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// Edge of the World I 
// Story: Applejack at the Edge of the World 
// by MagicS 
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If there was one word Applejack could use right now to describe Elysium’s View and the ponies in it it would be varied. She quickly learned that not every building here was made of white marble, in fact most weren’t. Down on street level most buildings were made of brick or wood, though all were painted either white or another color and kept pristinely clean. A number of canals also ran through the town in this part of it, built from the rivers running down from the mountain she had seen earlier along with several others on the other side of the White Forest. Each look she took into the canals that ran parallel and even the ones that ran under the streets and into tunnels she saw gondolas with ponies directing them along. The ponies out on the streets represented the three tribes mostly evenly, Applejack saw plenty of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns everywhere. Togas seemed to be the popular fashion trend but Applejack saw plenty wearing more casual clothes and even more wearing nothing at all just like a typical day in Ponyville. And now after walking down the street far enough she could see into the distance to the north and saw a much more modern looking city popping up between the hills. Not as dense as Manehattan or even Saddleport or Oak City, but still a city nonetheless. Though it was miles away it all seemed to be connected and still part of Elysium’s View.  

Varied. That was certainly the correct word.

The small town that she was walking through now, that only made up a small part of Elysium’s View as Applejack knew now, was a nice beginning for new entrants. She saw numerous open stores and welcoming ponies while walking through the streets. More than a couple had waved and said hello to her as she passed, Applejack returning the favor even as she aimlessly continued walking west.

Yes, even though she was here now she didn’t exactly know where to go here. Elysium’s View had turned out to be much bigger and more complex than she expected. The Cutie Map could’ve called her here for any number of reasons. And unfortunately, or fortunately more politely, Applejack couldn’t just look around and tell what the big problem was. The place looked really nice and peaceful. Where was the problem? She knew things could look nice on the surface and be bad beneath but she was also starting to get a little suspicious that maybe Discord had been lying to her about not messing with the map…

Since it was actually approaching sundown maybe she should just look for a hotel to stay first and then start exploring and asking around tomorrow morning? With the size of this place she could be here for a while.

“Dang it, that’s not exactly what I wanted,” Applejack murmured.

There would have to be all sorts of places to stay in a place like this at least. Whether a hotel or renting a room, or a bungalow, or something like that. Applejack knew that wouldn’t be a problem. She stopped at a bridge over a canal, watching a gondola pass beneath and then looking south to where the town sprawled out in a dense series of narrow streets and clustered together white buildings with tiled roofs. It would be too easy to get lost here if she took a path off the main road. Leaving the bridge behind she soon passed by an outdoor café where numerous ponies sat and drank tea, the café grounds decorated with several potted plants and flowers with a pretty fountain in the middle of it all.

Applejack wasn’t sure if she should stop and grab a bite to eat, maybe ask some questions, or just keep going. The main road she was on looked like it kept going west for quite a while. Maybe she should just go to the end of it?

After all… the edge of the world should be there too right? She was curious about that. She had almost forgotten that the whole draw of this place, what made it special, was that it sat right at the edge of the world supposedly. Even if it was just a figure of speech since the world was as round as a melon. Equinestan called itself the beginning of the end, and now here she was at the actual end. What exactly was the edge of the Far West like? More than one pony had said she needed to see it for herself to understand what was so special. It’s not like there could really be a real end though, right? But there had to be something up with it.

So Applejack made up her mind that the hotel could wait too. She was walking until the road stopped. Until Elysium’s View stopped. Until the west stopped.

She still had some time before the sun went down all the way and she somehow doubted the town would become empty just because it was a little dark out. While walking she passed by a few more interesting, nice little places, in town. A large park with winding marble pathways sprawled to the south, containing healthy trees and verdant grass. Applejack spotted quite a few ponies walking through it, along with several resting at benches or enjoying the flowers. One of the buildings on the northern side of the road had large glass windows out front and Applejack could see inside them to see a large lounge where ponies rested while another played on a large piano. Giggling grabbed her attention and Applejack looked to see a young couple leaving a restaurant, the stallion twirling his marefriend around as they laughed together and ran off down another street.

If there was a problem that needed fixing here it sure was hiding well out of sight. Or at least in one of the other parts of Elysium’s View far removed from here.

Applejack then reached a crossroads. Really just a four-way intersection with one road each traveling a cardinal direction, but there was a metal signpost in the middle of the road and against her better judgment she was going to take a gander at it. Green signs in the shapes of arrows were affixed to the top of it, all with their own destination scrawled on them in fancy writing. Two of them meant nothing to Applejack—north merely read “Highgrounds” and south also simply read “Farms”—but the one pointing east read a familiar “White Forest” and west… “The Edge”.

Nothing else as simple as that, was there?

Well she had pretty good expectations now and Applejack picked up her pace just a little bit as she continued down the road. For a little while the buildings to her left fell away and another canal appeared before it made a sharp turn south and disappeared underneath a bridge. Ahead of her the sun slowly started to dip down further and further until it almost reached the horizon now—and the town became a little less crowded and busy with it. Not even close to empty but she saw and heard a few less ponies around.  

And when she had gone a little further the town itself started to thin out too. There weren’t as many buildings on the side of the road, nor as many branching roads, nor anymore canals or parks. Instead what she saw was a series of white marble pillars leading to a large arch, after which the stone road seemed to go back to being dirt. She couldn’t actually see much further than that since the sun was coming directly into her eyes, nearly parallel with the ground at this point. Applejack continued on like that after tugging her hat a little lower and made it past the arch, now with healthy pine trees around her instead of buildings and a dirt road that lazily traveled west for a while longer before splitting to the north and south as well. It was probably just half a mile ahead where the road could no longer go any further west.  

Because Applejack could see it now if she squinted and as her eyes adjusted to the light a little bit. There was a railing that ran alongside the dirt road stretching to the north and south, and a few outcroppings that jutted out along the path like overhangs over—a cliff.

Applejack’s eyes widened in realization. No wonder it was called the edge of the world. She hadn’t even noticed it because Equinestan, the forest, and everything else just seemed like they were at normal ground level. But what if they were actually high up on a huge continental shelf? What if the western edge of Elysium’s View was a huge cliff? That’s what it looked like right now. Applejack stared further ahead at where the sun was going down and noticed something else. It wasn’t exactly about to hit the horizon, she saw the color of what it was about to touch down on. White, fluffy, the sun was about to hit a layer of clouds stretching across the sky right at the same level as where Applejack was walking. Right at the level of the road and the rest of the town.  

She started walking directly to where one of the outcroppings was, where the railing went out and formed a semi-circle for ponies to stand at and rest or take a look out over the cliff. There were even a few benches there for ponies to rest at if they wanted. In fact there was an older stallion there already, a wrinkled earth pony holding a cane and sitting on one of the benches. Applejack ignored him for now, walking nearly in a trance to the railing so she could see the edge of the world.

She left the dirt road and walked right up onto the overhang and put her hooves on the railing itself. Looking out and looking down.

It was clouds, just a bed of clouds spreading from the cliff and to the west as far as the eye could see. Applejack was amazed—she was above the clouds like it was normal or something. Like she was some pegasus flying over them. The light of the sun sent spears of orange and yellow across them but it didn’t stop their overall snowy white nature from being obscured. She was on the ground but in the sky at the same time—the world, the ground—just ended here and became nothing but clouds. Even her trips up to Cloudsdale had never brought her a sight quite like this. And the sun was going below them, disappearing into nothingness and leaving the bed of clouds behind. Though Applejack knew it wasn’t true, there was some sudden feeling that sprouted up saying maybe Twilight was wrong about the world not having edges. It was something she couldn’t help but imagine upon seeing this.  

Applejack took her hat off and held it across her breast. “Well I’ll be. I’m finally seeing it.”