into a back and forth of “we couldn’t possibly let you do that” and “I insist”.
As Applejack was led to her room upstairs by Silk Strawberry she heard a scuffle on the floor behind her and turned back to see Wild Strawberry running back down the stairs. But what really caught Applejack’s attention was the blank flank she saw before it disappeared behind the corner.
After a night spent chatting and then Applejack and Silk Strawberry trying to out-stubborn one another our apple farmer found herself awake the next morning before the break of dawn and ready to help out with the strawberry harvest at Delicious Strawberry Fields.
She was on the verge of having an existential crisis but she quickly squashed all that hard thinking and decided to face things head on like she always did. But she still never thought in a million years that she’d be helping out at a strawberry farm of all places. If all of them hadn’t been so nice and welcoming she probably would’ve exploded in one of her angry outbursts again.
But even Applejack’s exhaustion at this journey and its lack of apples was no excuse for her to be so rude to a group of ponies like this. So now here she was.
“Mmmm!~” Applejack groaned as she stretched on her way out of bed. She felt really refreshed after getting to use their shower last night. The orange pony grabbed her hat off the nightstand she had put it on and tugged it back in place on her head. “Alright, time for an honest day of hard work.”
The farmer smiled as she opened up the door and stepped out into the second-floor hallway of the Strawberry family’s house.
Already she could hear sound coming from below, most likely Silk Strawberry getting everything ready first. As Applejack made her way down the stairs she could hear others getting up and ready to come down to help with the harvest as well. Getting downstairs, Applejack walked into the living room that she had spent most of the previous night chatting in.
“Well if it aint our stubborn guest!”
Just as she suspected, Silk Strawberry was in there already going about her morning chores. So were Ma and Pa Bush and the mop-headed Wild Strawberry. The filly was staring at Applejack again but Applejack decided to ignore that for now.
“Yep, gotta get up early to get all of the day in.” Applejack said to the Strawberrys that were down here.
“Well I hope you’re looking forward to it. Now really, you don’t need to do any of this.” Silk Strawberry started to chide her again. “You’re our guest and all.”
Applejack was about to start up again that she felt obligated to help after everything when Wild Strawberry spoke up first.
“Mom, if she wants to work for free then let her work.” The filly rolled here eyes and hopped up to sit at the dining room table.
Silk Strawberry scowled at her daughter even as Applejack smiled in amusement.
“Wild, that aint no way to treat a guest. You shouldn’t expect anything from treating somepony nicely or giving them a roof for the night, it’s just the courteous thing to do. It’s our hospitality young lady.” Silk gave her daughter one last stern look before heading into the kitchen, presumably to set breakfast on the table.
Meanwhile Wild sat slumped over, grumpily looking down at the table, while the old Ma and Pa Bush took up seats and motioned for Applejack to come sit down with them. The two old ponies hadn’t said a word the whole time Applejack was here but their faces were still friendly, maybe they just liked being silent or age had taken its toll on their voices.
In short order the rest of the Strawberry clan came filing down the stairs, greeting Applejack and taking up their own seats, waiting for breakfast and the hard day of work that would follow.
Silk Strawberry came walking back out of the kitchen with an absolutely massive bowl of salad balanced on her back. With a single heave she set it into the middle of the big living room table.
“Eat up y’all! There’s a lot of work to be done out in the field today so make sure you fill up!” The matriarch smiled at the rest of her family and Applejack before taking a seat right next to the apple farmer. “I’m guessing you’ve never picked strawberries before?”
“Can’t say that I have.” Applejack replied while in the middle of grabbing some salad for her plate.
“Well I’ll be happy to show you how it’s done.” Silk flashed her signature warm and welcoming smile at Applejack. “Pretty much all grunt work to be done today though.”
Now it was Applejack’s turn to smile at the strawberry farmer. “No worries there, that’s my favorite kind of work.”
Applejack stood between two rows of strawberry bushes while the early morning sun beat down on her, they had gotten to work quickly and now every pony in the house aside from Ma and Pa Bush were out in the fields picking and gathering strawberries. It didn’t take the physical effort of applebucking but she still had to stay hunched over and be careful with how she got the strawberries, lest she bruise or improperly pick them in some way. But this was just the kind of work Applejack was made for, she didn’t have any complaints even if it was picking strawberries.
She saw the twins Alba and Albion quickly making their ways down the rows of strawberries, the pair was like a well-oiled strawberry picking machine. Chocolate and Daybreak were working the rows behind Applejack, and doing a fast job of them as well. It dawned on Applejack as she looked out at them all that she was actually the slowest worker among all of them. That was new.
“Better start pulling my weight.” Applejack said to herself and started to see if she could speed up her work without sacrificing any quality.
The sun rose higher and higher and Applejack picked more and more. Wiping the sweat from her brow and taking the occasionally short break to stretch her back. Tough and tedious work, something she had done all her life. It brought a big smile to her face.
“You don’t like strawberries do you?”
Applejack perked up in surprise and turned around to see Wild Strawberry standing at her hooves and looking up at her with big bright eyes and a slight frown on her face. Applejack cocked her head to the side and glanced around to see if any of the others were nearby. Seeing that they weren’t she looked back down at the filly.
“Nope, I don’t.”
Wild Strawberry’s frown deepened. “Then why are you doing this? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I didn’t think it would be nice to upset your mom and the rest of the family like that.” Applejack shrugged. “They were all so enthusiastic about strawberries I didn’t want to rain on their parade. And besides, helping out has nothing to do with any of that, I just owe you all.”
The little filly seemed to mull that over for a second. “Whatever.” She said, pawing at the dirt and not meeting Applejack’s eyes.
Applejack raised an eyebrow at her actions. “Uh, is something the matter?”
Wild Strawberry raised her head again, she seemed to be struggling with whether or not to ask something.
“You’re... you said you were a farmer too right? Of apples? Does your whole family do that?” The filly finally asked her.
“Well yeah, I am, and they do. The Apple family has been farming apples for generations. Our family farm, Sweet Apple Acres, is my home and just about the greatest place in the whole wide world if I do say so myself.” Applejack said proudly with a big smile on her face.
Wild Strawberry wasn’t frowning anymore but she wasn’t smiling either. Her eyes looked into Applejack’s with a deep sense of hope and maybe worry. “Did you ever… worry that you might not have belonged on the farm? That you’d get your Cutie Mark and it wouldn’t have anything to do with farming apples?”
Applejack smiled at her and kneeled down to get closer to eye-level with the filly. “I had a little trouble finding my place back when I was younger, yeah. I didn’t know what was right or where I belonged at first.”
“I still haven’t gotten my Cutie Mark.” Wild Strawberry said, sadly looking down at her blank flank. “If I was meant to get one in strawberry farming shouldn’t I have gotten it by now?”
“Well, I dunno.” Applejack said, not entirely sure how to respond.
“Sorry to bother you.” Wild Strawberry chewed on her lip as she stared at the ground. “I just… don’t have anyone I can talk to about this. I’m sure my mom is just waiting for me to get my Cutie Mark in picking strawberries or whatever, and all the other kids my age live on other farms and they’ve already gotten their Cutie Marks. I’m the only one who hasn’t. I feel like something’s wrong.”
“Are you worried that maybe you won’t get a Cutie Mark that has to do with your family’s work?” Applejack asked her.
“Yeah but not not just that. What if I get one for strawberry farming and it still doesn’t feel right? Like I only got it because I’m a Strawberry.” Wild Strawberry looked up at her. “How did you get your Cutie Mark? Do you really love those apple things?”
“I love apples from the bottom of my heart. And I got my Cutie Mark when I realized that my place, home, was at the farm.” Applejack told her, then grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck. “Uh, I may not be the best pony for you to talk to about something like this now that I think about it.”
“Well I love strawberries. And I love it here too.” Wild Strawberry said, blushing a little bit in embarrassment after admitting that.
Applejack grinned at her. “Do you love your mom?”
Wild Strawberry blushed a little harder as she stared at the ground, too embarrassed to look Applejack in the eye. “Yeah...”
Applejack raised her hoof and mussed up the precocious filly’s mane. “Pretty sure she loves you too, what are you really worried about?”
“What if… what if...” Wild Strawberry started to tear up as she raised her head and looked at Applejack. “What if I get my Cutie Mark in something else and my mom doesn’t love me anymore? What if she says I’m not a Strawberry?”
“You know,” Applejack gently rubbed the tears out of Wild Strawberry’s eyes. “I’ve known your mom and your family for not even an entire day yet, and they’re already just about the nicest bunch of ponies I’ve ever met. I’m sure that no matter what your mom will still love you, regardless of what your Cutie Mark is.” Applejack stood back up, winking at the filly. “And now if you do get a Cutie Mark in strawberry farming, well to me that sounds like a wonderful thing to have as your special talent and place to be.”
Wild Strawberry sniffled as she dragged a hoof across her face. “Thank you… sorry for bothering you.”
“No problem at all, little lady.” Applejack replied and went to muss up her mane again before stopping. “Hm.”
Wild Strawberry felt something on her head as a shadow fell over her face, looking up she saw the brim of a hat coming over her eyes and saw the now hatless Applejack smiling at her. The hat was a little too big for the filly so she had to steady it a bit to keep it from falling off but otherwise it looked good on her.
“What are you doing?” Wild Strawberry asked the apple farmer.
Applejack smiled at the young filly. “I love that hat, it’s not the first of its kind I’ve ever had but I never go without it anywhere.” Applejack told her. “That was a gift from a close friend of mine, now I’m giving it as a gift to you. I want you to remember this little conversation we had. And a nice little filly like you could use a hat when you’re out here working in the hot sun anyways.” Applejack patted her head and gave her another smile.
“Thank you...” Wild Strawberry sniffled again before pulling her new hat down. “I’ll be sure to treasure it.”
Applejack beamed.
And then the lasso that was sitting on her head fell to the ground, no longer held in place by her Stetson. She looked down at it with a slight frown and rubbed her chin.
“Need to do something about that now though.”
It was night now as Applejack left Delicious Strawberry Fields behind. The morning had been spent working, the day working, the evening laughing and enjoying the company of the Strawberry family, and the night will be spent walking until she decided to rest. Her lasso was roped around her neck, her head felt weird and wrong without her hat but she’d just have to get used to it until she could find a new one. Despite missing it already she was happy with where it was now. Maybe tomorrow the sun would beat down on her a little harder but she didn’t regret doing what she did.
The number of oak, chestnut, and walnut trees around Applejack dwarfed the number of apple trees that existed on Sweet Apple Acres. Thus the amount of ponies needed to gather up all the acorns, chestnuts and walnuts from them was quite high. So Mr. Woods really had no problem with a pony offering to do some work for nothing more than a place to stay the night and a quick meal.
Meaning Applejack now found herself bucking trees and picking up all the nuts and seeds that came from them along with about ten other ponies that normally did it. Mr. Woods was all about speed so as long as the job could get done as quick as possible and the acorns, chestnuts and walnuts could be boxed up or jarred up and shipped off wherever they needed to go he was a happy stallion.
Compared to her apples it was a little different to get all the walnuts off a walnut tree and such but with her applebucking skills and Hoof of the Earth Applejack could do it easily. Even more than the strawberry harvest it felt good to her to do this kind of work.
She reached up to tilt her hat back and-
“Oh, right.” Applejack said to herself as her hoof waved through empty air. “Never gonna get used to this.” Instead she started absentmindedly tugging at the lasso hanging from around her neck.
It was a few more hours of work that Applejack and all the other ponies had to put in but they eventually made it through all the trees. Now their bags, buckets, and barrels were full and being loaded onto the various wagons to be brought back to Woods’s warehouses. Each wagon had a big stallion attach themselves to it and pulled it along while Applejack and the other workers walked with it. Applejack would’ve been fine with just her own thoughts to occupy her but another earth pony decided to start chatting her up to pass the time.
“So my name’s Swift Swish, I normally make nets but every time there’s a harvest I come out here for the extra cash. What about you?” The brown and fairly plain looking pony with a net for a Cutie Mark asked her.
“Well my name’s Applejack, I was just passing through here and figured I could chip in to help out and get myself a nice place to rest and eat for a day or so. And I’m a farmer by the way, me and my family grow apples.” Applejack politely said back to him, even though she was a bit tired of all this repetition.
“Oh, apples huh? I had one of those yesterday. Pretty good.” Swift Swish nodded along.
“Sure are.”
It took her about ten more seconds to process what had just been said.
Applejack spun around and grabbed Swift Swish by the shoulders, shoving her face into his.
“What did you just say?!”
The other ponies around them were a little weirded out but kept walking. Meanwhile Swift Swish was nervously glancing around, confused and a little afraid of Applejack now.
“W-What do you mean?” He finally squeaked out.
“Apples! You know what apples are, you said you had one! Where?!” Applejack practically screamed in his face as she shook him back and forth.
“S-Stop!” His eyes went loopy as she shook him hard enough to knock his brain around. “It was just yesterday! Some pony was selling them out the back of his wagon, he said he traveled all over the world and had stuff to sell if we wanted it! I was hungry so I bought one of those apple things from him.” Instantly he felt himself let go of and Swift Swish collapsed to the ground in a dizzy heap. He looked up to see Applejack staring blankly ahead of her, eyes unfocused as they looked at something a million miles away.
“Where’s this pony now?” She finally said, still staring ahead unblinkingly.
Swift Swish was a little afraid to respond in case it might set her off again but he shakily raised a hoof and pointed down through the orchard to the main road outside it that led back up to town.
“He said he was leaving today, he might have already headed out.”
Unlike her normal polite nature Applejack didn’t even thank him, she ran off to the road, ignoring all the nuts she had harvested and the promise of a place to stay, none of that mattered anymore. Applejack had apples to find.
She ran faster than she ever had before as the trees zoomed by her. Once she had found the road she went running down it in the direction out of town, it didn’t matter that this was the way she had came in and now she was essentially going backwards. It would all be worth it if she could just catch up to that traveling pony.
The cloud of dust she was kicking up would’ve looked like a cyclone blowing through, Applejack’s hooves thumped loudly on the dirt road with each bound, the ground practically being torn up from how hard she was running over it. But finally in the distance she saw it. It was just a dot now but it grew larger as she approached it, still running full speed to catch up to that wagon.
“Waaaait!” Applejack yelled as she came up beside the much slower going wagon, skidding to a stop in front of it and digging big trenches in the dirt with her hooves.
Applejack was breathing heavily as she looked up at the large wagon, it was easily twice the size of a normal wagon and covered with a large tent but was still being easily pulled by a single earth pony. The pony who came to a stop right in front of the panting and sweating Applejack.
“I say, I say, I do say indeed, just what indeed could you want with me? From high or low to run so fast, what could you want that I might have?” The tall and thin stallion with a murky white coat and red mane said as he looked down at her.
Applejack ignored his somewhat weird way of speaking. “Apples! Do you have any apples?! I heard you did!” She asked frantically, eyes nearly bugging out at him.
“Apples? Apples? Apples indeed, I do not have any apples with me. Gone are they, gone all soon, in the stomachs of those who were hungry, unlike you.” He said, shaking his head.
The poor apple farmer closed here eyes and groaned, stamping her hooves on the ground. “Are you kidding me right now!” She yelled at the sky.
“Kidding, kidding, who here? Unfortunately no, no one here. Apples are gone, I as well, traveling again as I feel.”
Applejack’s eyes cracked open as she frowned at him. “Could you stop talking like that?”
“Indeed, indeed, indeed I could, but I say, I say, I say no ma'am.” The stallion shrugged at her.
“That didn’t even rhyme!” Applejack accusingly shoved a hoof at him.
“Rhyme? Rhyme? I could do it any time, but rhyme is no reason I talk, rhythym, rhyme, mood, my mouth opens without any indeed.”
Applejack’s hoof smacked into her face and she sighed. “Okay, whatever, if you don’t have any apples can you at least point me in the direction you got them from?” She asked the strange pony with exasperation and wary hope dripping from her voice.
“Directions? Directions? Directions indeed, one needs direction for a place they’ve already been? I say, I say, Applejack needs to know where to get back to Ponyville? How so? Quite wrong, that one is so lost, so lost, yet it is so.” He sighed sadly as well and shook his head.
But Applejack wasn’t bothered by that at all.
“Ponyville?” Her voice was barely a whisper. “You just said Ponyville didn’t you?” She looked up at him with big wide eyes, any annoyance at the traveling pony completely gone.
“Quite, quite, quite indeed. Ponyville is a place I’ve been, apples are not what Applejack needs, directions it seems indeed.”
“Where! Where’s Ponyville!” Applejack barely held herself back from grabbing who she was talking to this time. She sat back onto the ground, practically falling over, and tugged at her mane.
“Ponyville, I say, it is no trouble, follow where I point and stay straight as an arrow.” The strange pony raised a hoof and pointed off behind him, past where the town they had both come from was. “Through mountain, river, forest, town, any obstacle around, you stay this direction, stay steady and true, and Ponyville will be found by you, yes you.”
Applejack unsteadily rose to her hooves, shaking, and muttering to herself, practically unbelieving that things may be ending so simply for her. “I… I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Thank? Thank? Indeed no thanks, I help all who need it. Whether good or bad or big or small, my help is there for all. What ponies need what help indeed, I say I do give it all yes quite indeed.” The pony just shrugged.
“Well, anyways, thank you. I’m uh… I’m gonna get going now.” Applejack started walking off in a daze down the direction he pointed her.
“Oh wait, oh wait, Applejack please, there is one more thing you need.”
Applejack turned back to see the strange pony holding a brand new Stetson hat.
“How did you-”
“I have, I have, what ponies need and Applejack without a hat is no Applejack indeed.” He tossed it to her so it perfectly floated on the air and landed on her head. “I help, I help, and that is me.”
Applejack ran her hoof around the hat, feeling every last inch of it. It was perfect. It felt and looked just like her old one, she wouldn’t have been surprised if it somehow was her old one. Grabbing her lasso she stuffed it back under her hat and tipped it back, giving a happy and confident grin to the strange pony that had given this gift to her.
“Well thanks for that too. Who are you anyways?” She had to ask.
“I believe, I believe, I say, I say, I am Harlequin Red at your service.” He bowed to her and then just as quickly went back to walking down the road, pulling his wagon along as if Applejack wasn’t even there anymore.
Applejack was fine with that, she gave a quick salute and headed back on the way to Ponyville. She wasn’t taking any chances of getting turned around or going the wrong direction so she stayed as straight as he told her to. Walking on the imaginary line from where he pointed his hoof, it didn’t matter that there was no road and probably a bunch of natural obstacles on the path ahead of her. Applejack would keep walking exactly straight forward towards Ponyville. Her hooves kicked up gravel beneath her as she walked up the nearby rocky hill, just one more thing to conquer.
Applejack crawled her way out of a thorn bush, paying no mind to the light scrapes and scratches covering her. The lack of any real path over this hill was proving problematic but nothing she couldn’t handle. The annoying bugs buzzing about her, the rabbit hole she almost twisted her ankle in, the itchy pollen from the flowers she walked through, none of it mattered to the mare on a mission.
She was following exactly the direction she was pointed in and even if there was an ancient magical barrier somehow blocking her way she would find a way to get through it. That was Applejack’s determination.
I really, really, hope there isn’t anything like that though.
Applejack walked on, ignoring the growling of her stomach, it being empty thanks to her haste in getting on the right track to home. With a little more forethought she could’ve stopped to at least stock up on a bit of food but there was no sense in complaining about that now. As soon as she came across something edible she’d just eat it up. There was probably some kind of fruit tree on the way she was going, or edible flowers, or blackberries or something else she could sink her teeth into.
And if not then so what? She knew she was close to home now, she could feel it. The very first thing she was going to eat when she got back was an apple and eating it on an empty stomach would probably make it all even better.
But for now she was still on an inexorable path heading exactly straight home. Like she had been saying to herself there was absolutely nothing that would cause her to stray from her path now. Her lack of a map and poor sense of direction may have hurt her in the past but now even that couldn’t stop her.
“I am getting home, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. I am gonna get to Sweet Apple Acres, eat an apple and then sleep for three days straight.” Applejack frowned after a second. “Naw, got too much work to do.” She coughed. “I will sleep for 8 hours straight.”
Better.
The apple farmer pushed through more brush until she did come across a road, but unfortunately it was going perpendicular to where she was going, it was at least a sign of civilization but it served no real purpose to Applejack. She simply walked over and went on back to trudging her way through the unbeaten path over the hill.
It was shortly after that that she began to hear something.
Voices. Lots of them.
It sounded like a great deal of ponies were close by, the sounds of hundreds of conversations began to fill the air as Applejack walked further and further along. Pushing through a few more bushes, Applejack finally made it out into the open. A few ponies standing near the edge of the brush line looked at her in surprise but she paid them no mind. Applejack looked out past them to see a huge arena built into the ground right in front of her.
From her guess there were several thousand ponies milling about around it and in the stands, the arena itself was sunken down below ground level with multiple rings of stands for ponies to sit in and watch whatever took place inside. It was oval shaped and probably one thousand feet long and maybe two hundred wide. Inside it Applejack saw a vast field, a swimming pool, a rock climbing wall, some kind of obstacle course, sand pits, clay courts for she didn’t even know what, and a huge race track surrounding it all.
“Wow, must be quite the place to hold an event.” Applejack said to herself as she slowly walked down the stairs to the arena ground, keeping on her straight path.
It didn’t seem like it would be a problem, she didn’t see any actual events or competitions taking place yet, it looked like things were still getting setup and she saw a good number of ponies who clearly weren’t athletes wandering around the arena field and talking with others.
Applejack ignored it all. She wasn’t here to compete, she wasn’t here to watch, she wanted to walk on through to the other side and continue on her way home.
“Excuse me! Excuse me, miss! Are you a competitor?”
Applejack heard a pony saying that in her direction but thought nothing of it, she kept walking until an older gray stallion with a big bushy mustache and thick-rimmed glasses practically plowed into her. Huffing and puffing he stopped in front of her, placing a hoof on her shoulder to keep her from walking past him.
“Uh, can I help you?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow at the pony.
“You’re a competitor right? You need to get with your team already, they’re in dire straits!” The pony gestured off to his side where Applejack looked and saw a rather amusing sight.
It was like somepony went and gathered a sports team from Appleloosa. A dozen or so ponies all dressed up like cowponies, every last one of them with a hat like Applejack’s as well, some wearing boots with spurs, or vests, bandannas, and what have you. Some of them were even practice twirling a lasso around. Applejack couldn’t help but grin at it all.
But even for the ones who were practicing they all had frowns on their faces and looked despondent.
“You need to get ready, your team is already without a decathlete, if you want any chance of winning here at all you’ll need to be in tip-top-shape and take the gold in nearly every other event!” The pushy stallion told her as he indeed tried to push Applejack towards the group of cowponies.
Applejack being as strong and solid as a rock he didn’t have much success with that.
“Now you hold on one second.” Applejack said as she pushed him away with a hoof. “I aint a part of any team and I didn’t come here to compete. The hats are a coincidence.”
“Oh dear I’m terribly sorry.” He prattled on, fidgeting in space and nervously tittering back and forth. “But this is really quite a mess the Rodeo Rider’s have gotten in, they’re in a bit of trouble and I’m trying to help them out. You see I happen to be one of their backers, there’s a lot of money to be made and lost at events like this one.”
“Uh huh.” Applejack said, disinterestedly. The only thing holding her back from just continuing her walk through the arena was that it would be a little rude to just cut the pony off suddenly and leave.
The glasses-wearing pony was now starting to look more studiously at Applejack. She frowned and took a step back from him.
“Can I help you?” She asked with a bit of annoyance seeping into her voice.
“Well I was just thinking, you look like you’re in quite good shape right now, sans the little cuts and all that. And you seem pretty strong too.” The stallion got a twinkle in his eye that Applejack didn’t like. “Would you perhaps be interested in temporarily joining the team and taking part in the Decathlon today? Anything is better than not even competing at all.” He said, shrugging his shoulders and giving her a lopsided grin.
Applejack groaned and rubbed her eyes. “Look pal, I’ve got places to go and I don’t even know what a decathlon is.”
“Well let me explain it!” He shouted as he got way too far into Applejack’s personal space. “A decathlon is the grandest of competitions that takes place at this arena. A pony goes through ten separate events and whoever conquers it the fastest wins! At this decathlon the events are a long run around the track, a freestyle swim through the pool, climbing the rock-wall, pole-vaulting, the rope climb, the maze run, cart pulling, rock tossing, log rolling, and lastly a final sprint! It’s the ultimate test of athleticism and endurance a pony can take! The decathlon is the most important thing happening today, the Rodeo Rider’s are in a tight spot because their decathlete is injured and none of them are prepared for the events in the decathlon, and most will probably be tired from their own events. If you could help us out and compete in the decathlon you’d be doing us all a huge favor, and you might get a lot of attention if you do good, there might be fame and fortune for you at the finish line!”
Applejack smiled at the stallion. She put a hoof on his shoulder and took a deep breath.
“No thank you.”
And she walked past him and proceeded on her way through the arena directly towards Ponyville.
For a second the stallion just stood there, too befuddled to go after her.
“W-Wait a second! Hold on there!”
Applejack rolled her eyes but didn’t bother looking back as she heard the pony call after her and jog to catch up again.
“You’re making a huge mistake! Why wouldn’t you want to compete? You really don’t know what you’re missing, miss!” He had to pick up his pace a little as Applejack sped up.
“Yeah, what you said all sounds pretty amazing but I don’t got time for that. I’ve got somewhere to go, sorry.” She replied, still not bothering to look back at him. “I have had enough adventure, enough distractions, enough of getting sidetracked. I could sit here and tell you all the stuff I’ve been through recently and why I don’t want to do anything else but that’d take a while and I don’t feel like doing that either. Good luck with the Rodeo Rider’s.”
The stallion sputtered about as he tried to keep up with Applejack’s faster pace, that she intentionally sped up to get through the arena as quickly as possible.
“But… but… you would really be helping us all out!”
“Sorry, just not interested. I feel bad for them all but I’m just not gonna get sidetracked again.” Applejack pondered that Rainbow Dash would probably be giving her the stink eye right now or complaining about her passing up on the opportunity to do something awesome but if she was being honest Applejack just didn’t really care at this point. Some of the others might admonish her for not helping out ponies in need but Applejack was confident that they’d understand where she was coming from too.
The apple farmer tuned out any other attempts to get her attention as she made her way to the other side of the arena and began climbing the steps out of it. No fun and games to be had here, Applejack had a path she was set on, a home to return to, and apples to eat.
Applejack learned this the hard way while she rolled down a hill after taking an unfortunate tumble due to some loose earth beneath her. Now it wasn’t like falling down a mountain but this was still a rather large hill and the side Applejack was falling down was pretty steep too. She may have been able to stop herself but since she was still going the direction she wanted she decided to resign herself to what was happening and just keep rolling down until she came to a stop.
Painfully rolling over and bouncing off a hard rock showed the downside to that decision but Applejack held on. If she only ended up with a few bruises and some pained grunts every time she hit something that was a fair enough trade for her.
“This-”
Smack.
“Really-”
Smack
“Hurts.”
Smack.
As long as she wasn’t hitting her head it was a fair enough trade at least. And so far that hadn’t happened yet. So the rolling continued, occasionally she’d hit a bump and bounce up for a second and other times she’d hit a smooth patch and slide down in the dirt, scraping up her whole coat. For the most part she simply rolled like a barrel of apples that had been tossed downhill.
It would probably have been embarrassing if any of her friends saw her like this. Especially Rainbow Dash. Or any of her students. Or Big Mac.
“Ow!” Applejack yelled out as she rolled through a thorn bush, becoming covered in small prickers from head to tail. At least her hat was staying on. But she was really gonna want to take a bath or shower soon after all this, all the cuts and dirt mixed together were definitely not good for her.
Probably going to be pretty darn dizzy once this all stops…
The sun was beaming down at her the whole time too, as hot and unforgiving as ever. The weather really had been her enemy the whole trip and the sun especially was blazing hot and made her travels harder. She couldn’t imagine what it might’ve been like if she didn’t have her hat to block some of it and give her face a little shade. The amount she sweated since first getting lost… not that she was ever lost… was already monumental and it would’ve been even more so without her hat.
It wasn’t raining though. The hot sun was still better than that. If it was raining she’d be caught in a mudslide. No random earthquakes or hailstorms either, so that was good too. Applejack did try to look at the bright side of it all and while she could have done with it being just a little cooler or cloudier out today she knew things could be a lot worse too.
But it was getting a little hard to keep her mind on the bright side of things when she was rolling over sharp rocks. She was sure she had more than a few cuts from that now too and she could feel all the loose pebbles stuck in her mane and tail smacking around every time she rolled over. Which was frequent.
Although Applejack couldn’t see it her radical tumblings were bringing her closer and closer to a flat ledge on the side of the hill, she was rolling straight towards it and the old dying tree that was propped up at the end of it.
With a loud thump Applejack rolled right into the tree and sharply wheezed out in pain as the wind was knocked out of her. She had to just lie there for a few moments as the world got back into focus but at least she had stopped spinning. The tree was still wobbling as her disoriented eyes looked up at it, if she had been able to get her bearings earlier she would’ve noticed the rotting fruit that was about to snap off the branch and fall on her face.
But she didn’t.
The fruit, a peach, splattered all over her face, the core of it clonking her right between the eyes.
Applejack grumbled in annoyance as she sat up, wiping away as much of it as she could with her hoof. Falling off a cliff, going over a waterfall, being hurt and beat up in so many other ways and now this. She wasn’t sure if she’d be less or more happy if it was a rotten apple that had fallen on her. Still a bit sticky but with as much of it off as she could get Applejack shook her head to clear away any lasting dizziness.
It was then that she felt the ground start to shift beneath her. Eyes going wide she looked at the tree as it began to fall away, dead roots, pulling the dirt with it as the entire ledge Applejack was on broke away and it all went tumbling down the hill with her with it.
“You can’t be serious!” Applejack yelled out before she again started rolling end over end, this time in a storm of dirt, rocks, and a decrepit peach tree.
The river flowed in front of Applejack as she stood on its embankment. There was no bridge where she stood and she wasn’t about to go walking down or upstream to look for one, she was staying on her straight and true path to Ponyville. The downside to that now was that this river wasn’t exactly calm, it may not have been what one would call raging exactly either but it would still be a little annoying to try and swim across.
“On the plus side I really could use a dip in there,” Applejack said as she looked at her haggard appearance. Her mane and tail were frayed and disheveled, countless cuts and bruises dotted her body, mud and dirt caked almost every inch of her, barely letting any of her natural orange coat through.
I look like a right mess. Applejack frowned at her own appearance before she slowly started to walk into the river.
It wasn’t very deep but still enough where shortly in her hooves could no longer touch the bottom. Despite her sore and beat up body Applejack was still Applejack and she had the strength to fight against the river’s current as she swam across it. The water continually beat against her head and tried to force her downstream but she wasn’t about to lose to it. She’d been through too much and far worse to lose to a measly little river.
A fish smacked into her side.
Applejack grunted in annoyance but ignored that as best she could and kept swimming. The ground on the other side slowly rose up to meet her hooves but it was slick and soft and difficult for her to get a steady purchase on it, she had to keep wading until the river pretty much only came up to her neck before she could actually walk.
Finally she dragged herself out of the river, her legs and underside covered in a fair bit of mud but at least the rest of her had gotten a good wash. She shook like a dog to get any extra water off her and walked on some more. One more obstacle down, hopefully none or very few left to go.
“Not much of a chance of that.” Applejack sighed and looked up at the sky to see the sun just barely past the noon position.
The weather was better than yesterday, that was good at least, the cloud coverage was light but just enough to keep things nice and temperate. As Applejack started to walk through the forest on the other side of the river the mix of shade and sunlight proved to be the perfect combination to keep things even. Not too hot and not too cold, now her only problem was that she still wasn’t on anything that could remotely be called a path and she still had to struggle over uneven terrain, push through bushes, and try not to twist her ankle on any rocks or burrows beneath her.
As she walked through a bush a branch she had pushed out of the way came back to thwack her right in the face. Applejack just grumbled and took it. She didn’t want to overreact and explode in anger or anything, she just wanted to push on and get to Ponyville.
“I aint stopping until I get home.” Applejack tugged her hat down tight over her head. “No more detours, no more distractions. I’ll walk all day and night if I have to.”
Pushing herself through the thick brush she couldn’t see what was coming next, so she wasn’t able to stop herself from falling off and rolling down a slope in the forest. It was just a small little slope but Applejack still tumbled head over heels down it and landed flat on her stomach, groaning from the hard landing she unsteadily pushed herself back up and took a look around. She was in a much more open area now, in fact…
“Huh, found a road.” Applejack said, looking down at the dirt road she was in the middle of that cut right through the forest she had been walking through.
And looking forward in the direction she wanted to go she saw the road continue on for a bit more before it hit the edge of the forest, going who knows where after.
But that wasn’t all she saw.
There was a sign right on the side of the road at the forest’s edge.
Applejack frowned and walked towards it. She was understandably wary to see signs at this point. They had not been friendly to her in the past. It took her only a minute to get down the road to the edge of the forest, she could hear birds chirping and the sun shining outside, unbroken by the canopy of the trees. With a pause she glanced at the sign, there was only one word on it and an arrow pointing down the road out of the forest.
A happy, exhausted, smile broke out across Applejack’s face.
She didn’t look the best but still no worse than after an exceptionally dirty or strenuous day at work as she walked into town, Sweet Apple Acres on the far side from where she had come in. Just about every face was familiar and gave Applejack a friendly smile and wave which she was happy to return. Boy did it feel good to see ponies and things she knew.
Twilight’s castle and the School of Friendship stood in the distance, it would probably be a good idea to say hello to Twilight but Applejack had something else to do first, a few things even. So she walked on, past the old spot where Golden Oaks Library used to be, and town hall, saying hello to Lyra and Bon Bon as they walked by. Berry Punch and her little sister were out walking to Sugarcube Corner, Applejack could see a fair few ponies milling about in there. Pinkie Pie and the Cakes probably busy keeping everypony happy and satisfied.
It was a normal day in Ponyville.
Now she was coming up to Carousel Boutique, she wondered if Rarity was in, even though she was still going to be making a bee-line for Sweet Apple Acres she decided she’d take a peak to see if anypony was home.
But a quick glance at the door showed that Rarity was most definitely not home. A piece of paper had been hastily tacked to it, Applejack easily recognized Rarity’s flowery writing when she looked at what it said.
Temporarily closed, I am out of town on a business trip, sorry darlings! - Rarity
Applejack just shrugged and started walking on by when a familiar and very welcome voice called out to her.
“Applejack?”
The apple farmer swung around at the voice to see Twilight Sparkle walking towards her, a warm smile on her face.
“Twilight! Good to see you.” Applejack said and walked over to greet her, giving her alicorn friend a little hug.
“Yeah, you were gone for a while.” Twilight hugged her back, not bothered by her friend being a little dirty, or at least kind enough to not show it. “Guess that delivery took longer than expected, huh?”
Applejack chuckled. “Oh yeah, just a little bit. I’ll tell you all about it later.” Twilight would definitely want to hear about all the crazy and weird stuff she had been through, even just hearing about a magical hedge maze would get that obsessive mind of hers all riled up and that was just about the least of all the things to go over.
“Well it’s fine, Apple Bloom told us you might be a while after all. Your substitute at the school did a great job, even though we had to extend her stay without any notice.” Twilight beamed at her. “Would you like to come back to the castle? I’d love to catch up, Starlight and Spike are both there too.”
Applejack gave her a warm smile but had to shake her head. “Thanks for the offer but I’d really like to get back home first, I’ll come by tomorrow though for sure.” Applejack winked at her good friend. “Say hi to them for me though.”
“Of course! Sorry to keep you from Sweet Apple Acres, I should’ve known you’d want to get back there as quickly as possible.” Twilight sheepishly grinned at Applejack.
“Heh, Twilight, don’t worry nothing about it. I’ll see ya soon.” Applejack waved goodbye and started heading back on her way home. Yes, it would’ve been nice to catch up with Twilight and her other friends for a bit but the farm called first.
“See you soon!” Twilight called out from behind her. “I guess I can go by Strawberry Sunrise’s home on the way back now and tell her we don’t need her to substitute for you anymore.”
Applejack chose to ignore that.
Now Applejack walked through the white fence of Sweet Apple Acres. She took in the sights and smells with gusto. Seeing it all again it was pretty much the most beautiful sight of her life. The trees, her home, the chicken coops, the dirt, the grass, everything. But most of all, the apples.
There they were, all her hundreds and thousands of delicious apples. It had been so long she almost wanted to cry.
Applejack didn’t go inside to say hello to Granny Smith, Big Mac, or Apple Bloom just yet, the very first thing she had to do came, well, first. She walked past everything else to the rows upon rows of apple trees. The farmer closed her eyes as she walked down them, taking in the scents and the feeling of it all. She wanted to get somewhere nice and quiet so she could really relax and enjoy herself, after all she was still pretty beat up and exhausted from her recent tumble. That nice and quiet place came up shortly when she made it to a fairly secluded spot nestled in the orchard, Applejack knew every single tree and spot in her farm by memory and she now walked up to one pristine tree in particular.
“You’re the lucky one.” Applejack said to the apple tree.
Sighing in contentment Applejack hugged the tree before turning her back to it. Giving it the lightest, most surgical, strike with her back right hoof she bucked a single apple off of it. The red apple perfectly fell from the branch right over Applejack’s head, landing in her outstretched hoof without her even having to look at it to make sure where it was falling.
“Still got it.” She grinned.
Applejack lay back against the tree, yawning and stretching to get as comfortable as possible. She held the amazing, tasty, unparalleled, fresh, exquisite, most treasured of all fruits in front of her face.
“It’s been too long.” Applejack wasn’t sure if she wanted to savor the moment further or just bite into it already. Part of her wanted to buck the rest of the tree and just lie in the pile of apples and drift off to sleep with them. But her hunger for the fruit outweighed every other part.
With a tired smile she sunk her teeth into the apple.
It was… indescribable. Rainbow Dash making it onto the Wonderbolts, Rarity opening up shop in Canterlot, Twilight becoming an Alicorn, it was magic.
She didn’t let any of the juice run down her cheek, she wasn’t wasting even a single drop. That wonderful feeling of chewing on an apple, she took it slowly, far slower than she ever had before. She had missed it so much. The taste, the feeling, the smell, everything about eating an apple. She closed her eyes again to just focus on the eating of her first apple since coming home, the first apple she had had in… she couldn’t even remember. She didn’t want to remember. Didn’t want to think about how long she had gone without eating the greatest fruit known to ponykind.
That crunch, that sweetness. The feeling of the skin, the fragrance that wafted up into her nose.
Applejack was on cloud nine. Applejack was experiencing nirvana. Applejack felt like this might have been the best apple she had ever eaten in her life.
She finished it up in a few minutes, licking her lips and humming in ecstasy. Now it was over. All that craziness she had been through was finally and at long last over. She could put it all behind her and go back to her simple life on the farm, just what she always wanted. She was sure she’d have to go on some sort of epic adventure again at some point but it would probably at least be one that her friends were with her for. Applejack was hoping that wouldn’t be for a while though. After just getting back she wanted to be able to rest and buck apples. Catch up with her family and friends, no more, no less.
But she was feeling mighty tired after all that walking and the joy of finally having an apple put her so much at ease that a nap was sounding really good right now.
“Just a little shut eye, hour or two at most...” Applejack said as she shifted under the tree, curling up at the base of its trunk and drifting off into a peaceful sleep.
Applejack was well and truly home.
The apple farmer woke up a good hour later, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Smiling happily at the familiar scenery she got up and stretched. A minute, maybe two, to get back to her barn and home from here. She could say hi to everypony, shower up, take care of the few little cuts on her, and then go to bed for real.
After probably eating a dozen more apples.
The next day she could go to the spa and really get fixed up and then head over to Twilight’s castle. Apple Bloom might want to hear about what happened too so maybe she’d bring her along as well.
Applejack whistled to herself as she walked back the way she came through the rows of trees, there were maybe a few hours of daylight left but she knew catching up and all would take some time so there was no more lollygagging for her. She happily trotted away with no longer a care in the world or a worry about what might be just up ahead, smiling at the thought of seeing the faces of her beloved family members again. Applejack no longer had to fear accidentally falling down a hill, dealing with some kind of monster, getting lost in general, or anything. It was just the nice and simple walk back to her home and family.
But then a very familiar sound and feeling suddenly washed over Applejack.
She paused mid-step, almost not quite believing what was happening. With a gulp she looked down at her flank.
Her beloved apple Cutie Mark that she was so proud of was blinking and glowing.
Applejack rolled her eyes and sighed. “Really now?”
