//------------------------------// // Karza I // Story: Applejack at the Edge of the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// She passed by the western walls of Elmsville not long after dawn with a full flask of water and half a dozen carrots in her bag. More than enough to make her trip to Maple Town. Ahead of her the road curved around grassy hills and meadows and led to another forest in the distance, the green grass all around her moist with morning dew. Despite the somewhat unsettling news she had gotten yesterday, and the somewhat unpleasant ponies she had met, Applejack had a smile on her face. She was determined to stay optimistic now that she was so close to her destination. She had made that decision yesterday knowing how close she finally was. At the very least it looked like the weather would stay on her side for the rest of her time in Equinestan. The early morning sky was a light blue and the sun was shining down radiantly. A few birds, having just woken up, flew out of a nearby tree and scattered to the south. Applejack nodded to herself and left Elmsville behind, her coin pouch a little lighter than she was hoping but in the end that wasn’t a big deal. With a longer distance from Elmsville to Maple Town than from Oak City to Elmsville, Applejack trotted along at a brisk pace. She wasn’t going to stop and enjoy the views even though the countryside of Equinestan was certainly nice to look at. While walking she ate one of her six carrots for breakfast to give herself some energy and tossed the remains into the grass alongside the road. A rabbit or some other animal would be happy to find it. Going up her first hill after leaving Elmsville and she saw that these parts of Equinestan were pretty much the same as they were right out of Oak City. It seemed there really must have been some sort of agreement between the ponies of Equinestan to not live anywhere outside the various city limits. An unmarred landscape reminiscent of the nicest parts of Equestria sprawled out before Applejack. Like she had decided earlier though, it was no time to sight-see and she quickly went down the hill and kept trotting at a fast pace down the road. To keep herself occupied though she started whistling, just to have something to do while she made the long trip to Maple Town. By noon she stopped for a moment just to rest her hooves and eat some more. The clouds had filled up the sky a little bit and directly blocked the sun now, but they weren’t rain clouds or particularly thick so it was still decently bright out. Another carrot was chomped down and Applejack gave the stump to a curious squirrel that had come up to investigate her. She took a big yawn and stretched before getting back on the road—the dirt road now going around a large lake that stretched far north. Applejack could actually see the walls of another city state propped up on the northern edge of the lake, but that wasn’t her destination. And by late afternoon the sun had started to go down a bit, Applejack could see a large mountain range to the southwest and was thankful she didn’t have to travel through it. She had already had more than enough of mountains on this journey. A few large birds flew over the road, casting their shadows for a long ways behind them thanks to the slanted sunlight. She had to pull down her hat slightly to keep the sun from getting into her eyes at this point—nothing new there when walking west at the end of the day. There had been a road branching off from this main one about an hour back, going south with a sign saying “Redwood Hearth” on it. The only other sign of civilization since she had passed by the lake. It was strange that Equinestan could have so many cities where ponies lived and feel totally uninhabited at the same time. It was a different feeling than traveling through the old Kingdom of Diamonds but she would’ve enjoyed crossing paths with a pony once or twice out here just so she had somepony to smile and wave at. The walls of Maple Town were different than those of Oak City and Elmsville. They were made of wood and were much shorter with a lattice making up the last two feet. Instead of a more imposing sort of defensive wall it was really no different than a large fence around somepony’s property. At least in Applejack’s mind. There was no gateway or anything in the wall, it was just a gap that the dirt road went right through. And stayed a dirt road as well that really looked no different than outside of Maple Town. Right by the road, in front of where the wall opened up to allow ponies into Maple Town, there was a large signboard with a mural painted on it, welcoming ponies to town. A happy looking family standing in front of a line of trees waved happily at you with a big “Welcome to Maple Town” stylistically drawn in the sky. Seemed like a nice town already to Applejack. And when she walked past the wall she found herself surrounded by maple trees, not open space like Elmsville or a bunch of crowded buildings like Oak City. It’s like she was walking through a private forest now. By now though it had gotten pretty dark. The sun had gone down and while it wasn’t late at night just yet, Applejack doubted she’d get much of a welcome once she reached the actual town part of Maple Town. She hoped this place wasn’t as big or sprawling as some of the other city-states looked. She just wanted to be able to find an inn to lodge in for the night. Regardless, she knew she was going to have to look around on her own for a little while unless there was some pony working out late. As she walked though she started to see some lights ahead, past the forest. In another minute she came out of the forest and the dirt road emptied out into a wide open area about the same size as Ponyville—and there Applejack saw dozens of small buildings, homes, businesses, and everything in-between, scattered around like the ponies of Maple Town just felt like propping them up wherever they felt like on any given day. Lampposts with heavy candles stood around town, providing plenty of illumination for a pony to walk around at night. Unfortunately Applejack still didn’t see any of those other ponies so she still had to walk in and go searching for them. Maple Town had a nice, familiar, feeling to it though. It had a much more quaint and small town atmosphere to it that Applejack loved. The outermost buildings were small houses, even if their lights weren’t turned off Applejack wouldn’t have bothered them at this time of day. She walked past them and looked for places where ponies were more likely to gather casually. Again she had to think a bar was the most likely spot. Especially when it was already dark out. If Maple Town had something like that then Applejack was going to keep her eyes peeled for it. A café, a library, a theater, any other spot would’ve been perfectly fine for her as well. The more she looked around the more dark buildings she found—it didn’t seem like anything was open or most anypony was awake around her. A sinking feeling built up in Applejack’s stomach—what if this wasn’t normal and that pony that was harassing Maple Town was to blame? Were the ponies even here? Were they okay? As she started to panic though she heard something coming from somewhere else in town. Music. Her ears perked up a bit—she’d recognize that instrument anywhere—somepony was playing a fiddle. They were playing it mighty slow though. “Then don’t that just make it playing a violin like normal?” Applejack asked herself. Shrugging at that question, she listened in as best she could to try and figure out where the music was coming from. Applejack followed her ears like that and walked through the outskirts of Maple Town, heading towards the center. There were still no ponies out anywhere that she could see but the violin playing got louder. Though it was muffled at the same time too. Whoever was playing it was indoors somewhere. She passed by several more homes and buildings until she was near absolutely certain she was walking right towards the middle of town. All it took was for her to pass one more home that she saw a much larger building smack dab in the middle of Maple Town, lit up by several lampposts around it. The building was large but squat, looking only to be one large story, and round with a series of stained windows going around the exterior. On top of the building was a flagpole with a flag hanging straight down thanks to the lack of any breeze. Applejack raised an eyebrow at the building and walked around it until she found a large set of double doors on the southern side. There was a plaque over the doors that read: MAPLE TOWN TOWN HALL AND RECREATION CENTER. Applejack smiled. “Alright, I’d say this is a good place to check out.” She pushed the doors open and strode inside, letting the doors close back behind her. Directly ahead of her was a hallway that led to another set of open doors that looked like it went into a small circular room branching off into several more hallways. However her attention was taken up by the open archways to her right and left. An extensive library stood in the large room to her right, currently as quiet as any library should be, all the interior lights were turned off as well. Seemed reading hours were long considered over. But to her left, the sound of a violin came wafting through the air. Applejack looked into the other room and saw a large lounge with many cushioned chairs and couches set up, along with a long bar at the far side. Along with quite a few ponies seated inside it. The bar itself wasn’t manned at the moment, but in the corner of the lounge was a mare playing the violin, her eyes shut as she slowly made music for the other ponies in the lounge. Most seats were taken up by a variety of ponies quietly enjoying the music, Applejack saw unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies who looked like they came from all walks of life in the lounge. All her age or older—and there was a fairly somber attitude in the lounge, with only a few small conversations going on or a few ponies reading books or having something to drink. Even if it was night Applejack didn’t think things needed to be so quiet inside a big building like this. However, things changed when the ponies finally noticed her. It only took a few heads to turn and see her standing in the entryway but the conversation stopped and a few ponies gasped in surprise—causing the violin to stop. Everypony was staring right at her now and Applejack was starting to feel on the hot seat. One pony suddenly stood up from his seat, gawking at her with eyes wide. “A-A visitor! Hello!” He was an older blue earth pony stallion with a bushy white mustache, glasses, and a top hat. A smile quickly stretched out across his face and he looked to the other ponies in the lounge. “Hey now, what are you all doing just sitting around? We’ve got a visitor so give her a warm welcome!” Smiles popped up on the other ponies too and quite a few stood up out of their seats in greeting or at the very least waved to Applejack. It was slightly eerie to see their attitudes change so suddenly but Applejack appreciated that they were at least trying to be friendly. If anything they seemed to be genuinely happy to see her. The top hat wearing pony came over to her in a rush and before Applejack could speak up he was already grabbing her hoof and vigorously shaking it. “Welcome, welcome to Maple Town! I’m the Mayor—Mayor Rooter! It’s a true pleasure to meet you, we always adore seeing visitors to our humble town! My apologies things are so quiet at nighttime, we would’ve given you a much warmer welcome if you had gotten here earlier. Oh! Listen to me just ramble on like a loon! I haven’t even asked your name yet.” “It’s Applejack,” Applejack quickly replied and pulled her hoof away, nearly having her brains shaken up by his exuberance. “And it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Mayor.” “Applejack, what a lovely name! And where are you from? Please don’t hesitate to ask for anything while you stay here at Maple Town. We pride ourselves on how well we treat visitors and ponies just traveling through,” he smiled even wider, if that was possible. “Well thank you, that’s good to hear, I was a little worried that when I got here I wouldn’t be able to find anyponies up,” she smirked. “But I guess I’m lucky to meet the Mayor very first thing. And just so you know I’m from Ponyville—it’s a place real far away from here, far to the east. But it’s just a small town kind of like your own Maple Town. I wanted to tell you how nice your town looked while I was walking through it. My kind of town.” “You’re too kind, much too kind,” Mayor Rooter then glanced over at the rest of the ponies in the lounge. “Everypony, isn’t it nice to have a visitor? She’s from a far away town called Ponyville, why not say hello! Gotta be nice and friendly to any new ponies here or it aint the Maple Town way!” Of course before the other townsponies could do anything on their own, Mayor Rooter put his hoof around Applejack’s neck and started pulling her through the lounge and introducing her to the other ponies himself. “A lot of important ponies from around Maple Town are here tonight, we all like to lounge together like this after a long day,” Mayor Rooter said and stopped Applejack off in front of a mare and stallion pegasus who had been sitting together. “This is Mr. and Mrs. Gust—they painted the murals you’ll see at every entrance and exit to Maple Town.” “Pleased to meet you,” both pegasi said and shook hooves with Applejack. Mr. Gust was quite tall and Mrs. Gust was the exact opposite, nearly a head shorter than Applejack. Both had paintbrushes for Cutie Marks but his was dipped red and hers dipped blue. “I came in from the eastern side, it was a really pretty mural,” Applejack smiled at the two of them. “Thank you very much,” Mrs. Gust said while Mr. Gust smiled. “And over here-” Mayor Rooter pulled her along in front of a unicorn stallion who was still seated but politely smiling at her. “This is Sure Suture, he’s our local doctor.” “Charmed,” Sure Suture nodded. He was thin for a stallion, with a flowing orange mane, a tan coat, and rather bright blue eyes that made him appear younger than he certainly was. “And pleased to meet you too,” Applejack said, more or less repeating herself at this point. And she ended up being yanked right over to another unicorn stallion who held up a glass of frothy liquid in greeting once Mayor Rooter and Applejack approached. She guessed he was just around her age, and he was much more well-built than your average unicorn, with a swarthy brown coat and a messy but short sand-colored mane and tail. His eyes were green just like Applejack’s and a Cutie Mark of a pile of rocks rested on his flank. “This here is Blast Miner—his family has owned a series of mines up in northwest Equinestan for generations,” Mayor Rooter said. Blast Miner chuckled and wryly grinned. “Gold, silver, tin, and iron—right up until all the mines went dry. Sit around here now with nothing else to do.” Applejack winced but smiled at back at him. “I understand, I’m a farmpony myself and I worry about business drying up sometimes.” She shook his hoof. “Nice to meet you too.” “Oh and of course don’t let me forget to introduce you to Melody Jewel!” Mayor Rooter said and quickly pulled Applejack over to the mare that had been playing the violin in the corner. She was a pegasus mare of Applejack’s age, with an exceedingly long and glossy purple mane and a lemon yellow coat. She smiled and nodded at Applejack as she approached with the mayor, showing off long eyelashes over red eyes and blue mascara. “Welcome to Maple Town. If you’re staying here please come by the lounge tomorrow too, I’d love to perform for a visitor to our home.” Applejack smiled and nodded. “Your violin playing is really nice, I’ll see if I have time in the morning.” “Thank you for indulging me,” Melody Jewel giggled lightly. “And over here-” Mayor Rooter excitedly pulled her over towards another pony, an earth pony stallion. “This is Peach Pit! He has a peach orchard on the northern side of Maple Town.” “How do you do?” Peach Pit asked and reached out a hoof for Applejack. He was a tall light red earth pony with a short, balding, brown mane and light gray eyes. He wore a shaggy wool vest and on his flank was a Cutie Mark showing off a basket of peaches. “I hope that Cutie Mark you have doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate peaches as well.” Applejack grinned as she shook his hoof. “Nothing wrong with peaches but don’t expect me to say they’re better than apples.” “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Peach Pit laughed. Mayor Rooter smiled and tried to pull Applejack away again. “Now here we have-” “Ahem,” Sure Suture loudly cleared his throat, twisting his head around to fix the mayor with a gaze. “Mayor? I don’t think you need to personally introduce her to everypony here. It’s late and you’re wearing the poor mare out. If she wants to visit and learn about Maple Town I think you can at least let her do that tomorrow morning.” “Oh,” Mayor Rooter stopped and apologetically looked over at Applejack. “I’m being rather pushy, aren’t I? I’m sorry—the good doctor has it absolutely right. You probably just want to find a place to stay right now. Well I’ll gladly take you to an inn for the night and tomorrow morning I’ll be more than happy to show you the rest of Maple Town!” Applejack smiled but shook her head. “I really appreciate the offer and Maple Town seems like a really nice place but I’m in a big hurry. I just needed to stop here for the night but as soon as it’s morning I’ll be setting out west—making my way to Elysium’s View.” The mayor’s face fell. And so did the faces of the other ponies. The atmosphere inside the lounge got cold real quick and the room went dead quiet as ponies shot worried looks at each other. “Did I… did I say something wrong?” Applejack apprehensively looked around. “West? You’re going west in the direction of Elysium’s View?” Melody Jewel asked her. “That’s right,” Applejack nodded. Mayor Rooter put his hooves on her, shaking his head back and forth. “No, you can’t go that direction, Miss Applejack. You’d be in danger.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Is this about that bandit? When I was at Elmsville they mentioned that-” “Not just some bandit,” Peach Pit frowned. “Yes—he many not even be a pony at all,” Mayor Rooter gulped. “If you try heading west of here you’ll become another victim of Karza.”