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.
“Alright, you can come in.”